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1911.59.10

Sword, sosun pattah, with single edged blade and counterguard. Inlaid with silver and gold. [SM 01/05/2007]

On display

1911.59.10

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Collection type
Object
Description
Sword, sosun pattah, with single edged blade and counterguard. Inlaid with silver and gold. [SM 01/05/2007]
Long description
Sword, sosun pattah, with single edged blade and counterguard. Inlaid with silver and gold. The blade is 'kopis' shaped and is grooved on both sides. It is also decorated with sections of gold inlay. The entire hilt is decorated with silver inlaid decorative patterns. The quillons are domed at the ends, the langets flare out towards the ends and are decorated with cut out sections. The pommel is flat with a small dome and protruding knob with a hole through it at the very top. [SM 01/05/2007]
Geographical reference
India
Asia > Southern Asia > India
Gujarat Vadodara (Baroda)
Person
Field collector Unknown Collector
PRM source Stevens Auction Rooms
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1911
Date collected
By 1911
Acquisition information
Purchased: 1911
Materials and processes
Material Iron Metal, Material Silver Metal, Material Gold Metal, Material Metal Wire, Process Forged (Metal), Process Inlaid, Process Damascened, Process Decorated, Process Grooved
Dimensions
Length: max 834 mm, Width: max 113 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1911.59.10
Research and responses

"The term sosun pattah is Urdu for 'lily leaf'. It comes in two forms; the Rajput form set in a Hindu Basket hilt and that with an Indo-Muslim hilt. All instances preserved in National collections date from the 18th century and there is only one scrap of testimony to earlier versions in the form of a picture of a blade resembling a distorted form of that of the sosun pattah supposedly from a manuscript of the Ain-I-Akbari representing the weapons in use in India at the time of Akbar, It is possible that the Rajput sosun pattah is related, by direct descent, both to the sword with the forward angled blade known in the 10th century in Rajasthan and the Deccan kopis blade, and it is thus a parallel development with the Nepalese kukri, the South Indian Flamboyant Sword, and the obsolete long dao of the Khasis and Kacharis of Assam." Source: Rawson, P. S. (1967) The Indian Sword, Copenhagen; Danish Arms and Armour Society, pp.57-58. Research for CDF Cutting Edge Project 2006-8 [HA 08/01/2008]

Search terms: Weapon, Sword

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