Arms & armour

The shastars kept as relics at the gurdwaras, the great Zamzama gun of Lahore, and the steel of the Lahore army that now fills museum cases in Britain.

TraditionsHindu & Vedic 1Islam & Sufi 1Sikh 12Shared & secular 3

Gurus and Mughals

1469 – 1708

The talwar16th – 19th century

The curved sword of the north Indian horseman, carried by Mughal, Afghan, Rajput and Sikh soldiers alike.

The katar16th – 19th century

The punch dagger of north India, gripped by a cross-bar so that the blade sits in line with the fist.

The weapons of Guru Gobind Singh17th – 18th century

Swords, a khanda, a saif, a katar, a jamdhar and arrows said to have belonged to the tenth Guru are shown to the sangat every day at the Takhts. Some came back to India from Britain in 1966.

Matchlocks and the jezail17th – 19th century

The long hand-made musket of the frontier hills, deadly at long range.

Guru Gobind Singh's gold-tipped arrowsLate 17th century

Arrows, tradition says, tipped with gold so that any man they wounded could pay for his care, or his family for his funeral.

The pata17th – 19th century

A long blade fixed to a steel gauntlet, used by Maratha and Sikh horsemen and still swung in gatka displays.

The kirpanFrom 1699

The sword every initiated Sikh carries, one of the five articles of faith given at the founding of the Khalsa.

Misls and Afghans

1708 – 1799

Baba Deep Singh's khanda18th century

The heavy double-edged sword said to have been wielded by Baba Deep Singh in 1757, kept at the Akal Takht and shown to the sangat.

Chakram and dastar bunga18th – 19th century

The steel quoit thrown by the Akali Nihangs, worn in stacks on their towering turbans, the dastar bunga, along with small daggers and steel emblems.

The zamburak: camel guns18th – 19th century

Small swivel guns mounted on the backs of camels, fired by a gunner sitting behind the hump.

The Zamzama gunCast 1757

A giant bronze cannon cast for Ahmad Shah Abdali, captured by the Bhangi misl, used by Ranjit Singh at Multan in 1818, and made famous as 'Kim's gun' by Rudyard Kipling.

The Kingdom of Lahore

1799 – 1849

The Sikh guns at ChelseaCast 1800s – 1840s; taken 1846 – 1849

Bronze cannon of the Khalsa army, captured in the Anglo-Sikh wars, that stand on the lawns of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and outside other British buildings.

Armour of the Sikh armyc. 1820 – 1845

Helmets with mail aventails, round shields with bosses, and four-plate chest armour (char-aina) inlaid with gold, much of it taken after the Anglo-Sikh Wars.