Bichuwa

The bichuwa, also spelled bichawa, is a dagger from the Indian subcontinent with a loop hilt and a narrow, undulating, sharp blade. The name comes from the Hindi word for a scorpion, because the curved blade resembles a scorpion sting. The design grew out of the maduvu, a horn dagger made in South India, and many bichuwa blades keep the shape of buffalo horns. The earliest examples are attributed to the medieval Vijayanagara empire in southern Karnataka. A typical bichuwa measures a little over thirty centimetres, has a recurved blade and a simple looped handle that sometimes extends into a knuckleguard, and was small enough to hide in a sleeve or waistband. It was sometimes paired with the bagh nakha claw weapon, and the Maratha leader Shivaji is credited with using such a combination against Afzal Khan in the seventeenth century. Because it is easy to make, the bichuwa survived into the twentieth century as a decorative dagger.