Random chosen pictures of the Oriental beauties

[Radu Transylvanicus]

WOLVIEX, JENS: I envy you for having a copy of that book!
Please excuse my lack of manners and overconfidence but so far here I consider my opinions are close to a certitude but if I go on to the rest of the presented items it would merely be a guess, so I leave Jeff, Jim and even more Rivkin to bring more light at least on the "Caucasian scimitar"...
Pane Wolvieksowky, you bring me light on my "Transylvanian mystery sword" and you can enslave my brain ...
Jens, Why I insist on Mysore is only because I came across pieces from similar to almost identical degree from the Mysore...
Jens, please tell me more about the therm "khurasani", I want to learn as much as I can about the Hindu scimitars ! I used kilij but probably i shouldve gone for the term scimitar, Genus (scimitar) vs. Family (kilij).
Is this particular Indo-Persian type of scimitar a "khurasani" ? I was looking for a descriptive nomenclature for the non-talwar Hindu Scimitars! Is it a Hindu or Persian word (sounds very Persian to me: Isfahan, Teheran, Hamadan, Zahadan, Khurasan ); is it lingvisticaly widespread ? Not even one mention on the quintesentially archaic Camron Stone's "Glossary of Arms and Armor" , not a word either on Anthony Tirri's "Islamic weapons - Maghrib to Moghul" which is another book from the Pandora's box ... but at least the inside the last one I found two zoomorphic pommelheads: first one, somehow similar (page 283) and a second one, very similar (page 284) pommel head catalogued as makkara (monster) rather then leopard/tiger I assigned. Also Tirri (the author) labels vaguely enough the hilts as "Central Indian" ...
Cheers !

[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Radu,

To say from where different enamel works come is not easy, other than some colours were made more successfully in some places than in others, and that some colours were only made in one place, like light blue in Lahore. This said, I am aware of that enamellers minakars did travel, or maybe more correctly, were ‘moved’ to other centres. About this Hendley writes in ‘Jeypore Enamels’: ‘Maharaja Man Singh (1590-1615) is stated to have brought five Sikh enamel workers from Lahore, and the fact that the descendants of these men still produce their colours (1886) from that town to carry on the trade of there forefathers confirms that tradition’. So someone working in the Delhi style suddenly found himself working somewhere else – but I doubt that he changed his style, as this was part of his family tradition, learned from father to son for many generations. This ‘moving’ around would lead to a mixture of styles in the different centres, the newer the enamelled items are, the bigger the mixture would become in the different centres, so I have no problem with Mysore.

Here is what T.H.Hendley writes, in ‘Ulwar and its Art Treasurers’, about the sword bought in Bernares in 1854, and since then in the Ulwar armoury: ‘Plate XXXIV. Sword. Shamsher khurasani. Curved steel blade, with silver enamelled sword hilt’. He then goes on describing the sword in detail. He does not explain the word khurasani, but as the word shamsher refers to the type of blade, the word khurasani must, I think, refer to the type of hilt. Could be that this kind of hilts origin from Khorasan/Khurasan where Merv/Marv is, NW of Afghanistan; on, or close to the Silk Road – I don’t know at the moment.

The Makkara is the Indian word for this monster used widely in the SEA area; it is even used on old Tibetan and Nepalese bronze sculptures, as part of their religious symbolism, and it most likely goes back to ancient time.

[RSWORD]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Hi Radu,

To say from where different enamel works come is not easy, other than some colours were made more successfully in some places than in others, and that some colours were only made in one place, like light blue in Lahore. This said, I am aware of that enamellers minakars did travel, or maybe more correctly, were ‘moved’ to other centres. About this Hendley writes in ‘Jeypore Enamels’: ‘Maharaja Man Singh (1590-1615) is stated to have brought five Sikh enamel workers from Lahore, and the fact that the descendants of these men still produce their colours (1886) from that town to carry on the trade of there forefathers confirms that tradition’. So someone working in the Delhi style suddenly found himself working somewhere else – but I doubt that he changed his style, as this was part of his family tradition, learned from father to son for many generations. This ‘moving’ around would lead to a mixture of styles in the different centres, the newer the enamelled items are, the bigger the mixture would become in the different centres, so I have no problem with Mysore.

Here is what T.H.Hendley writes, in ‘Ulwar and its Art Treasurers’, about the sword bought in Bernares in 1854, and since then in the Ulwar armoury: ‘Plate XXXIV. Sword. Shamsher khurasani. Curved steel blade, with silver enamelled sword hilt’. He then goes on describing the sword in detail. He does not explain the word khurasani, but as the word shamsher refers to the type of blade, the word khurasani must, I think, refer to the type of hilt. Could be that this kind of hilts origin from Khorasan/Khurasan where Merv/Marv is, NW of Afghanistan; on, or close to the Silk Road – I don’t know at the moment.

The Makkara is the Indian word for this monster used widely in the SEA area; it is even used on old Tibetan and Nepalese bronze sculptures, as part of their religious symbolism, and it most likely goes back to ancient time.

Could it be that Khurasani refers to the damascus in the blade. Blades are often refered to as Khora Khorasan Khora Taban etc and perhaps Khurasani refers to Khorasan damascus steel. If the blade mentioned is a Persian import and of the black Persian watering then this could be a possibility.