Indian Antiquary Vol 15

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 34

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1886.
chopper), which, like the Lepchas of Sikhim, the Newårs of Nepal, and the Bhotifs of Tibet, they apply to all imaginable uses." It is not in. tended to follow Mr. Egerton through the minute description he gives of the rude tribes to the eastward, and I merely remark in passing that the Burmese sword appears to be derived directly from the bomerang, retaining its curved form, onehalf serving as a handle to the metal blade of the other.
In early Dravidian poems, especially the war songs of the Marawârs, as a weapon is found under the name of val, often translated, but erroneously, a sword. There is little doubt it refers to a form of the bill. The name still lingers in part, in the term applied to the broad sacrificial knife used in some of the temples of Kali, with which the heads of the sheep, goats, and other victims are struck off at a single blow, a feat sometimes accomplished even on a buffalo. The word is used by the Todas, and is found in the iruvalli or axe of the Badagas.
The remaining portion of the work is devoted to the notice of arms not characteristic of any parti. cular race or country, which have been introduced by foreigners, and that chiefly since the earlier Muhammadan conquests. Among these I propose to touch only upon such as have a special Hinda character, and have been more particularly adopted by the natives in that part of India with which I am best acquainted.
The general Hindd term for a sharp-edged instrument is katti, a word which will be seen in combination with some of the names before quoted. This I at first thought might be a Prakrit form of the Sanskrit kdstha=wood, and so deriving it from the wooden throw-stick. But this etymology is not clear. Ite Dravidian parent. age rests on better grounds. Dr. Caldwell,
under the root kadi to cut, inserts katti, a knife, a sword, and refers to the Sanskrit kerit to cut and its many derivatives. Then again we have the Tamil kattai=trunk of a tree or block of wood. The most characteristic weapon of this description that I have seen is the patd. In the Handbook it is called the gauntlet sword of the Maratha Cavalry, in which the arm to the elbow is protected by a steel gauntlet fixed to the blade of the weapon (Nos. 403, 404). I do not remember a single instance in which it formed part of the equipment of the Maratha trooper in the risdlas of Irregular Cavalry in the Dakhan or Gujarat. Indeed it appears to be a weapon unsuitable for use on horseback. I have only seen it carried by men on foot, especially athletes, who declare that with it a single warrior may defend himself against a host. The mode of doing so is shown by an exercise in which the swordsman, holding his weapon horizontally, whirls about with rapid gyrations making sweeping cute and giving point on every side. A skilful feat performed in this exhibition is described on p. 149.
The khanda is the national sword of Orissa, and especially of a class of military landholders in that province known as Khanddits who, like the Minkdvalgdrs of the South were bound to protect the inhabitants of the plains from the attacks of marauders. The khandd is a straight two-edged sword about 3 or 34 feet long, becoming broader at the extremity which is rounded (Hand. book, No. 521.) The term sosanpațd is applied in the Dakhan to a weapon of somewhat remarkable form, probably peculiar to that locality. It varies in length from 2 to 3 feet, becoming broader to wards the end near which it curves outward, terminating in a sharp point. On the back, about 4 or 5 inches from the hilt is a round button. like knob, the use of which is not apparent.
# Jour. Beng. As. Soc.
* These poems, which possess much ethnological interest, relate generally to plundering raids for driving off the cattle of neighbouring villages, and led to fierce encounters. Many of the vergals or monumental stones represent these onttle fights. Specimens of the poems are preserved in old Tamil grammars like the Nannul, and are well deserving of being made more generally known in an English drese, with a critical examination of their contents.
3. The similarity of all the forms above enumerated to those found among other people of Turanian descent, seem to point to a common origin in Central Asia. Ol this we have an example in the Iberian kopia (Korris) a specimen of which, obtained from Spain, is in the Collection of General Pitt-Rivers. It exactly resembles the val. Liddell and Scott, Greek Lexicon, 8. v., render it "a chopper, cleaver, kitchen knife," also "a broad curved knife like our bill used by the Thessalians, Euripides, Electra, 837) and by eastern nations (Xenophon, Cyropadia, 2, 1, 9, 6, 2, 10). Cl. Sagaris (cráyapís) a weapon used by the Scythian tribes; also by the Per. siana, Amazon, &0.; a single-edged axe or bill." The ancient Egyptians seem to have had a somewhat similar weapon represented in the paintings of the tomba,
and it survives among those of some of the Negro triben figured by Schweinfurth. In the Records of the Past king Amenemhat of the XIIth dynasty, is represented as saving to his son Osirtisen, "I brought men armed with the khopesh, being myself armed with the khopesh." The late George Smith in the second of his three lectures on Assyrian History delivered at the Royal Institution, April 1875, exhibited an "antique bronze weapon of the exact type of the Egyptian khopesh, such as is in no other instance represented among the Assyrian mona. mental stones. It is the property of Mr. Robert Hanbury, the inscription and device on which were formerly ez. plained by Mr. Smith. The beautifully engraved devicean antelope on a pedestal was, it seems, the standard of one of the divisions of the Assyrian army, and the inscription designs it to the reign of Vul-nirnri I., 1330-1300 B.O., of the age of 83 centuries. It is probably the oldest gword in the world."-Times, 20th April 1875.
15 Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. 477.
Chiefs of the predatory tribes of the Kallars and Marawars, who protect the villages of the plains from plunder by placing one of their followers in each Villago as kdvalger or watchman, in return for the payment of blackmail.