Language: Urdu
Source: Platt's Hindi dictionary of 1884

Description

Kirach (کرچ) is described by Platt as a Hindi word for "a sword (esp. a straight one for thrusting with); a splinter.".1

What we know as kirć today are slightly forward inclined with the edge on the concave side. They are mounted in talwar or Hindu basket hilts. Rawson believes it was originally a Mahratta weapon.2

The Hindi word is Kirć (किर्च) / kirić (किरिच).

 

Kirach sword

A kirć sword with chiseled blade probably from Lahore.
Mandarin Mansion stock 2020.

 

In period sources

Mrs Mir Hassan Ali, writing in 1832, uses the word kirrich to describe a straight thrusting dirk worn by soldiers during a procession in Lucknow.3

Then follows a regiment of nujeebs I (foot soldiers), their jackets red, with small cap turban of black leather ornamented with the kirrich II or dirk (part of the armorial bearings of the House of Oudh).

Footnotes in the 1917 edition:
I.) Nujub, "noble"; the half-disciplined militia of Native States.
II.) Kirch, a straight thrusting sword.

-Mrs Mir Hassan Ali, Lucknow, 1832.

 

Notes
1. John Thompson Platts; A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English. London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1884. Page 824.
2. Philip S. Rawson; The Indian Sword. Herbert Jenkins, London, 1968. Page 46.
3. Mrs Mir Hassan Ali; Observations on the Musselmauns of India. 1832. Oxford University Press edition of 1917. Pages 143 and 149.

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