Indians For Guns

Moin. wrote:Gents, had some time to kill last week with all the Holi and Good Friday Holidays. What better way to kill time than admire the collection of Arms and Armour in the Prince of Wales Museum, now known as Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghrahalaya.

The collection is pretty small compared to the likes of Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad. There are some rare gems like the swords and armour belonging to Emperor Akbar, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb.
The entry fees to the museum is INR 60 with an additional INR 20 for permission to take photographs in the museum. I spent the entire day ogling at the arms and armour section only and returned. All the photographs are taken with a cell phone, so pardon the lack of sharpness or colour rendition. Luckily my mother can read Arabic and Farsi ( Persian). I had her decipher for me the engravings and the cartouches on the swords and Kataars. There is a sword which belongs to Emperor Aurangzeb in the display with a whole lot of other swords without any identification plaque. I don’t think the museum authorities are aware of this and the swords value !! The name of Emepror Aurangzeb is engraved on a small cartouche on the sword.

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This is how the beautiful building looks like

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There is a small display of jade handled daggers on the ground floor

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Here’s the Display Panel

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Here’s a Khanda Sword belonging to Sultan Alaudin Khilji

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alauddin_Khilji

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One interesting thing to note is the inscription of most of the Indo-Persian Blades including the arms belonging to Emepror Akbar, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb is from Holy Quran -Surah Saaf verse 13:
Nasrul Minallah Wa Fatahun Qareeb
Meaning:
It's arabic : نَصْرٌ مِّن اللَّهِ وَفَتْحٌ قَرِيبٌ
In english: " Nasrun min Allahi, wa fat'hun kareeb"
Its translation: "help from Allah and a near victory"


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