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Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde
The pre fabricated hilts and the pre made decoration would, most likely, have been made according to the fashion used at the time and place where it was sold – even hilts sold in other parts of India could have been of this kind. However the custom made hilts and decorations can differ quite a bit from the first type – we will never know for sure.
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Since this thread had been revived and having a great interest in Indian swords, I would like to share a little theory of mine on the manufacture/decoration of tulwar hilts. This is based solely on inspecting a number of identically shaped hilts with greatly varying styles and quality of decoration, and on having a first hand experience dealing with small merchants and manufacturers in India.
As was pointed out by other members, I too would like to venture a guess that hilts, while made in quantity of different styles and sizes, were not embellished before the sale. A customer would choose a particular hilt and if his budget allowed, it would be sent to a coftgari artist (often operating next door to the hilt maker/swordsmith’s shop) where a design would be hand carved into the steel and inlaid with silver or gold. Hence a coftgari artist is essentially a jeweler. Alternatively, a buyer could save a bunch of rupees by going with a plain hilt. Considering a ridiculously low cost of labor (true to this day) and metal for plain hilts being readily available and inexpensive even in 17-19th century, the price difference between coftgrai vs. no-coftgari option must have been staggering. It is a concept not really changed by time, as there are still plenty of people who pay thousands of dollars for a piece of flashy jewelry. And in case of decorated tulwar hilts, we are looking at a piece of jewelry that is not only flashy but is also quite deadly
