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Battle axe (1994.21.41)
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Battle axe (1994.21.41) 

IndiaIndiaBattle axe from India, Asia. Part of the Pitt Rivers Museum Founding Collection. Given to the Museum in 1884.


This large battle-axe consists of a crescent blade fixed with three iron ring sockets to a metal-banded, wooden shaft. It is associated with the Khond, a non-Hindu, militarised people of the Orissa in central India. The Khond used such axes, together with knives, to hunt bears and, until its suppression by the British in the mid-19th century, to dismember living human sacrifices to satisfy their creator deity, Darni Penu.