Tipu Sword

[B.I]

have i ever let you down, jens?
it took me years to find this book and it cost the price of a wooden leg but was worth it.

[Jens Nordlunde]

The book must have been expensive, as a wooden leg is rather pricy these days, especially if it has to be of hard wood – only glad it is the leg, and not the head.
That is a most peculiar sword you are showing, in a way a pity for both the hilt and the blade, but interesting all the same. Do you know if the hilt and the blade is of the same age?

Jens

[B.I]

the blade i would guess to be 17thC, but my book is marginally better than the image i've shown, so can only speculate. the small stamps were used throughout 200+ years of sword manafacture and so wont offer a clue. the inscription seems genuine and not filled in like many of fiegels but again, speculation. even if the inscription is old, then who knows if it as old as the blade itself.
maybe the hilt will offer a clue, but this is not my area and couldnt even hazzard a guess. i will find out were the sword is, as there are two museums in bikaner and maybe track down a better image. however, it may be in the maharajas private collection (which i doubt) and then access is impossible.

[Jens Nordlunde]

It would be interesting to see a better picture, but which of these museums are you referring to?
Museums of Rajasthan : Ajmer Government Museum | Alwar Government Museum | Amer (Jaipur) Archaeological Museum | Virat Nagar Museum | Bharatpur Government Museum | Bikaner Fort Museum | Shri Sardul Museum and Anup Library | Ganga Golden Jubilee Museum

Jens

[B.I]

a wonderful concoction of institutions
the bikaner collection is divided between the fort museum, and the jubilee museum (i think, form memory) and both are in bikaner. the maharaja has his own collection.
more on the sword -
the blade is actually a sossun pata, which makes it even more intriguing. the inscription bears the name 'sultan jalal-ud-din akbar' and is dated AH 1012 (1603). as the rajput line of bikaner were long under the dominionship of dehli, it is not known whether the sword was given by jahangir to raja sur singhji on the occasion of his investiture, or had already been presented to rai singhji by akbar, or was selected merely as a reminder to serve jahangir as faithfully as sur singhs father had served akbar (goetz).

[Jens Nordlunde]

Ah I see, now you are giving a bit in, telling some more about the blad, what is next?
The museums mentiond are all supposed to be in the Bikane region.

Best
Jens

[B.I]

yes, jens, but the two i mentioned are in bikaner itself, not just in the surrounding area.
sorry about the blade information. unlike jim, i dont walk through the day with a library crammed in my head
i was pleasantly surprised by the blade shape, hinting it is not persian as i wrongly surmised.
you can get away with being wrong if you catch yourself out before others do!

[Mare Rosu]

Hi Brian:
Very interesting and informative article on Tipu Sultan sword.
I need to ask a question or two. #1 What sword are we talking about? I think the picture you show ( the first one) is not the same sword that Dr. Pant shows in his volume #2 ( I did an exhaustive and very comprehensive and through study of my references, my one book! ) so which one is right?
the picture in Dr. Pant book show a sword with a knuckle guard and your picture show a sword without a knuckle guard. Both were taken from his bedchamber
#2 Why would anyone in the position as Tipu even consider a blade made elsewhere. At that time the folks in Europe were trying to make Wootz steel but could not as they knew that the wootz steel was far superior to European steel.
Here is an article from the Department of Metallurgy, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore India The link to the web page is;
http://met.iisc.ernet.in/~rangu/text.pdf.
The article talks about Tipu sword and also a great article on Wootz.
However be prepared to sit back and read for a while as the article is 90 pages long, the section on Tipu sword is on pages 45-46.