Language: Hindi
Source: Platt's Hindi dictionary of 1884
Description
Kirć (किर्च) / kirić (किरिच) 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 usually mounted in talwar hilts. Among collectors in the English speaking world today, the Urdu kirach (کرچ) is in common use.
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.2
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. Mrs Mir Hassan Ali; Observations on the Musselmauns of India. 1832. Oxford University Press edition of 1917. Pages 143 and 149.
