The earliest known illustration of an Afghan Pulwar

Jim McDougall · 15th July 2023, 02:05 PM

These are outstanding insights toward the distinctive saber form known as the Afghan paluoar. The actual history of these swords has always, in my impression, been elusive. For some time the styling of the hilt was in degree regarded as having influences from the Deccan, and given the connections between Pathan presence in those regions that does seem likely. However it is hard to place the exact directional trend given the paucity of illustrations to gauge such provenance, and this illustration is so incredibly important....thank you for sharing it here!

While Egerton (1885) includes the paluoar in one of the color plates of illustration with a grouping of tulwars, he does not specify it as other than a variant of the tulwar. The actual term 'paluoar' seems to derive from Rockstuhl and Col. Yule's glossary and to have a Persian root (which seems plausibly correct) and Rawson (1967, p.86) suggests that the Indian term 'tulwar' was derived from the term 'paluoar'.

What I am wondering is if there was an actual colloquial term locally in these Afghan regions for this distinctively styled saber we know as paluoar. In the case of the well known 'Khyber knife' (from British 'Hobson-Jobsen) we know that it was locally termed 'silliwar' (sic) and from there the curious term 'silliwar yataghan' evolved.

Also, it seems that the Dir regions (in now Afghanistan) located in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa (between Chitral and Peshawar) was inhabited by tribes of the Yousafzai Pathans. Perhaps this illustration gives us a prevalence of the form as used regionally?

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15th July 2023, 02:05 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	These are outstanding insights toward the distinctive saber form known as the Afghan paluoar. The actual history of these swords has always, in my impression, been elusive. For some time the styling of the hilt was in degree regarded as having influences from the Deccan, and given the connections between Pathan presence in those regions that does seem likely. However it is hard to place the exact directional trend given the paucity of illustrations to gauge such provenance, and this illustration is so incredibly important....thank you for sharing it here! While Egerton (1885) includes the paluoar in one of the color plates of illustration with a grouping of tulwars, he does not specify it as other than a variant of the tulwar. The actual term 'paluoar' seems to derive from Rockstuhl and Col. Yule's glossary and to have a Persian root (which seems plausibly correct) and Rawson (1967, p.86) suggests that the Indian term 'tulwar' was derived from the term 'paluoar'. What I am wondering is if there was an actual colloquial term locally in these Afghan regions for this distinctively styled saber we know as paluoar. In the case of the well known 'Khyber knife' (from British 'Hobson-Jobsen) we know that it was locally termed 'silliwar' (sic) and from there the curious term 'silliwar yataghan' evolved. Also, it seems that the Dir regions (in now Afghanistan) located in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa (between Chitral and Peshawar) was inhabited by tribes of the Yousafzai Pathans. Perhaps this illustration gives us a prevalence of the form as used regionally?