Ancient Indian Empires and Weapons

[Haldiram]

Mughal armor :

Ornamental weapons made from jade stones :

 

[AnantS]

No, I understood you the first time. I believe that Scythian theory is mainly romanticized British view of Indian history.

Most N Indians that claim Scythian descent clade different from Scythians in R1a panel. However, they might have an elevated "NE European" component which is not actually true European but Steppe ancestry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamna_culture) and points towards herders settling in parts of N India like you said.

Interesting! So is Yamna same as "Yavan/Mlecchas"-outsiders/foreigners mentioned in ancient Indian texts?

 

[Haldiram]

Maratha armor :

 

[Haldiram]

Khilji's Khanda sword : (the inscription says "help from Allah and victory is near")

Mughal chainmail armor :

 

[Haldiram]

Bow and arrow :

Mongol type bow

Longbow :

 

[Haldiram]

One reason for that is geography. Central Asian nomadic horse archery requires large, flat open spaces to be effective. India at that time was covered almost entirely in jungle, far more than what we see today, especially in North India. This allowed our guys to bring them in close for melee combat, where they were at a disadvantage. The jungles also hampered their mobility. Unlike in Persia, Turkey and North africa, where they could zip from place to place very quickly because of the terrain, it was painstaking to move large armies within India.

The word Maharashtra is derived from Maha-rathi (read : great charioteer).

Note that Maharashtra also included vast areas of present day Pakistan which are flat lands. (Peshawar was the capital of Peshwas.)

 

[aditya10r]

help from Allah and victory is near

Ha bhencho,Allah ki madad ke Bina toh hag bhi nahi sakte.

 

[nongaddarliberal]

Seems to be the case.

There's a museum in Mumbai where they have all types of weapons and armor on display and they seem to suggest that the heavy armor was reserved only for the boss players. The rest of them had light (leather sheath) to no armor.

These are some pics from the museum :

Mughal armor :

Weapons :

Longbow :

This is called "Ankush", it's used to control elephants :

I was talking about ancient India, before the medieval era. But yeah, even medieval and later armies didn't have armour as standard. Which is weird considering we had no shortage of steel. At least chainmail is still convenient even in hot weather.

 

[Pandeyji]

I was talking about ancient India, before the medieval era. But yeah, even medieval and later armies didn't have armour as standard. Which is weird considering we had no shortage of steel. At least chainmail is still convenient even in hot weather.

Think of how would you feel if somebody puts heavy steel on your body in the hot sun & tells you to run. Even now I still hate it when I have to wear a shirt to the office. It was one of the reasons Indians made so good shields. According to some 18th century European observers the Indian shields were capable of deflecting bullets at point blank range.

As for armour they created a unique type of armour for Indian weather. It was multiple layers of cotton fabric stitched together which was capable of stopping sword cuts (how similar this sounds to Kevlar?)

 

[nongaddarliberal]

Think of how would you feel if somebody puts heavy steel on your body in the hot sun & tells you to run. Even now I still hate it when I have to wear a shirt to the office. It was one of the reasons Indians made so good shields. According to some 18th century European observers the Indian shields were capable of deflecting bullets at point blank range.

As for armour they created a unique type of armour for Indian weather. It was multiple layers of cotton fabric stitched together which was capable of stopping sword cuts (how similar this sounds to Kevlar?)

I specifically mentioned that chainmail is still suitable for hot weather. It was used extensively in the deserts and jungles too. And even if there is some discomfort, it is worth being impervious to slashing attacks. Of course breastplates and helmets would have been a very big hassle, and not suitable for regular infantry.

 

[ezsasa]

My two cents.....

Among our family heirlooms there were spears long & medium length and swords, but there were no shields or chain mail.

Maybe metallic shields and armour were not used in andhra side, if they existed in the family they would have survived.

 

[nongaddarliberal]

My two cents.....

Among our family heirlooms there were spears long & medium length and swords, but there were no shields or chain mail.

Maybe metallic shields and armour were not used in andhra side, if they existed in the family they would have survived.

Very interesting. Do you know if those were used in any wars? From what time period are they?

 

[Pandeyji]

I specifically mentioned that chainmail is still suitable for hot weather.

No it is not. Steel gets hot in sun.

 

[ezsasa]

Very interesting. Do you know if those were used in any wars? From what time period are they?

Documented family history is 500 years old.

There are no wars as such, Krishna delta is a prosperous land, and more over adjoining zamindaris belonged within the family tree , no need for violent means to resolve disputes within family.

 

[Haldiram]

I was talking about ancient India, before the medieval era. But yeah, even medieval and later armies didn't have armour as standard. Which is weird considering we had no shortage of steel. At least chainmail is still convenient even in hot weather.

Found this for ancient India : One small metal plate on the chest. No chain mail on the body.

 

[Project Dharma]

Interesting! So is Yamna same as "Yavan/Mlecchas"-outsiders/foreigners mentioned in ancient Indian texts?

Paaji, it is hard to be certain as Yavan just means beyond Peshawar (AFAIK?) and the Caspian steppe would certainly qualify. But it is one heck of a coincidence, there might be some link.

 

[HeinzGud]

The word Maharashtra is derived from Maha-rathi (read : great charioteer).

Note that Maharashtra also included vast areas of present day Pakistan which are flat lands. (Peshawar was the capital of Peshwas.)

Wasn't Peshawar under the rule of Afgans till Ranjit Singh took over?

 

[Project Dharma]

Wasn't Peshawar under the rule of Afgans till Ranjit Singh took over?

Marathas took it over but were sacked by Abdali.

 

[john70]

As Mughal power declined in 1747, following a loya jirga, Peshawar would join the Pashtun Durrani Empire of Ahmad Shah Durrani.[19]

Peshawar was attacked and captured by the Maratha Empire of western India, which conquered Peshawar on 8 May 1758.

A large force of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani then re-conquered Peshawar in early 1759.[20] Peshawar remained under Afghan(Durrani) rule till the conquest by the Sikhs in 1818.

Wasn't Peshawar under the rule of Afgans till Ranjit Singh took over?

 

[Bleh]

Found this for ancient India : One small metal plate on the chest. No chain mail on the body.

Actually there is usually a layer of mail below the cloth/silk layer. Especially the Hindu origin armours (eg: Rajput ones) had the mail covered, probably to avoid overheating in sun, with decorrative embroidery as armour was usually worn by nobility & officers, maybe their elite personal retinues as well.

Northern Indian shatra vidya calls for mobility. I once read that the pieces of armour plates were expected to be used actively to block-parry instead of just the weapons. This the smallish Indian shields indtead of massive pavises used in the West.
Professional warriors, upper classes & mercenaries trained enough to achieve such feat.

The common levy was considered expendable by the time India was well into medieval age & it got worse as time passed. Finally you have a few hundred trained Indian sepoys of the EEIC & FEIC beating back tens of thousands men from local princely armies.