Tulwar Hilt Types

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by ariel

Couple of years ago, a gentleman from the UK gave a talk in Timonium addressing this topic ( for the life of me, I cannot remember his name, dang!!!)
He said that there is only one type of "tulwar" handle that can be attributed to a particular place/group: Sikhs had one with symmetrical and rather sharp projections on both sides of the handle, similar to the last example here.

As Charles has noted, it was indeed Jonathan Barrett, and one of the most spellbinding talks I have ever heard. The tulwar style at the bottom that I noted with peaked profile at center of grip and elongated rectangular grip and often termed Udaipur, are indeed often attributed to Sikhs.

In the following years as I tried to discover a means of identifying Sikh weapons, I once was told by Parmjit Singh ( coauthor of "Warrior Saints", "..if it is a sword used by a Sikh, then it is Sikh!". )
Jonathan Barrett was kind enough to suggest the notes I included regarding the Susan Stronge book and using the koftgari motif as a means of some degree of recognition in the Lahori weapons.

Thanks for the input guys