![](https://www.horniman.ac.uk/media-collection/362/47/large_15_93__001_RS.jpg)
![](https://www.horniman.ac.uk/media-collection/362/50/large_15_93__002_RS.jpg)
![](https://www.horniman.ac.uk/media-collection/362/53/15_93__003_RS.jpg)
High status Khanda type sword, eighteenth century. Perhaps made in Hyderabad (as suggested by the watered steel blade).
Straight blade, braced, with spoon shaped end, as used across much of India. Handle wrapped in silk, padding missing from inside knuckle guard. Pommel spike, allowing the sword to be wielded with two hands if required.
There is a small hole in the blade which has been filled suggesting that the present hilt is not the blade’s first hilt. There is also a European vice mark on the blade bracing suggesting that the sword has been worked on after collection.
fighting