Die Kukri der Gurkhas aus Nepal

Abstract

The Gurkhas of Nepal originated from the area around the town of Gorkha, approximately 80 km to the North - West of Katmandu. According to a legend they migrated in the Medieval Ages from Rajasthan to Nepal. This legend has no historical background as it is merely based on the charisma of the Rajput clans which several other clans of North India also claimed to belong to.
Although the straight – bladed Indian sword Khanda used to be the prominent weapon of ancient and medieval Nepal, the classic sword of the Gurkhas was the Kora, whereas the Kukri was used as a weapon (even by present – day Gurkha regiments) as well as a kind of a bush knife by farmers (fig. 1 – 2).
The Kukri (Hindi: khukhri, f.) consists of a simple but rather extraordinary single – edged and leaf - shaped blade. Its edge runs at first in a concave curve and then turns into a convex one towards the point of the blade so that the centre of gravity is situated very much in the
front of the weapon. This enables a warrior to strike a terrific blow without using too much of force (fig. 3 – 7). The root of the blade shows a semi – circular notch with a central thorn. This stands for a “Yoni – Lingam”, the genital symbol of God Shiva and his wife Parvati. In the back of the wooden sheath there are usually two small Kukri shaped tools, one of which was used as a penknife, the other as a blade sharpener.
The shape of the Kukri blade is called a Kopis which derives from the Greek word koptein = to cut. This blade seems to have been invented by the Medes or Persians in the 6th cent BCE and was thereafter adopted by the Greeks, from whom it was taken over by the Romans. Earlier writers suggested that the Kopis was introduced to the Indians by Alexander’s army. However, P. S. Rawson’s statement that the pure shapes of the early Indian Kopis weapons were imitations of Roman prototypes seems much more convincing, especially as the Romans kept up close trade relations with the West – Indian Satavahana Empire in the 1st and 2ndcentury (fig. 8 – 12).
Above all the Kopis is conspicuously missing in North – Indian temple sculpture, even so in Indo – Greek Gandhara art, whereas religious monuments in the southern half of the subcontinent (south of the Vindhya - mountains) show a few fine examples of paintings or sculptures with Kopis armed warriors! The best of these may be seen in the Ajanta cave No. 17 of the late 5th century and the so called Durga cave at Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu) of the middle of the 7th century (fig. 13 – 14).
This typical pure Kopis developed in the 2nd half of the 10th century into the bent sword, which became prominent all over Central and Southern India (for instance in Khajurao, the Hoysala temples and Konarak). Eventually, this development led to the swords of the Vijayanagar Empire, which R. Elgood dealt with in detail. Some of these have almost pure Kopis blades (fig. 15 – 19).
Although one is able to show the development of the Kopis swords from early Iran via Greece and Rome to the Southern half of India, the question still remain, how the Gurkhas maintained the classic, unchanged shape of this powerful weapon up to the present day. Regarding the pure Kopis shape of the Kukri, one is inclined to believe that a transfer of know how from the south of the subcontinent to Nepal should at the latest have taken place close to the end of the 1st millennium. Due to the lack of armed temple sculptures in Nepal there is unfortunately no source material to bridge this gap.