Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Mahout's knives

[sirupate]

Originally Posted by Anandalal N.

Hi David and others,

The term Piha Kaetta is a term that in a non Sri Lankan context has come to represent a large variety of knives from pointed dagger like knives with a clip point to heavy choppers. In relation to knives, the distinction between Kandyan and non Kandyan became more pronounced since the early regulations of the British Government prohibiting pointed knives to be worn or carried by locals exempted the inhabitants of the Kandyan provinces.

So things are not as straight forward as one would like it to be.

Rgds.

The British Government is often accused of stopping local inhabitants practising their Martial Arts or carrying this or that in the 19th and early 20th century etc. So far I have found the claims made by the people of the region to be a myth. The last one before this being the British stopping the Indian's practising their MA etc.