Sinhala / Sri Lankan Swords?

[David]

They live!

[fernando]

Oh ... a pigfish. Very tasty

[David]

Originally Posted by fernando

Oh ... a pigfish. Very tasty

Oh, i thought it was a Makara Nando.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All,

Not withstanding the excellent addition by Vandoo, Maurice and others this thread appears to have somewhat stalled, however, to lend a hand in its direction I have stumbled upon an interesting website outlining other weapons which may be of bearing.

Fascinating insights appear to describe order of battle, artillery, (even wooden barrels) and bows 'n arrows, lances and other sword forms ...some as throwing weapons from atop elephants in this ever incredible story of Sri Lankan ancient weaponry. Please see http://sirimunasiha.wordpress.com/ab...ese-dutch-and/

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All,

Further more interesting variation appears in http://vedda.org/knox-veddas.htm where Knox describes a tribal entity called the Veddas with specially developed axe and bow/arrow. A study of the English captives 20 plus years in captivity inspired Defoe's "Robinson Cruseo" and is a treasure of pictorial and ethnographic details now at our fingertips.
The full account needs to be viewed since it is clear that the Vedda were intent on showing a false hand to the English and so as to disguise their actual lifestyle they played to the audience who at the time soaked up all they were fed with..
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all...Spears of Sri Lanka. For interest from...http://srilanka.for91days.com/tag/tradition/
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[napoleon]

saalams ibrahiim,interestingly the veddhas still exist in ceylon as an ethnic minority of small number i think 500 or so still living a traditional life,just got through reading knox,puts things more in perspective for me, with clear references to kastane and piha kaetta,

[Rick]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams All,

Further more interesting variation appears in http://vedda.org/knox-veddas.htm where Knox describes a tribal entity called the Veddas with specially developed axe and bow/arrow. A study of the English captives 20 plus years in captivity inspired Defoe's "Robinson Cruseo" and is a treasure of pictorial and ethnographic details now at our fingertips.
The full account needs to be viewed since it is clear that the Vedda were intent on showing a false hand to the English and so as to disguise their actual lifestyle they played to the audience who at the time soaked up all they were fed with..
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Alexander Selkirk's adventures were the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe ....

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Rick

Alexander Selkirk's adventures were the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe ....

Salaams Rick, Not entirely ~

See Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Knox_%28sailor%29 Quote''During the voyage Knox wrote the manuscript of An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, an account of his experiences on Ceylon, which was published in 1681. The book was accompanied by engravings showing the inhabitants, their customs and agricultural techniques. It attracted widespread interest at the time and made Knox internationally famous, influencing Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as well as sparking a friendship with Robert Hooke of the Royal Society. It is one of the earliest and most detailed European accounts of life on Ceylon and is today seen as an invaluable record of the island in the 17th century.'' Unquote.

I think the word influencing carries enough inspiration to be supportive in the construction of the tale..

Also note from Wikepedia : Quote"Robinson Crusoe /ˌrɒbɪnsən ˈkruːsoʊ/ is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. This first edition credited the work's fictional protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. It was published under the considerably longer original title The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

*Epistolary, confessional, and **didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer)—a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.

The story is widely perceived to have been influenced by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on the Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island), Chile. However, other possible sources have been put forward for the text. It is possible, for example, that Defoe was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, an earlier novel also set on a desert island.

Another source for Defoe's novel may have been Robert Knox's account of his abduction by the King of Ceylon in 1659 in "An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon," Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons (Publishers to the University), 1911.

In his 2003 book In Search of Robinson Crusoe, Tim Severin contends that the account of Henry Pitman in a short book chronicling his escape from a Caribbean penal colony and subsequent shipwrecking and desert island misadventures, is the inspiration for the story.

Arthur Wellesley Secord in his Studies in the narrative method of Defoe (1963: 21-111) painstakingly analyses the composition of Robinson Crusoe and gives a list of possible sources of the story, rejecting the common theory that the story of Selkirk is Defoe's only source.

Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. Before the end of 1719 the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations for stage, film, and television".Unquote.

Notes;
*(An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents)
**(A didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice)

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.