RARE 17th C. Mughal Indian Tulwar

Tears of the Wounded TULWAR

C, Rajasthan or Agra

A rare sword because of the overall quality of the sword in conjunction with a feature known as Tears of the Wounded. The broad and substantial single-edged blade, with a false edge, and of a very fine pattern-welded steel. The spine is pierced with 7 narrow channels; the channels are undercut permitting the retention of freely moving steel balls (some of which are still present). When the sword is swung, the steel balls move about, creating a sound that has been referred poetically as Tears of the Wounded The hilt is a very fine example of an Udaipur style (characterized by diamond-shaped grip, triangular quillons terminating in shallow discs, and long squared-off langets). The large pommel disc is flat, from which springs a dome, surrounded by a sunburst, terminating in a short squared-off spike. The hilt is decorated all over in vegetal and floral motifs with thick silver-gilt. The underside of the pommel is inscribed in Devanagari characters, SRI SITA RAMJI SAHEB GANPAT SINGH JI KALALANKADAS likely a short religious invocation (Sri Sita Ramji), the owner's name (Saheb Ganpat Singh) and family or place of origin (Kalalankdas).

Later, but old, velvet scabbard.

Dimensions Blade (linear length): 27.5” OAL: 32.5”

Condition: Very minor pitting and a spot of delamination. Koftgari 95% intact

Literature: A near-identical example can be found in Figiel (1992) On Damascus Steel as well in the Butterfield Butterfield catalog (Aug 24, 1998), p. 64, #2058. While the current example lacks a Mughal Agra armory stamp, it has an inscription and finer silver-gilt overlaid hilt. At the 1998 auction, the Figiel example sold for over $8,000.

Item on Consignment