Picture 19 of 31 from Oriental Arms and Armour

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KAVACHA, Armour
ca. 1600-1626
Central India Decann, Bijapur Sultanate (1490-1686)
Steel
Height 105 cm ; Weight: 14 kg
The Kavacha, or combined armour of chainmail and
plate was worn by noblemen horse riders to protect the
torso and arms.
This piece is built in steel and features both a chainmail
tunic and lamella plates in the torso and back areas.
With long sleeves and coming down to the knee, it is
remarkably well preserved, with no tears or mending.
The armour displays two engraved inscriptions one, in
the outside part of the top right plate, and another, on
the inside, in Hindi and Indo-Aryan script, and in
devanagari Persian writing, revealing that it was
captured in 1689, in the spoils resulting from the Adoni
siege in the Deccan, where the famous battle between
the Mughal army and the Deccan Sultans took place.
This Kavacha was part of the group of arms which
made up the arsenal of the Bikaner fort, capital of the
Adilshahi dynasty, which was captured by one of the
generals of the Aurangzeb (r.1659-1707), the Maharajah
of Binaker - Anup Singh when he defeated the last
descendent of the Adilshahi dynasty of Jaipur.
Anup Singh (1669-1698) was the oldest son of the Karn Singh Rajah (1631-1669), the house chief of the Aurangzeb
Emperor.
The very high quality of the manufacture of this armour shows that this was a piece worn by a high dignitary.
The manufacture of this sort of chainmail tunics, which belonged to the arsenal of the Bikaner fort, was traditionally
associated to the city of Jaipur, in the Deccan.
Bibl.: Alexander, 1992, p. 160, fig. 100
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06-26-2013, 06:52 AM
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