Appearance of the Kukri in Classical South Indian Culture

[Emanuel]

Hello

Thank you for these photos. I'm very interested in the khukri origin question and associations with the Macedonian kopis. I don't think we can discount parallel development of the same shape in India prior to Macedonian incursion. Similar problems often give rise to similar solutions despite wide geographic separation and isolation. India also experimented with some very complex and extravagant blade shapes.

Elgood (Hindu Arms and Ritual) shows a number of friezes from Mamallapuram (p83) dating from the mid-seventh century, that depict forward curving blades with recurved edge. There are also a number of 15th-16th century swords with similar characteristics. These are all sword sized and they straddle a fine line between convex curve and recurve. I'm sorry I don't have access to a scanner at the moment.

I've edited the pic with the katar a bit, it's somewhat more visible. I doesn't seem that diminutive. In proportion to the rest of the figure it's as long as his thigh so fairly long.

Nice discussion!
Emanuel