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Home Home » Asia » Baauk (1915.48.70)
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Baauk (1915.48.70)
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Baauk (1915.48.70) 

IndiaIndiaBaauk from India (or Nepal), Asia. Collector not known. Lent to the Museum by the Board of Trustees of the Armouries in 1915.


The flamboyantly curved baauk is a dagger worn by the Rachwar, a Dalit group spread across the Terai, a belt of savannah, marshy grassland and forest at the base of the Himalayas in India, Nepal, and Bhutan. The span of this region may explain the mix of influences apparent in this weapon such as the Nepalese copper hilt and knuckle-bow, the Indo-Muslim decoration and the double-curved blade in the shape of a buffalo horn, seen on Punjabi bich'hwa daggers.