A SLASHING KNIFE WITH IRON BLAD AND WOOD HANDLE MOUNTED WITH RATTAN "ANG DAO"

Description:

Northeast India, Naga country, Assam or Manipur, Naga (Konyak or Angami Naga, Ang clan), 19th c. or ealier
L. 63 cm
This knife with a short, broad blade with a double concave incision in the back represents a very rare, highly respected type of the dao shark knife commonly used by the Naga groups of Myanmar, north-east India and Assam. The blade is hallmarked along the spine, the long hardwood handle is appliquéd with red-coloured tufts of goat hair. The handle is braided with rattan. Dao is a generic Chinese name that covers blades ranging from small everyday knives to large ritual and status swords. The ang dao form is unmistakably specific to the high-ranking members of the sacred Ang clan, from which the great tribal chiefs are derived. The weapon is a sacred prop. Objects that largely resemble the old Naga-dao (such as this one, ang- and milemnok-dao) can already be found on Indo-Chinese kettle drums from the region of the eastern Himalayas (today: Yunnan) from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Ultimately, they can probably be traced back to a development from the Chinese ge-blades.From the north of Assam to the south of Burma and Siam, the dao is a widespread all-purpose tool used for everything from shaving and haircuts to felling trees and processing wood of all types and thicknesses. Apart from small knives, it is often the only tool available. The sharpening is always one-sided, which favours the cutting ability when used correctly, i.e. cuts made at an angle from above. The dao is carried on strong rattan or bark fibre straps in the back over the buttocks; a box-shaped wooden element, which is missing here, serves as a sheath.Naga is an ethno-genetic collective term for over 30 ethnic groups, the Adivasi, in the north-east of the Indian subcontinent. They are spread across the present-day states of Nagaland (since 1963), Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. A smaller number also live in the Sagaing region in north-east Myanmar.
From an old German private collection, assembled in the 1950s - Minor traces of age, partly loss to goats hair
Lit.: P. S. Rawson (1968): The Indian Sword, The Arms & Armor Series, London, page 58, 64