Significance of Beaded Edges/Borders on South Indian Weapons?

[Jens Nordlunde]

The Japamala or Mala is a praying string of beans used by the Hindus, Buddhiists, the Jains and some of the Sikhs.
Mostly there are 108 beans but other numbers can also be seen. The number of 108 is important as it can be devided with 9, and 9 is an important number.
For the rest of the explanation you can Google:-).

[Jim McDougall]

Very good point Ibrahiim about use of beaded edges on architecture as its size is of course more conducive to larger decorative components.
Interesting note Jens on the Hindu prayer beads also used in these other faiths. It does seem that beads have religious connotation in most Faiths and may lend to ornamentation in many forms of material culture.

[Nihl]

Oh yes good job Ibrahiim on the link with jewelry and armor. Iirc there is an image of a similar vambrace in Elgood's Hindu A&R. Unfortunately I do not have the book with me currently so I am unable to reference exactly where it is. I did take a number of pictures of different figures from the book (the vambrace not being one of them), and in referencing those I was able to find a number of old swords with beaded edges on their hilts that were all dated to the 16th and 17th centuries.

While not to say that this counts as conclusive evidence, in doing a quick google image search of antique Indian jewelry there are numerous examples of pieces with beaded elements - borders and outlines and such. While of course this isn't exactly surprising as rows of precious stones or gilded spheres or what have you all look quite impressive, I think it does provide a bit more evidence towards the idea of it being a naturally evolving aesthetic. This design does also parallel the beaded edges on arms and armor, as both seem to only really be used to provide a border around the outside of the object.

As a side note, the lens that I am personally trying to solve this through is indeed one where these beads are a native invention of sorts and not one copied from foreign examples. Though I certainly don't doubt that there could be some European or other outside influence to it, it just seems to me that such a persistent reoccurring design has to has some sort of native meaning or origin point, even if it is just to make stuff look prettier.

Since I kinda brought it up, I'll look into the correlation between holy numbers and the numbers of "beads" on these objects in my own time, but I think for now establishing when exactly this aesthetic moved onto arms and armor (i.e. finding the earliest dated examples of it) would be the next best thing to do. Currently the earliest examples on swords all seem to date to the 17th century, and only a couple have been dated to the 16th century from what I've seen.

Included are some of the more obvious examples of beaded edges/borders/whatever on Indian jewelry (admittedly not all them are antiques though).

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Nihl

it just seems to me that such a persistent reoccurring design has to has some sort of native meaning or origin point, even if it is just to make stuff look prettier.

Very fair point.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Nihl

This design does also parallel the beaded edges on arms and armor, as both seem to only really be used to provide a border around the outside of the object.

In architecture, there are also borders around the outside of the object. Is similar decoration used in Indian architecture?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

In beads there is some aspect possibly linked to metalwork and thus designs in arms and armour. I think some care should be taken when looking at the beads above as they are possibly not all the same style of decoration and could be either small miri bota (leaf pattern) or small water mellon seed designs not the sort of border bead we are looking for... however, this is all good research as it allows members to focus on the various techniques involved. I think there is a distinction however between beadwork and bead impression in art and beadwork attached to textiles as well as bead work in metalwork… In Western India for example beadwork on textiles didn't arrive until the late 19th C according to the book attached below; The front cover has a band of beaded textile running above the title but this is far too late for our subject thus textiles may be sidelined in this respect.

Clearly we need to be on an earlier decorative form which Hindu jewellery does seem to indicate... It carries a much older ticket after all at about 4000 years.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Hindu jewellery… As a decorative form this specialization could well be linked in the distant past to metalworking in Arms and Armour. Here is a book with many examples in Hindu Jewellery which rather suggests a link.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The next reference is an excellent pocket book on the Mughal Empire and rather confirms that architecture is not the medium in which this beaded border form is obvious perhaps because of my earlier thought on the difficulty of size … we are looking at Taj Mahal and Red Fort sized mega buildings and Temples and Mausoleums etc.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Hindu jewellery… As a decorative form this specialization could well be linked in the distant past to metalworking in Arms and Armour. Here is a book with many examples in Hindu Jewellery which rather suggests a link.

Very good research. Million thanks.