Brass tulwar hilt for comment please

Jim McDougall · 5th May 2024, 04:59 PM

While very much in accord with what has been said, I'd like to add some notes to this interesting hilt. The open hilt without guard has always seemed to me to be more of a 'court' type weapon, not meant for combat specifically, but more for wear fashionably by officials or persons of station.

The 'delhishahi' designation comes of course from the well known work "Indian Arms & Armor" by Dr. G.N.Pant (1980) in which he made notable efforts in trying to establish regionality in hilt forms. While this indeed did provide a degree of benchmark for descriptive reference to certain types of hilts, none of these 'origins' has been proven as far as I know.

The 'tulwar' style hilt (aka Indo Persian) is a general form with numerous variations, but typically with the characteristic disc pommel. The term 'tulwar' is of course the Indian term for 'sword' collectively, but has become inextricably linked to these Indo Persian hilt sabers.

It has been well pointed out that the pierced langet is very much linked to swords of NW India/Afghanistan and the familiar 'paluoar' designated as Afghan. Actually these are simply a far northern form of tulwar (as seen in Egerton 1885) as these regions in that time were part of India.
Also notable in that regard the hole at center of guard, typically for a rivet and characteristic of these NW India tulwars/paluoars.

The punch/dot (stippled) manner of decoration reminds me of the armory markings of Bikaner in Rajasthan. These were administrative numbers etc using a Gujerati script used in bookkeeping etc. rather than decoration, but the similarity in manner here is interesting.

As for date, these hilts are even harder to date than to classify regionally as they were of a familiar basic hilt form which was used for centuries in India, and with brass adding to the conundrum. I would say optimistically latter 19th, but certainly into 20th century as noted. Many of these weapons were produced for wear in traditional events, celebrations and by individuals in various capacities etc.

5th May 2024, 04:59 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,785	While very much in accord with what has been said, I'd like to add some notes to this interesting hilt. The open hilt without guard has always seemed to me to be more of a 'court' type weapon, not meant for combat specifically, but more for wear fashionably by officials or persons of station. The 'delhishahi' designation comes of course from the well known work "Indian Arms & Armor" by Dr. G.N.Pant (1980) in which he made notable efforts in trying to establish regionality in hilt forms. While this indeed did provide a degree of benchmark for descriptive reference to certain types of hilts, none of these 'origins' has been proven as far as I know. The 'tulwar' style hilt (aka Indo Persian) is a general form with numerous variations, but typically with the characteristic disc pommel. The term 'tulwar' is of course the Indian term for 'sword' collectively, but has become inextricably linked to these Indo Persian hilt sabers. It has been well pointed out that the pierced langet is very much linked to swords of NW India/Afghanistan and the familiar 'paluoar' designated as Afghan. Actually these are simply a far northern form of tulwar (as seen in Egerton 1885) as these regions in that time were part of India. Also notable in that regard the hole at center of guard, typically for a rivet and characteristic of these NW India tulwars/paluoars. The punch/dot (stippled) manner of decoration reminds me of the armory markings of Bikaner in Rajasthan. These were administrative numbers etc using a Gujerati script used in bookkeeping etc. rather than decoration, but the similarity in manner here is interesting. As for date, these hilts are even harder to date than to classify regionally as they were of a familiar basic hilt form which was used for centuries in India, and with brass adding to the conundrum. I would say optimistically latter 19th, but certainly into 20th century as noted. Many of these weapons were produced for wear in traditional events, celebrations and by individuals in various capacities etc. Attached Images