Ndoghouse -- remember my first khuk?

Bookie

Bookie

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Mar 25, 2014
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Kamidog, I believe you might be familiar with the book Guns of the Gurkhas by John Walters. (He wrote it about some of the weapons in Christian Cranmer's arms hoard in Nepal.) He has a listing of the various Nepali military units written in Devanagari in the back. Remembering that fact and him being a pen pal across the pond, the light bulb turned on this morning and I send him a pic of the two character engraving on the spine of my first khukuri.
3.jpg
[/URL][/IMG] This is his reply:

The mark shown in the photograph seems to represent the Shrinath battalion of 1762, assuming the second character is 'na'. A lot of historical 'na' and 'ba' marks look very similar. The left-hand tip of the horizontal bar of 'ba' should curve round to touch the bar, but it often doesn't in marks cut into metalwork. SImilarly, the bar of 'na', which should end in a short downward stroke, can be shown as a curve! (The only alternative identification is the Shribuksh company, raised in 1791.)
 
1762 ?!

Did they number the years differently in Nepal back then, or will one of your grandkids one day have a 300-year-old khukuri?
 
This is year battalion first raised, correct? You could perhaps find when inactivated or disbanded and bracket the age? Historic battalion anyhow, one raised in Revolutionary War times if their calender not based on another system such as since world created or how many years left until the cosmos shut down...many old dates worldwide relate to a ruler or dynasty but that number far too large, but was unaware of battalions raised Imperial British style that early unless India....but i freely admit about zero history knowledge of that part of the world except in vaguest terms...
 
The 1762 is our calendar. Were it their calendar it would be 1818. Basic English date to Nepali date: Add - 56 years - 8 months - 16 days and vice-versa. By the by, the Shreenath Battalion is still part of the modern Nepali Army.
 
I feel the history oozing out of that knife clear thru cyber space. That's good stuff.
 
Ah! Thats interesting and yes the calendar year would be different than ours. It looks like "na" but the bar is sloping down unlike the normal "na". Let me look it up. Ive been out scouting flint in the ditches and my neighbor was shootin at me....er pretty close to me.. I know it was him cause I recognize his .44. I sent him some morse code signals with my flashlight and he stopped. We have another nozy neighbor that calls the cops anytime she sees anything in the night so i was walking the dogs as an excuse for snooping in the ditch. We good now! Lemme go look it up in Johns book and see what he says about it. Back with an edit shortly soon as my ears stop ringing. Shouldda sent him a signal sooner:D Weirdo! I was just walkin my dogs:rolleyes: I was only armed with a sledge hammer, five gallon bucket of rocks, pit bull,dogo,black mouth curr and jack Russell? Screwed up world it is sometimes?

"Ba" Should have a line through it and without the line it would be "Va" Look at Bhakta mark compared to Vim. Vim will have an extra mark changing "Va" to "VI" . Right off the top of my head im thinking it "Dha" Gimme a few mor minutes and ill correct myself.

Put a bandaid on that wound Jo! I promis w will figur it out! Dang flint chips in my kyboard. Must be undr the ""....? eeeeee...ok better now!

OK Definately "shree"= (श्री), na= (न), th=(थ)
According to John Walters:
Fergit the script on top of pic. that just some bookie M43 script im werkin on.;)

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From John Walters: "Shree Nath" on the left of (1762b) and "Shree Na" to right.

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Here is the Shreebush Devanagari reference from J.Walters c1791.

"A lot of historical 'na' and 'ba' marks look very similar. The left-hand tip of the horizontal bar of 'ba' should curve round to touch the bar, but it often doesn't in marks cut into metalwork. SImilarly, the bar of 'na', which should end in a short downward stroke, can be shown as a curve!"

"Ba"(ब) and "Va"(व) dont have a bar hanging them off the vertical bar like "Na" (न). The curved round doesnt close or touch the bar or hang off a vertical or horizontal bar. I havent seen anything like it. It could be an older sanskrit or "ta"?
Im on it.. Ill keep trying!




 
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Hi Bookie,

I think your friend is very probably right in his translation. Just thought I'd add some thoughts that may or may not be of interest.

As both your friend and ndoghouse have said, the second symbol is almost certainly the character for the "dental" Na (they have 4 Na symbols!) Though it looks to have a vowel sign above making it Ne
Ne_zps7cekt6qh.png


I haven't been able to find a matching Battalion or Company with Shree Ne in the name, so it could be an error? There are a few alternative possibilities for Shree Na:
Shree Nanda Buksh Company
Shree Narsimha Dal Company
Shree Narsingh Battalion
Shree Naya Gorakh Battalion

Though I'd still put my money on Shree Nath. A very cool kukri to have in your collection, congrats.
 
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