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Originally Posted by ariel
It is single edged.
As to the attribution, I guess the curators of this Armoury (an offshot of the London Tower) know a thing or two about the origins of their exponates and have a record to prove it.
I see no reason why the Rajastani origin is such an implausibility: after all, French copied the Nimcha , the Russians made splendid Yataghans, the Vietnamese swords were influenced by the Japanese etc, etc. People saw blades they liked and made copies with the local flavor.
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I truly intended no disrespect for the Armoury. However, I think we can agree it is not uncommon for innacurate provenance to perpetuate innacurate descriptions and attributions, even by otherwise excellent institutions.
Yes, I concede this could be a Rajastani knife in a Burmese/Thai style. However, Occam's Razor suggests to me it is more likely just mis-identified.
Here are some similar knives from Oriental Arms' gallery:
http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photo...00116/ph-0.jpg
http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photo...00115/ph-0.jpg
I think it much more likely that this form of knife, with its slightly recurved,
khandjar-like blade is the result of influence flowing from India into SEA, rather than the reverse.