An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c24.s3.t2: 19.3.4 Swords
An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c24.s3.t2
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19.3.4 Swords
v1.c24.s3.t2.1
The sword is a hand weapon with a longish blade of metal and a small grip to hold it. This definition does not differentiate it from all other weapons, the series of knife, sword, espadon and glaive being an unbroken one; there is no agreed point at which a division would be universally applicable. Neither the length of the blade nor the kind of the hilt nor the method of use would define a sword: all overlap. Definite occurrence of swords is limited. [For Fort Munro sword see 19.2.7.]
v1.c24.s3.t2.2
A single fragmentary specimen of copper of what possibly could be used as a sword has been recovered from a megalith [4.17.6] at KHAPA. Its length as also the sections of its long tang and blade make it distinctive. The tang was possibly accommodated in a wooden cover. The blade, heavily encrusted, has one edge sharp.
v1.c24.s3.t2.3
A pre-Mauryan sword, only a portion of its blade surviving, comes from KAUṆḌINYAPURA. It is lenticular in section, the length being 11·80 cm and breadth 4·40 cm.
v1.c24.s3.t2.4
RAIRH has produced a good number of sword-blades but their surfaces and edges are so corroded that it is impossible to determine whether they were double- or single-edged. The tang of one of them measures 9 cm and the width of the blade at its widest is 7 cm; its present length including the tang is 31·8 cm. Another fragment of sword-blade is only 15 cm in length. The pieces have been assigned to the 3rd-2nd century B.C.
v1.c24.s3.t2.5
MASKI has yielded a sword with blade, but other details are lacking, except that it belongs to Pd II, *c.* 200 B.C. to the middle of the 1st century A.D.
v1.c24.s3.t2.6
The earliest evidence of swords in s. India is the hoard of iron swords found at ADICHANALLUR, the well-known urn-burial site [4.17.9]. Only the blades, many with their spike tangs, are preserved, but the trappings and mounts have perished. The forms of the blades follow three types: (i) leaf-shaped and straight; (ii) parallel-edged and abruptly pointed; and (iii) straight and continuously tapering. All have strongly defined mid-ribs and are proportionately longer than those of n. India. The first two forms are known in n. India but the third type seems to have confined to the s., though all the types remain the fundamental pattern of the straight sword in the s. until modern times.
v1.c24.s3.t2.7
The iron swords found at Taxila (Marshall, 1951, 2, pp. 545-6) belong exclusively to the 1st century A.D. They are straight, double-edged and pointed weapons, from 53 to 87 cm in length and with a cross-guard attached to the blade at the base of the hilt, thus resembling the straight double-edged swords found at ADICHANALLUR and also the long *spatha* used by the Roman auxiliaries.