Fighting Techique?

[Stan S.]

It is known that in traditional Indian hand to hand combat a sword (tulwar) was usually accompanied by a defensive side arm, usually a shield, less friquently a katar, or some other dagger. It is also my understanding that due to a greatly varied quality of blades and a rather questionable defensive attributes of a tulwar hilt, Indians did not block with their swords. In other words, tulwar is a strictly offensive weapon. The question is, what did they do in a fight when the shield/katar was lost, damaged, or otherwise not available? Any opinions?