Enamel hilt - age and place

[Jens Nordlunde]

I have decided to open an old thread, as I have found some new pieces of information, which maybe can be of interest.

It seems as if the enamel hilted tulwar is not the only one marked with a KA and a number. I have seen another one marked in the same way, but here the number is 76. The hilt is slim, diamond shaped, and with a hand guard. Decorated in a thick gold koft gari floral decoration. The blade is watered on one side with one big fuller, but on the other side it is plain steel with two narrow fullers.

The number ‘3’ is interesting. It took me some time before I realised, that the numbers used in Sanskrit, Gujarati, Kutch and Devanagri, although many of them look alike, some differs a little. In only one of the four numerals the no ‘3’ looks like the one on the blade shown in an earlier post, and in Kutch, and only in Kutch, there is a little stroke under the number. The text on the disc has been discussed in other posts, but it is interesting to note, that towns Nathdwara and Udaipur are only about 400 km away from Bhuj, the capital of Kutch. Udaipur was known for its fine enamel work, and as Nathdwara is only about 60 km away from Udaipur, there is a possibility that the hilt was made in Nathdwara.

But back to the second tulwar I described. The number ‘6’ in Kutchi looks like the number ‘3’ on the blade turned vertically, also with a small stroke under, but the numerals used, when using the three other languages, number ‘6’ looks differently, but no ‘7’ looks alike in all four languages. This means that the enamelled tulwar and the one described must have come from the same armoury in Kutch. If they were made there is an open question, but to my opinion they must have come from the same place.

There is one other language where the no ‘3’ and ‘7’ looks like the one used in Kutch, and that is in Nepalese, but I think we can rule Nepal out.