Indian axe for comments and suggestions

[Royston]

A large heavy Indian axe which has been hanging on a wall for many years.

I am open to suggestions as to what it actually is. Suggestions so far have been Temple, guard or parade. I do not know.
I cannot see it being a fighting weapon as it is far too clumsy to use even though It is solidly made, heavy and would certainly deliver a leathal blow if struck in anger.
Steel with brass inlay, copper ? script and a wooden haft.

Does anyone recognise the script ? I have been searching on the internet and now realise my ignorance of Indian languages and different scripts. I had no idea there were so many. The closest I could come up with is the Punjab written script.

The characters on the blade are a little unusual. The female could, I suppose, be Kali but she is often depicted with severed heads and a sword so I'm not sure. She appears to be carrying the drum which is often carried by other gods.
The male on the other side reasembles Anubis more than any of the Indian Gods, I cannot find a reference to him.

As usual, any help, comments or suggestions will be most welcome.

Regards
Royston

[VANDOO]

I SUSPECT THE GOD REPRESENTED ON THE AX IS BRAHMAN A VERY OLD GOD I THINK HE MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST ONE. THE HEAD APPEARS TO BE THAT OF A COW WHICH IS SACRED IN INDIA AND ARE REFERED TO AS BRAHMA COWS OR BULLS THE WORLD OVER. SO MY GUESS IS IT IS ONE OF THE MANY ASPECTS OF THAT GOD. THE OTHER ONE I DON'T HAVE A CLUE THERE ARE MANY HINDU GODS AND MANY ASPECTS OF EACH GOD.
A VERY ATTRACTIVE AX PERHAPS USED IN CEREMONIES, PARADES OR TEMPLES YOU MENTION IT AS BEING LARGE WHAT ARE ITS DIMENSIONS?

[Atlantia]

Cant make out if those are straight horns, long ears, or a hat!
Hayagriva is the horse headed form of Lord Vishnu. Sometimes depicted wearing a conical hat? thought it might be him, but two arms seems to rule Hayagriva out. and god of learning..... on an axe?

Could be Kalki, horse headed, two arms, sometimes depicted with a sword, which also gives you a Kali connection as Kalki is Vishnu's last incarnation and will bring to an end the age of Kali.

I'd go for identifying the figure on the other side by what they are holding. Then see if you can find a connection to the animal headed god on the other side.

These can be very difficult!
Look at my avatar! Its a Hamsa bird! Looks like a dragon thats swallowed a viking longship.

[Jim McDougall]

While not certain of which Hindu deities are represented in the motif on the faces of the blade on this axe, I am pretty sure that the inscription is in 'devanagari'. This was a script used to publish sacred Sanskrit texts which became popular in British colonial period, while apparantly prior to this there were numerous local script forms. Devanagari served as a prototype and minor variations or additions from regional script types might be applied from what I understand. It is recognized by the distinctive horizontal line at top of characters.

According to "Battle Axes" (James D. Gamble, 1981, p.81) this is an Indian sacrificial temple axe, and an example remarkably similiar is shown with the spike point at top, massive crescent blade of nearly identical shape(12" tip to tip) with brass overlay motif. The pierced holes lining the tangs on either side of the blade are also present.
The same motif with deity figure within a pavilion type enclosure is present, with attendant figures on either side, however in this case, they also are within attached pavilion enclosures as well accenting the central one.

On this axe in this reference, the rear of the head is without features, while Royston's example has extremely interesting features of double pavilions flanking a central spike.

This book is disappointing in not being more specific in identifying the axe shown other than as 'Indian' and as a 'sacrificial' axe noted as associated with (?) but not used in battle. It is stated as being c.1800, which would be difficult to substantiate further.

The ceremonial aspect seems well established, but whether actually a sacrificial weapon or votive ceremonial item is unclear. The head and components seem 19th century, quite possibly earlier,while haft seems to be more recent replacement.

A very impressive piece! whatever the case might be.

All the best,
Jim

[bhushan_lawate]

Hi,

The script is "Devanagari" which is used for Indian languages like Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit.

In all probabilities the words are Sanskrit, however I'm not 100% sure. will try to find more.

The Female form looks close to that of "Bhairavi"; a deity in Shiva Family. Also the "Bull" belongs to the Shiva Family depicted here in a part human form.

The two figures on each side depict attendants carry "fan" made of horse hair called "chamar" or "chauri" the other figure is carrying some "circular" disc which is a little tricky to determine.

Weapons like these are often seen in temples and palaces and are termed as those for religious or ceremonial use.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Bhushan

[Royston]

Thanks to everyone for their help so far.

I have been searching for more information on the Gods but have become somewhat disillusioned after finding a statement saying that according to Hindu mythology there are 340 million of them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would appear that one of the items the female is carrying is the hour glass shaped drum called a Damaru. This seems to appear with a lot of the Gods. I have a shield that depicts both Kali and Shiva holding these.

Jim,
I had never heard of Gamble's book before. Do you think it is worth having ? I see there is a used copy on Amazon for £90 so it's not cheap.

The term " Temple " axe gets used a lot. What does it actually mean ??

bhushan,
I have been looking at Indian scripts and it looks as though it probably is Devanagari. Thanks for that, now if anyone can actually tell me the language and what it says, I would be most happy

Thanks again

Royston

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Royston,
The book by Gamble is an interesting novelty, and far from being useful in any in depth study of these weapons, however, as seen in this case, it does seem to at least give a benchmark in identification. In my opinion, the price you mention far exceeds its usefulness, and the copy I have is from many years ago.

The 'temple' denominator in describing weapons typically suggests that these items are likely either votive or ceremonial holdings that remain in the temple for use in various rituals. Thier profuse decoration and often elaborate elemental motif preclude thier effective use in the traditional warfare sense, and in many respects these weapons represents metaphoric or symbolic function. Probably one of the best books to own concerning not only these aspects of weaponry, but Hindu weapons in particular is Robert Elgood's "Hindu Arms and Ritual", which I believe parallels the price range you mentioned and is a monumental resource .

The 'temple' term in my opinion specifies use as noted, and sometimes these weapons are carried in processions in the sense of bearing swords etc.
The weapons specified as sacrificial, while often also highly decorated but in motif rather than elaborate dimensionally applied features, are of course intended for use, such as the ram dao of Nepal, tulwar hilted koras from Bengal and others.

The devanagari script, as Bhushan can probably better describe, in my understanding is essentially a primary form which often has local variation in characters incorporated, much like dialect in spoken language. I would also like to know if that perception is correct, as I am no linguist but often see this term used describing inscriptions on Indian weapons. I believe this is why trying to match the characters to the basic reference to devanagari alphabet is compelling, but the matches are not exact.

All best regards,
Jim

[bhushan_lawate]

Hi all,


The figures on this ceremonial/temple axe bear the hour glass shaped "Damaru" which is a percussion instrument belonging to the deities of the "Shiva Family"
It is interesting to note that this is a instrument which finds vast usage in Shiva Temples even to date and is one carried by "Shiva" always. It is a instrument which found useage during warfares as well.

They Bull and the "Bhairavi"(????) are also seen carrying a "mace" again common to deities in the Shiva Family. Similar maces can be seen in body building "akhadas" or country gyms in India. (Especially towards the North)

Coming to the script and the language; the script is Devanagari for sure and the language seems like Hindi or Sanskrit. Mostly looks like proper nouns pronouncing name(s) of owner???????

I'll try to figure out if I can get the exact meaning of the letters there. As Jim has rightly pointed out the script is written in different forms in different provinces and thus leads to difficulty in deciphering at times.

Most old temples in India or temples which follow legacies and rituals strictly have a lot of weapons for ritual and ceremonial use.

The ritual weapons are mostly those which are used actively (E.g For sacrifice of Buffaloes, Sheep etc) This is prevelant on a large scale even to date.

Ceremonial weapons are those which are richly decorated and elaborate in character and find useage in ceremonial processions (these weapons are carried by designated personnel) or are kept besides the deity etc.

In fact many deities have weapons kept by their side always.

We have to look at temple/ceremonial weapons keeping all the above things in mind.
I've personally seen a lot of such ritual and ceremonial weapons in a lot of temples in India.

Regards,
Bhushan