So, why suasa?
If we look very carefully at the fitting of the selut to the hilt, it is not all that great, my gut feeling is that this selut is a later fitting, maybe bought in the market and fitted by the owner.
The blade would have cost serious money, somebody who could afford this blade could certainly afford suasa, which can go very low in gold content, and at the time it was made would not have been all that expensive. At various times in the past, the cost of gold was not all that more expensive than silver, & if you're using low carat gold, it not really going to break the bank.
But its true, I'm just floating an opinion, others can can have differing opinions.
As for the prevalence of suasa, there have always been more people with tight budgets than people with flexible budgets.
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