Origins of the term 'pulwar' or Afghan tulwar.

[Berkley]

Originally Posted by Andy Stevens

My question then is this; is pulwar an Anglo collectors term or a less common Afghan name?

Possibly Indian? Stone and Tirri both use the word pulouar to describe "an Indian sword [or saber]", the latter noting it was used extensively in Afghanistan. Stone references Egerton for the name. Egerton appears to have taken the name from Rockstuhl, Musee de Tsarskoe Seloe, ou Collection des Armes Rares, Anciennes et Orientales de sa Majeste l'Empereur de Toutes les Russies, St. Petersburg and Carslrue, 1835-1853. A pulouar from that collection is shown in Plate III as one of a group of Indian swords. The "Note on the Transliteration and Spelling of Indian Words" by Colonel Yule, C.B. in Egerton includes pulouar among the list of "words that are hard to identify, owing not only to loose, sometimes merely phonetic transcription, but also to the use of local terms which do not enter dictionaries".