An Introduction to Indian Arms and Armour

Book excerpt: India is a vast sub-continent, with a complex history and a great array of languages, cultures and religions. This short introduction to one aspect of that great culture is intended merely as an appetiser, and is by no means intended as the last word on any aspect of Indian arms and armour. By 'India' I mean the whole Indian sub-continent rather than any political term. The history which forms a background to the story of Indian arms and armour saw empires rise and fall, but the remarkable constancy in the exquisite weapons used by their defenders and opponents marks Indian arms and armour out as something beyond mere statehood. was the catalyst to all sorts of studies of Indian culture and it is no accident that much of the pioneering work on Indian arms and armour was carried out by English scholars. The most notable of these, and the author of the first serious study of Indian armour and arms, was William Egerton, Lord Egerton of Tatton in Cheshire, whose catalogue of the collection of the Indian Museum in London (a collection now absorbed into the Victoria and Albert Museum) appeared in 1880. Yet despite a few important works in the 20th century, such as Philip Rawson's The Indian Sword and Russell Robinson's Oriental Armour, and new works such as Robert Elgood's Hindu Arms and Ritual in The 21st Century, the scientific study of Indian arms and armour has not advanced to the level, say, of Japanese arms and armour. armour in the Royal Armouries. Almost all the holdings are concentrated in the period from the formation of the Mughal empire in the 16th century to the end of the 19th century when western firearms technology had been widely adopted, and it is hoped that this small publication will help in making an important western collection of Indian armour and arms accessible.