Kaskara

[Jim McDougall]

The occurance of 'kaskara' blades on pata swords of S. India seems to be an occasional phenomenon, and here is an example I came across back in the late 70s. While I have seen evidence of blades from India come up in North African situations, having these European trade blades travel from Sudan to India seems very unusual.

This blade has the typical sun, moon etc. of the European blades that came into N.Africa about mid 19th c. possibly earlier, and the blade is incredibly worn from the kind of sharpening done by tribesmen there.
The metalwork seems possibly of the sort done about turn of century, and this may have been for the ceremonial dancing of groups in S. India, Kerala?
How this pairing came about..who knows

[ariel]

Apparently. very flexible Pata blades were popular among the Mahratta irregular cavalry, the Ghoracharra.
They attacked their enemy en masse, delivered one or two strikes and rode back in a hurry.
The flexibility of the blade decreased its lethality, but prevented it going deep into body and easy to recover.

[mariusgmioc]

Originally Posted by ariel

Apparently. very flexible Pata blades were popular among the Mahratta irregular cavalry, the Ghoracharra.
They attacked their enemy en masse, delivered one or two strikes and rode back in a hurry.
The flexibility of the blade decreased its lethality, but prevented it going deep into body and easy to recover.

Exactly.

The flexibility also prevented the full transfer of the shock to the elbow and shoulder of the wielder in case the blade hit a shield or a piece of armor.