South Indian stone relief

Jens Nordlunde · 28th April 2009, 02:14 PM

Hey Rand,
I don't really know what to say about the blade. However have a look at the stone piece from Robert's book, and notice how many fine details there are. I think, if the artist had wanted to show a blade with an armour piercing tip, he would have done so. So either he was showing the sword like it was, or if he tried to imagine an ancient sword, how he thought it may have looked.
The missing scabbard is strange. Was the warrior supposed to hold the sword in his hand all the time? If you try to measure the sword and the man, you will see, that the sword is about one third of the man's hight. Lets say the man was 180 cm, the sword would then have been about 60 cm, and a 60 cm long sword, with a blade this thick would be very heavy. If you imagine such a heavy sword with a normal sword hilt, it would be very tiring to use such a sword, but I think it would be less so, if the hilt was like on the relief.
Did you get my PM sent on April 26?

28th April 2009, 02:14 PM	#10
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Hey Rand, I don't really know what to say about the blade. However have a look at the stone piece from Robert's book, and notice how many fine details there are. I think, if the artist had wanted to show a blade with an armour piercing tip, he would have done so. So either he was showing the sword like it was, or if he tried to imagine an ancient sword, how he thought it may have looked. The missing scabbard is strange. Was the warrior supposed to hold the sword in his hand all the time? If you try to measure the sword and the man, you will see, that the sword is about one third of the man's hight. Lets say the man was 180 cm, the sword would then have been about 60 cm, and a 60 cm long sword, with a blade this thick would be very heavy. If you imagine such a heavy sword with a normal sword hilt, it would be very tiring to use such a sword, but I think it would be less so, if the hilt was like on the relief. Did you get my PM sent on April 26?