Sinhala / Sri Lankan Swords?

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Rick

Beni-Israel Teachers, Bombay, 1856, from ' The Indian Amateur's Photographic Album.'
The Beni-Israel are Christian Jews who first settled in India during the early years of the Christian era.

Verbatim from the text.
It's a windy day here and keeping the pages from flipping could be problematic.
This is a great book and I highly recommend it.

Also (Northwest) windy over here, as usually in August, but my pages are virtual .

Pity i don't have such book, but that photographer must have had his own source.
From the Chazt Hanoar website, an international Sionist movement:

"The Bene Israel resided mainly in Mombay, Calcuta, Dwhli and Ahmedabad; their native language was the Marathi. They aledged to be descendants from the Jews that escaped the pursuit from Galiley. They resemble non-Jew Marathas in appearance and customs, which indicates mixed marriages between Jews and Indians. These also maintained Judaism basic customs like circumcision, the kashrut and respected Shabat. Bene Israel aledge being desendent from the Cohan, which was corroborated by a genetic test in 2002, which indicates that they have the heriditary of the Cohnaim. Since 1964 this comunity is fully recognized as Jewish and may perform Aiá ".

... No Christian merge cited .

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

What is peculiar about this Kastane is the blade size and configuration almost machete like...

[ariel]

First of all, I am not aware of anyone from a geographical place called "Geniza" ( Ibrahiim's first post).
Geniza is a Hebrew word for a ritual place dedicated to the " burial" of sacred texts and any objects containing G-d's name. By law, they cannot be destroyed, so they are deposited in a specially-assigned place.
They are a treasure trove for the historians: written documents dating to ancient times, fragments of Torah scrolls etc.
The most famous one was Cairo Geniza.

The story of Christian Jews is strange. As mentioned, converted Jews cease their affiliation with Judaism, unless forced to do so and do not re-affirm their old adherence when the fear of death is removed. Jews in Holland/England are the classic example. Bnei Israel mostly emigrated to Israel in the 1950-60s, and had always been viewed as impeccably Jewish by the Israeli religious authorities.

And it is not Ala: it is Alia, ascent. Returning from another country to Israel is viewed as ascent, elevation. Those who emigrate from Israel are called Yordim, descending, coming down. Israel in general, and Jerusalem in particular are viewed by Judaism as the highest spiritual place in the world.

The contribution of Jews to North African trades and crafts both before and after 1492 ( when Jews were evicted from Spain) is well established. But there were significant Jewish communities all over N. Africa dating back to Greek and Roman occupation of Judea. As a matter of fact, one of the recurring motives of the current Berber Independence community ( they call themselves Amazig) is their purportedly Jewish origin and forcible islamization. They claim that their Queen Kahina ( from Cohen?) who resisted invading Arab armies for 3 years was Jewish.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by ariel

First of all, I am not aware of anyone from a geographical place called "Geniza" ( Ibrahiim's first post).
Geniza is a Hebrew word for a ritual place dedicated to the " burial" of sacred texts and any objects containing G-d's name. By law, they cannot be destroyed, so they are deposited in a specially-assigned place.
They are a treasure trove for the historians: written documents dating to ancient times, fragments of Torah scrolls etc.
The most famous one was Cairo Geniza.

The story of Christian Jews is strange. As mentioned, converted Jews cease their affiliation with Judaism, unless forced to do so and do not re-affirm their old adherence when the fear of death is removed. Jews in Holland/England are the classic example. Bnei Israel mostly emigrated to Israel in the 1950-60s, and had always been viewed as impeccably Jewish by the Israeli religious authorities.

And it is not Ala: it is Alia, ascent. Returning from another country to Israel is viewed as ascent, elevation. Those who emigrate from Israel are called Yordim, descending, coming down. Israel in general, and Jerusalem in particular are viewed by Judaism as the highest spiritual place in the world.

The contribution of Jews to North African trades and crafts both before and after 1492 ( when Jews were evicted from Spain) is well established. But there were significant Jewish communities all over N. Africa dating back to Greek and Roman occupation of Judea. As a matter of fact, one of the recurring motives of the current Berber Independence community ( they call themselves Amazig) is their purportedly Jewish origin and forcible islamization. They claim that their Queen Kahina ( from Cohen?) who resisted invading Arab armies for 3 years was Jewish.

I ONLY STUCK IN THE QUOTATION MARKS ... SEE https://books.google.com.om/books?id...iza%2C&f=false However I think this term also refers to a manuscript hoard see Cairo Geniza - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Geniza
The Cairo Genizah, alternatively spelled Geniza, is a collection of some 300,000 Jewish manuscript fragments that were found in the genizah or storeroom of the ... etc etc ... It is referring to the manuscripts...and what they have learned from them... not a geographical location.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by ariel

... The story of Christian Jews is strange. As mentioned, converted Jews cease their affiliation with Judaism, unless forced to do so and do not re-affirm their old adherence when the fear of death is removed. Jews in Holland/England are the classic example...

Yet since the beginning of such compulsion, several Converted Jews remained secretely faithful to their religion and had to resource determined 'convincing' practices to hide such creed from their pursuers. We still have remnants of such culture over here; one such community has recently been brought to the open, in a village called Belmonte.
... Unless we have a different view of such status.

Originally Posted by ariel

...And it is not Ala: it is Alia, ascent...

I meant to write Aliá; sorry my mistyping.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

As a reminder to Forum the reason why I brought the detail to thread about the expulsion of Jews from Toledo and the Iberian peninsula was to point to their redistribution around the Mediterranean regions as one of the key source of transfer of design and possibly the influence on Nimcha style since as artisans and particularly sword makers ....and where as migrants to Ceylon they could have had some bearing on sword making in that sphere...but that it was really only a sketch in the margin for interest rather than a topic to change the threads direction.

The bigger blade seen at #321 is probably from the VOC often seen on late Kastane but as such it changes nothing in the general theory being discussed viz;

Thus by the simple method of comparison and detail presented herein; it can be seen that the Kastane is very much a home grown design from Buddhist and Hindu sources and not a European import. By the same proof there is no relationship except by accident of design between the Kastane and the Nimcha.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The Kastane . From the Higgins Collection. Probably a European blade on an older hilt ...perhaps early Dutch Period. The addition of European blades whilst fairly common should not serve to confuse the issue. Whatever blades were introduced by the Portuguese, Dutch or English should not complicate the issue.and since none were battle weapons it changes nothing but of course is very interesting. At this point the sword was purely a badge of office and court sword....and it is offered because of its powerful Buddhist and Hindu links that it has always been so; A purebred Sri Lankan item.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Reference;
A. https://www.colonialvoyage.com/portu...re-war-dutch/#


An interesting little sketch... anyone recognize the tribal infantry on the right with shield and weapon... Its a sketch but that looks like a Storta...but also similar to the Pinhao sword in the stone relief also shown again for comparison. Could they be the same weapon type?

The sketch illustrates the landing by Sebald de Weert on 28 Nov 1602



Arrival of Sebald de Weert in Matecalo/Batticaloa

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Here is another related style of decoration and architecture on an ancient Indian spiked Vajra Mushti The quilons shown are dragon form often seen in Northern Indian form (Afghan Pulour) and other swords including the Kastane.

The Portuguese chronicler Fernão Nunes records the practice of vajra-musti in the southern Vijayanagara Empire. Vajra musti is the martial arts form without the long spikes.

For further detail see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajra-mushti