Ayda Katti, Moplah, Corg, Matchu Sword or Something else

[drac2k]

All of the above bear similarities to this sword, but they don't quite fit the bill. The guard and the handle as well as the length of the blade(21"), and its configuration don't match.
I think that it is a Southern Indian Sword and possibly from Malabar and I know I've seen a similar example somewhere, but I can not remember from where.

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by drac2k

All of the above bear similarities to this sword, but they don't quite fit the bill. The guard and the handle as well as the length of the blade(21"), and its configuration don't match.
I think that it is a Southern Indian Sword and possibly from Malabar and I know I've seen a similar example somewhere, but I can not remember from where.

India, Malabar

This axe-hatchet (Aruval) was in use both for fighting/protection as well as agricultural tool. The blade shape of this type reminds the form of blades on the Coorg’s Ayda Katti sword of the Kodava people from Karnataka

[Jerseyman]

I don't have any references yet, though I'll keep searching my library, but I do have a couple of items in my collection. The pictures are not great as one is an archive photo, so no stats or more details to post, unless I dig it out for a closer look. The second is a recent acquisition and I only have the auction picture to share at the moment. Both seem to be from a related family of weapons/tools judging by the hilt formation. I've heard these described as congavellum, Malabar chopper, South Indian axe... Your blade is much more of a fighting conformation I'd say.

[drac2k]

Thank you both for your insightful observations. I guess mine is a hybrid; Mahratt's example has a 13" blade whereas mine is 21" long and it has a blood groove running along almost its entire length(probably not clear from my pictures). Also, the curvature on the blade is less pronounced and I would agree with Jerseyman that this would make it more of a fighting sword and less "axe-like."

[Nihl]

Originally Posted by drac2k

All of the above bear similarities to this sword, but they don't quite fit the bill. The guard and the handle as well as the length of the blade(21"), and its configuration don't match.
I think that it is a Southern Indian Sword and possibly from Malabar and I know I've seen a similar example somewhere, but I can not remember from where.

What you have here is a good example of the enigmatic Congavellum! These are allegedly old Nayar implements, however beyond that information about them dries up rapidly. We don't even really know what congavellum translates to (i.e. if it just means "sword" or "big sword/curved sword/etc.") or what language it even comes from. Of course if the nayar attribution is to be trusted then it's users likely would have spoken some form of Malayalam, however, to put it simply, you can't punch "congavellum" into google translate and get an answer that way . I also say "if" the nayar attribution can be trusted as this is one of the many quagmires surrounding these weapons - they are attributed to the nayar, but nothing about them is particularly nayar in aesthetic. As an example of what I mean by nayar aesthetic, notably, the Kayamkulam Val, another sword type attributed to the nayar, often features a snake-like design on its grip, which works out as the nayar were known for their snake worship.

In regards to your example specifically - it's a good one! Your blade looks really solid, and probably dates to the 18th century, while the hilt is rather... less so in quality, and probably dates to the 19th C. Indeed, as you noted with the blade and handle not seeming to match, most congavellum historically seem to have had their handles replaced with some frequency. Most that survive seem to feature 18th century blades with 19th century replacement handles or replaced handle parts (things like the guard, pommel plates, etc.), although there are rare occasions that untouched 18th or even 17th century examples can be found with their original grips.

In terms of how you can date congavellum, their form often decays into the 19th century, much like those of most other Indian weapons. This is to say that often times the shape of the blade gets shortened and more exaggerated (more curved and sickle-like specifically). The workmanship on the handle, too, gets sloppier and often times the complex pommel assembly (formerly featuring a series of plates with upcurling ends) gets replaced with a simple tiered pyramid shape (which is what your example has). Though, as always, there are occasional good quality examples from the 19th century, and, conversely low quality older examples intended likely as "beaters" or made for lower class/caste peoples.

Given their mysterious origin it's rather hard to say anything interesting about their actual use. Likely, most 18th century examples functioned like machete-swords, indeed putting the "chopper" in "malabar chopper", however it is possible by this point these swords were mostly ceremonial/status pieces. Earlier examples from the 17th century, however, were notably more sword-like in form, and were likely used as such.

Attached is an image of three congavellum from my collection, in which the top most example likely entirely dates to the 17th century. It is curious that your example has a blade quite similar in form to mine, however I still suspect that it is from the 18th century, not 17th, as it lacks the wear present on older congavellum blades, and also the feature of such a wide, pronounced fuller was not one that was commonplace until the 18th century. Earlier examples more commonly only have a single narrow fuller along the back.

The other two congavellum pictured from top to bottom are likely an 18th century blade in an early 19th century cast brass hilt, and an entirely 18th century piece with the pommel assembly (plates) replaced in the 19th century.

[Jim McDougall]

Nihl, thank you so much for adding this thoroughly detailed analysis and adding your examples of these forms. It seems there is so little material available that includes this kind of detail (I have never heard the term 'congavellum'!)
It is great that you go into this kind of detail......I know I never stop learning here, and you have really filled a gap in my notes on these South Indian weapons!

[drac2k]

Wow, Nihl, thank you for your detailed account of a weapon that prior to today I had no clue as to what it was; more amazing was the fact that you had 3 of them!
I looked up a few references on Nayar, Nair History and found them to be fascinating.

[Nihl]

Thanks for the positive responses both of you! What I wrote is mostly the result of me pouring over and analyzing every detail of every single example of a congavellum I could find on the net. Indeed, these things are quite rare, but they tend to pop up with a strange regularity when you know what to look for.

In response to Jim

I have never heard the term 'congavellum'!

"Congavellum" is generally one of the terms that pop up when one looks into what exactly "malabar choppers" actually are. Given that some people are probably curious what those other terms are (including Jim I'm sure ), here's my best attempt at defining each of them:
Aruval - The tamil term for a type of long billhook machete. Whether or not this term could be applied to a historical form of sword remains to be seen, as no examples of true antique aruvals (that is to say billhook-esque swords originating from tamil nadu) exist to my knowledge.
Kathir Aruval - The clear agricultural version of an aruval, taking the form of a slightly-more-elaborate-than-usual sickle, but otherwise intended more as a ceremonial implement than a weapon.
Koduval - The Malayali term for a machete, koduval appears to apply exclusively to machete tools, rather than machete-swords, so it is a red herring here. Possibly, the term could be applied to the swords used by the mappila people, given how close they look to modern koduval machetes, but this remains to be determined. Linguistically it might be distantly related to congavellum.
Kongavela - Seemingly used interchangeably with congavellum, it's possibly a kind of intermediary between congavellum and the previous term koduval. Possibly could be used to refer to the 18th century variety of congavellum that are more sickle-like and less sword-like.
Matchu/Machchu - Karnataka's distinct take on the "chopper" design, the term "Matchu" as collectors use it applies to all malabar choppers with long handles and short blades - in essence the southern parallel to the northern Bhuj knife-axe. Worth noting that in Kannada "Machchu" just means "machete", so in terms of historical accuracy any chopper that found its way into karnatakan lands would have been called a matchu.
Veecharuval - The long, two-handed version of an aruval (veech indeed translates to something like "long" or "big" in tamil). Interestingly, in contrast to the absence of extant antique aruval, quite a few of these large, two-handed, billhook-like swords from tamil nadu still exist. Although it's possible they were used as large agricultural tools, based on the forms of extant veecharuval it seems likely they were more used for ritual executions and - before that - possibly in combat as well.
And of course there is also
Congavellum - A kind of forwards curving sword used by the Nayar warrior-kings in the late medieval-early modern period of malabari history. After being deposed by the Travancore kingdom, the nayars adopted their own kind of tulwar-style val (the Kayamkulam Val as collectors know it (val being the generic word for sword in malayali)), while continuing to make congavellum, but likely using them mostly for ceremonial purposes instead of martial ones.

I'll try to attach pictures to correspond with each of these words, however some don't line up with anything, and others are easier to find as modern tools than as antiques. This also doesn't include congavellum of course as I already showed them in my last post.

In response to Drac2k

more amazing was the fact that you had 3 of them!

I actually have 5! This is mostly the result of circumstance, however, rather than me having magical congavellum-acquiring powers. The three that I have previously shared a photograph of all came from the collection of Roy Elvis, a south indian arms researcher who actually inspired me to look into these weapons in the first place. I bought them from him after he allegedly acquired them from a dealer in kerala, who got them directly out of an old "forgotten" armory in northern kerala. The fourth one I have comes from our own RSWORD on the forum, and only the fifth one I was able to find "out in the wild" at an auction house. Still impressive I suppose nonetheless, but I just want to make it clear my collection of them is from pure luck rather than years of deliberate, arduous looking.

I looked up a few references on Nayar, Nair History and found them to be fascinating.

Indeed the nayar are quite cool! From what I've personally read, they were in effect the southern equivalent of the Rajputs of northern india, and led feudal kingdoms all up and down the malabari coast until being overthrown by the travancore kingdom. After this they became more or less aristocrats under the new kingdom, despite otherwise being dethroned and stripped of their rank. Nayars continued being "warrior people" up until colonial times, and made up some of the native forces that the british allied with to help depose Tipu Sultan.

[Jim McDougall]

Nihl,
This is pure textbook!! and amazing. That is you have literally compiled a textbook status resource on these weapons that is what is needed for those who collect in these areas.
You were incredibly fortunate to have had your contact with the late Mr.Elvis who seems to have had formidable knowledge in identifying these esoteric weapons.
Actually luck is one of the most valuable factors in collecting, and the items found purely through serendipity are all the more wonderful as they often have yet to be told stories.
Also a great source is the stalwart Rsword!!! who has always had remarkable skills in finding the most unusual and remarkable arms examples in the many years I have known him here.

Thank you very much for the time and effort in compiling and sharing this here!

Jim

[Mercenary]

This is a common type of peasant tool throughout India (including Northern India) and is still used as a weapon.
It has different names depending on the region, often as a simple derivative of the word "sickle". You can even find it from Dr. Pant book.

[Ian]

Mercenary,

Thank you for pointing out the widespread use of similar sickle-shaped knives. A few years ago, I posted pictures of a hansia from Nepal/Northern India which fits into this discussion. That thread can be found here. The design is very commonly found as a tool that could be used as a weapon if needed.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Ian

A few years ago, I posted pictures of a hansia from Nepal/Northern India which fits into this discussion. That thread can be found here. The design is very commonly found as a tool that could be used as a weapon if needed.

Thank you very much!
The point is that in origin all such items were sickles for agricultural work, as their names suggest.
hansia - sickle
Arival or aruval - sickle
All other names that include "arival" are different types of sickles.
"Val" means "sharp tool" like saw, plough, scissors and of course sickle and sword.
Congavellum = Kongaval (from Egerton). I suppose it was in original "caan val" (Malayalam) or "konam val" (Tamil) - a curved sword.

[SidJ]

A similar but better example sold at Olympia auctions in London on 6 December. Pic available on the website.

[Nihl]

Originally Posted by SidJ

A similar but better example sold at Olympia auctions in London on 6 December. Pic available on the website.

...And I was the one that acquired it! I got both of the kongkavaals that were sold at that auction actually. I can provide pics of them if people want when they get here. The photos attached below are the auction photos for each sword.

Also just a tangent since I have done more research into these odd swords since I first made my earlier posts: The proper spelling, I have found, is indeed "kongkavaal". "Kongk" is the tamil-malayali adjective describing something that is bent or dramatically curved, whilst "vaal", as established earlier in this thread, means sword. Dravidian languages are agglutinative mind you all, so adjectives and other "word modifiers" are simply attached to the beginning/ends of words (instead of being seperate words themselves), just like how prefixes and suffixes work in english. The use of a double "a" in "vaal" is just to emphasize the fact that a long/open "a" is how the vowel should be pronounced, and while it might seem silly or "extra" to some, it's not all that uncommon to see Tamil (and other dravidian) people online transliterate their language in this manner, taking special care in how they write vowels and designate emphasis (I have seen, for example, vaal written as "vaaL", with the idea being that the capital L shows how emphasis is placed on pronouncing that consonant).

All other versions of spelling this word are basically corruptions of kongkavaal, like "kongavela" and "congavellum", the latter of which is basically the anglicized version of "kongkavaalam", which is the form of kongkavaal used to specifically refer to a single, physical example.

[SidJ]

Congrats! I bid on those myself. Excellent items. I settled for the smaller aruval with peacock carving.

[werecow]

On a weird little side note, the word congavellum sounds very Latin to me so I decided just for fun to try to google translate it. Apparently "conga vellum" translates to "prepare the skin".

[G. Mansfield]

Thank you for this information, Nihl. It is greatly appreciated. Hope to see closer photos once you recieve the item. Here is one from my collection that I acquired a few years back for the records.

https://oriental-arms.com/product/a-...-malbar-coast/

-Geoffrey