Can anyone identify what this is exactly?

B

blueblade666

Joined
Apr 1, 2020
Messages
6
First off, I'm not sure if this is a knife/weapon or something else. But if I had to guess, to me it looks like a Rapier, but again that's just an uninformed guess. Wanted to know from the well informed if it's anywhere close to any blade. I'm a total noob in this game and also new on the forum, so please be kind and pardon my ignorance.

The item is metallic and held sacred in the Apatani community(a tribe located in Eastern Himalayas in a state called Arunachal Pradesh near Indo-China border).

Here's the thing:

Hiiran+yaju.jpg


Originally taken from: http://learntanii.blogspot.com/2012/04/mythology-and-historicals-of-tanii.html
 
Nothing blade/weapon like to my eye. No handle to speak of. Looks more like a marker of some sort - something to stick into the ground to indicate hallowed ground perhaps. Sorry - just guessing.
 
Or a staff that someone of importance would hold, possibly while walking to dinner or a BBQ. Or an you can eat breakfast buffet.

Also, have you ever seen a rapier? What about this looks like one?
 
Friends, sorry if I sound ignorant. I'm just wild guessing, I've never seen a rapier in real life. But since the item is considered kind of sacred, it isn't touted out easily even for the members of own tribe. So the information is scarce, but it is a metallic piece. Some say it was procured through war, but no one knows really. It is metallic though, and if the war thing is true I thought it might be some kind of blade or weapon. Again, I have no idea and can't assure anything, but that is why I'm here asking for help from the blade community.
 
Well, after searching and reading for about the last 2 hours, I'm afraid I can't improve on the original description as "sacred, antique, and metallic." Part of the difficulty may be that the Apatani have no recorded (written) history; plus I don't understand Apatani culture or where such an object would fit in. The fact it's metal is noteworthy, but inconclusive. In its current form, it wouldn't make a very effective weapon or edged tool--but who knows its history?
You've peaked my curiosity, and I consider the last couple hours time well spent. Nice to get a little window into a tribe whose existence I wouldn't otherwise have even been aware of. :thumbsup:
 
blueblade666 said:
Friends, sorry if I sound ignorant. I'm just wild guessing, I've never seen a rapier in real life. But since the item is considered kind of sacred, it isn't touted out easily even for the members of own tribe. So the information is scarce, but it is a metallic piece. Some say it was procured through war, but no one knows really. It is metallic though, and if the war thing is true I thought it might be some kind of blade or weapon. Again, I have no idea and can't assure anything, but that is why I'm here asking for help from the blade community.
Click to expand...

No apologies needed. Welcome - you make a BladeForums entrance with an intriguing, if not blade related puzzle. :) Cool!
 
Hmmmm. Originally, this post was just me snarking. But.

It could be a prayer wheel, which has been treated very badly by the elements. Large parts of it are missing, but the round part at the bottom could have been the top cap for the actual wheel.
 
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Jesse B. said:
Well, after searching and reading for about the last 2 hours, I'm afraid I can't improve on the original description as "sacred, antique, and metallic." Part of the difficulty may be that the Apatani have no recorded (written) history; plus I don't understand Apatani culture or where such an object would fit in. The fact it's metal is noteworthy, but inconclusive. In its current form, it wouldn't make a very effective weapon or edged tool--but who knows its history?
You've peaked my curiosity, and I consider the last couple hours time well spent. Nice to get a little window into a tribe whose existence I wouldn't otherwise have even been aware of. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Glad you took interest in our culture. :) Thanks for your effort. I'm equally curious as to what it is, as our tribe doesn't actually know metallurgy(or as far as I know). The metal items we have are mostly traded goods or have been procured in other ways from somewhere else. Some other metallic things we hold precious are Tibetan Yigong Daos(I suspect members here might know this) and old brass plates. The item here looks like none of those. And the labelled text part saying "yaju" means "ladle" in our language. Which makes no sense to me because we used gourd ladles in the past.
 
RayseM said:
No apologies needed. Welcome - you make a BladeForums entrance with an intriguing, if not blade related puzzle. :) Cool!
Click to expand...

I appreciate the response. :D I wouldn't mind the thread being deleted if it's against the rules, but no ill intention from my side. Genuine curiosity to know my culture.
 
Shorttime said:
Hmmmm. Originally, this post was just me snarking. But.

It could be a prayer wheel, which has been treated very badly by the elements. Large parts of it are missing, but the round part at the bottom could have been the top cap for the actual wheel.
Click to expand...

That's a good guess, since we do live near the Tibetan border. But we don't practice Bhuddism, if anything animism is more prevalent and has been since the known past. It could have been a collector's item or something of that sort. Since metal was rare in old times, most metallic things are considered precious in the valley. Leaving aside the modern tools which came after British India, the metals of any sort from the past are mostly treasured and hereditary goods, which can be exchanged during marriage ceremonies.
 
I would agree, it isn't a weapon.

It looks like something placed in the ground like RayseM RayseM said or some type of decoration you'd find in a temple, shrine, holy place, etc.
 
Looks to me that the flat washer/cap like aspect of the pieces in the top section suggest that those pieces could have been mounted top and bottom as keepers to discs/plates or other round wheel type objects, that by now have disintegrated. These objects could have been made of wood or some other soft biodegradable material, maybe clay plates or thin soft metal that over time just degraded and have been broken off.

Have no idea what a stack of discs would have been used for - maybe enough that when spinning they were pretty - especially if colorful ribbons/streamers were attached to the outside edges. Would be fun spinning those during a ceremony.
 
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Thanks for your contributions guys. Since the general consensus seems this isn't a blade or any kind of weapon, I'd like to end the discussion here as it is a forum dedicated to blades. Unless someone thinks otherwise and has a rational explanation, I'd like to end the conversation. Thanks again.
 
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