Interesting early Indian sword Firangi from Bikaner Armoury

A rare Early Firangi type khanda sword from India. Marked with the prick dotted inscriptions on both sides of the blade, and one on the hilt langet which shows that this sword was in the armoury at Bikaner. A further chiselled inscription in Devanagri along the back edge of the sword of a name. The blade is of an early form with a yelmen and sharpened back edge, three deep dots at the forte on one side are maybe traces of a chiselled blade decorative feature worn smooth by polishing over the ages. The blade itself shows a very fine crystalline damascus pattern to the surface. The hilt is of the baskethilted type with wide figure of eight handguard below, and a broad knuckleguard, both of which retain very faint traces of dotted and chiselled engraved decoration. Worn smooth decoration can also just be made out on the deeply dished pommel and surrounding cup.

The armoury at Bikaner was formed by Anup Singh a commander of the Mughal Emporer Aurangzeb, the weaponry being just one aspect of the collection. Many of these were brought up form the Deccan campaigns, and feature the distinctive armoury marking seen here on this example.

Overall length 40 inches, blade 32.5 inches.

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