![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Knife_%28Piha_Kaetta%29_with_Sheath_MET_20.138.2ab_003may2014.jpg/220px-Knife_%28Piha_Kaetta%29_with_Sheath_MET_20.138.2ab_003may2014.jpg)
Piha kaetta is knife native to the island of Sri Lanka. Piha kaetta has a straight-backed blade and a curved cutting edge. They are associated with the royalty. Many piha kaetta knifes were produced in royal workshops, inlaid with silver filigree band or ivory sheath.
Daggers in South Asia
During the golden age of the Mughal Empire in India between the 16th to the early 18th-century, daggers were produced in widespread. These daggers were notable for their high quality metalwork, fine ornamentation and distinctive elegant form. The elegant graceful form found in many daggers, blades, and knives during the period indicates influence from the Islamic world. These daggers were often royal in nature and was worn by princes and nobles for self-defense, for hunting, or for display. In combat, they were essential close-quarters weapons, capable of piercing the mail armor of Indian warriors.[1]
Between late 17th-century to 18th-century, Sri Lanka began to locally produce the piha kaetta, a kind of knife with a graceful edge styled similarly with the design of other blades found in the Indian subcontinent. Unlike the Mughal-influenced subcontinental daggers which were mostly used in battles, the piha kaetta of Sri Lanka were mostly for everyday use for farm work or in the wilderness. Finest piha kaetta were made at the "four workshops" (pattal-hatara), a kind of craftsmen guild where a selected group of craftsmen worked exclusively for the king and his royal court, or for others only by the king's permission. The name "four workshops" refer to respectively the "jewel", "crown", "golden sword," and "throne" workshops. In Sri Lanka, the arts of building, painting, ivory-carving, jewelry, etc. were in the hands of a hereditary guild or caste of craftsmen which occupied an honorable position.[2]
Form
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Dagger_%28Piha_Kaetta%29_with_Stylus_and_Sheath_MET_32.75.251a-c_005june2014.jpg/220px-Dagger_%28Piha_Kaetta%29_with_Stylus_and_Sheath_MET_32.75.251a-c_005june2014.jpg)
The piha kaetta have a heavy blade about 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) to 2 inches (5.1 cm) thick and 5 inches (13 cm) to 8 inches (20 cm) long. It has an inlaid panel on the back of the blade and a straight cutting edge that curves towards the tip. Kaetta means a "beak" or "billhook", probably refers to its curving tip.[3]
Simple piha kaetta were made out of steel and a wooden or horn hilt. Higher quality piha kaetta were finely decorated, normally at the back of the blade where they can be carved with a mix of silver and brass inlaid panel; or deeply engraved and covered with thin leaves of silver pressed into the hollows of the engraving. The hilts of high quality piha kaetta were made out of different combinations of materials e.g. precious metals (gold, silver, brass, copper, rock crystal, ivory, horn, steel or wood). These hilts were made in a very distinctive form, occasionally they were shaped like a mythical creature's head or in a form of a serpentine.[4][3][copyright violation?]
Frequently a silver-inlaid stylus is carried in the scabbard with the knife.[3]
See also
References
- ^ Gahir & Spencer 2006, p. 134.
- ^ Wright 1907, pp. 181–2.
- ^ a b c Stone 2013, p. 498.
- ^ "A Fine Sinhalese Knife Piha-Kaetta (Pihiya) with Sheath, Sri Lanka, Late 17th early 18th Century". ALJ Antiques. ALJ Antiques. 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
Cited works
- Gahir, Sunita; Spencer, Sharon, eds. (2006). Weapon - A Visual History of Arms and Armor. New York City: DK Publishing. ISBN 9780756622107.
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: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - Stone, George Cameron (2013). A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times. Dover: Courier Corporation. ISBN 9780486131290.
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(help) - Wright, Arnold (1907). Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon: Its History, People, Commerce, Industries, and Resources. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120613355.
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