A steel dagger (chilanum), India, Deccan, circa 1600

The flattened face of the winged pommel is pierced with two (or three) rivet holes suggesting that it may originally have held plates, maybe of bone or ivory, a precursor of the later east Indian khanjarli hilt; see Elgood, R., Hindu Arms and Ritual, Arms and Armour from India, 1400-1865, Delft 2004, p.178 for a full discussion and illustration of a related dagger (fig.16.32, no. 2).

A further comparable dagger is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (acc. no. O.149-1879) and was acquired by Robert Taylor during his service in India between 1856 and 1877. The Fitzwilliam dagger likely formed part of an arsenal of weapons held at Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, that was broken up by the British colonial powers in 1860. The Tanjore armoury contained a large collection of weapons that provides an illuminating record of the arms of South India from the 16th to the 18th centuries.