# Communities > Antique Arms & Armour Community > Middle-East, India & Africa (MEIA) >  A rare Indian parrying weapon 'Saint' or 'Saintie'.

## Manouchehr M.

THis is a very interesting weapon.  Have you seen other similar examples?  I would really appreciate your input on this.

Kind regards

Manouchehr

Courtesy of Ashoka Arts

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## Manouchehr M.

The last picture

Courtesy of Ashoka Arts

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## Manouchehr M.

Couirtesy of Ashoka Arts

"These curious pieces which are simultaneously defensive and offensive are one of the more interesting weapons in the Indian arsenal. They are scarce and rarely encountered outside old formed museum and private collections. This example is beautifully made, a heavy solid bar of steel ringed for its entire length, centre with elaborately shaped and pierced iron handguard, shaped foot, the other end mounted with a large serrated spearblade. The point is  thickened for piercing clothing and armour. The entire piece is covered with thick silver. 102 cms or 42 inches in length. Good condition, some wear and minor loss to silver. Rajasthan/Bikaner 17th century."

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## Emanuel Nicolescu

Hello Manouchehr,

I find these combination parrying weapons very interesting, and intriguing that they appear to be most common in India and Eastern Asia. In Europe it seems that swordsmen restricted themselves to a shield or a main-gauche. 

A good example of such Indian devices is the Madu, "consisting of a pair of black buck horns fastened together with their points in opposite direction...the hand is protected by a small circular shield of leather or iron. The horns usually have steel points on the ends." (Stone, 1999, 423)
Based on Egerton and Sinclair, Stone attributes these to the Bhils and other wild tribes. Used by fakirs, these must be related to the "fakir's horns" identical to the madu but lacking the small shield.

About the Saintie, Stone indicates that some may have an additional spear point on the hand guard, or a concealed dagger in the shaft. The extra spear blade would render it similar to the haladie (pic from Oriental-Arms). The katars with multiple blades could also be counted as parrying weapons I think, but at this point the line between defensive and offensive becomes quite blurred.

Best regards,
Emanuel

-added another pic of a Madu from Oriental-Arms

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## Manouchehr M.

Hi Emanuel,

Thank you very much for your kind input.  Excellent information.

Kind regards

Manouchehr

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## rand milam

Nice Mughal Sainte, ex Leo Figiel collection......   Steel covered with sheet gold and sheet silver

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## rand milam

More pics of Mughal javelin/ dart......

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## rand milam

This example a fine khora khorassan wootz wootz with silver filling inclusians,  absolutely mint,,,,, also ex Figiel

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## rand milam

This pair of solid form, probably pattern welded spear, circa 1800   There is information about a Mughal cavalry unit that trained for using this type of javelin/dart.

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## bhushan_lawate

Hi all,

I'll term this as a type of spear belonging to the "Barcha" type; which is used for offense as well as defense.

The "Barcha" and the "sang" are the ones which are made out of steel entirely in the spear family against to the generic combination of wood (Bamboo/cane/solid wood) and steel spear head which is used for other types of spears like (hunting spears/"vita"/cavalry spears etc)

I'm inclined to term this as a "Barcha" as it is a typical type of short spear. 

A "Sang" is generally more longer and lacks the hand guard in the middle.


Regards,
Bhushan

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## rand milam

Bhushan,

Thanks for the clarification about the spears.  Was intersting about the different terms for all steel vs wood/steel and the all steel form was considered defensive as well.  That would certainly explain the hand grip on the all steel javelin,

The other difference is weight.  The wood/steel weighing less would be a little easier to carry.  But the all steel with the added weight would have more penetrating power.

rand

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## Gonzalo G

> I find these combination parrying weapons very interesting, and intriguing that they appear to be most common in India and Eastern Asia. In Europe it seems that swordsmen restricted themselves to a shield or a main-gauche.


This is not correct. I strongly recommend you the reading of this page:

http://www.thearma.org/essays/SwordandBuckler.htm

There are, also, examples from Africa. 

Regards
Gonzalo

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## harvinder singh

hi that is a madhu, madhus vary, some have a small buckler in the middle some dont, in my martial art i learn, 'shastar vidiya' the madhu shield is used to block the sword strike and is also used to hit the pressure points on the body, the madhu is very affective, within the battlefield context of using it would be mainly climbing on ladders up forts, an example is the Akali Nihang Sikhs who knew shastar vidiya would climb up the fort with a madhu and they would deflect any strikes which wold obviously be coming down as they are climbing up the attacker would strike down, the madhu would then be used to pierce their amour and chainmail. more infomation on this will be given if requested.


Harvinder Singh

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## F.Singh

Here's another interesting example of the Sainthi.

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## Aditya Sahaya

Hi, 

It definitely looks like a variant of the Madhu/Madu, this weapon was also extensively used by the Marathas, who referred to it as "Bhid Cheer" which literally means to tear open the crowd. It was used in Melee's, and was swung in an arc, so as to clear a path.

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