Subject: ज़मींदार zamīndār noble
Culture: Rajput
Setting: Maratha wars / late Mughal empire, Hindustan 18th-early 19thc
Object: armor = top/kulah helmet, chahar aina 'four mirrors' cuirass, dastana vambraces, zireh mail
Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor *
"Helmet Steel, brass, gold, textile Indian, Mughal period, 18th century ..."
* Shah Jahan Armory
* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery
"Armour (chihal'ta hazar masha) Indian, Rajasthan, 18th century This padded armour has an outer covering of black velvet and is studded with brass bosses and nails. It is designed to be worn on horseback. The style is derived from earlier Mongolian padded armours.
"The helmet is lined with blue velvet. This helmet was made in Jodhpur and the decoration is not so fine as that produced in Lahore. The fine butted mail aventail has a trellis pattern worked in iron and brass links.
"The arm defences (dastana) are decorated in gold koftgari, and the hand defences are decorated with gold embroidery and spangles. The gold Nagari inscription notes that they were made in Shajahanabad (Delhi)." ....
Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *
"Mail armour (zereh) Indian, Rajasthan, 18th century This fine mail shirt has a diamond pattern worked in brass.
The front facing is applied over the mail in red silk. The cape is of riveted mail lined with red velvet.
Attached to the mail are numerous talismanic disks, some brass, some white metal alloy, embossed with calligraphy.
"The helmet, or top, has a low circular rounded skull with three plume tubes, and a sliding nasal. The decoration is in gold overlay (koftgari).
The fine mail curtain is made of butted iron and brass rings in a zig-zag pattern. The three plumes are made from silver gilt ribbon." ....
* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery
"Scale coat Indian, Rajasthan, early 19th century This coat has been covered with the scales of the pangolin or scaly anteater (Manis crassicaudata). The scales have been decorated in gold, and the larger have been used where more protection is required. This is the only known example of this type of armour. It originally had a helmet, also made of pangolin scales, with three plumes.
"The scale coat was presented to the King George III in 1820 by Francis Rawdon, 2st Marquis of Hastings (1754-1826), who was the East India Company's Governor General in Bengal, 1812-22." ...
Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *
"Armour (chihal'ta hazar masha) Indian, Rajasthan, 18th century
Armours of this type derive from the traditional padded armours of India. They take the form of long coats, boots and shoulder guards made from multiple layers of cloth sewn tightly together and covered with a rich material, generally velvet, decorated with patterns in small gilt nails. This last feature gives these armours their name of 'coat of a thousand nails'. The large steel plates set at strategic places have their borders decorated with gold koftgari. On this particular armour the central circular plate is defaced by a blemish that has been reshaped to resemble a tiger's head and embellished with gold overlay.
"The armour was worn with conventional matching arm guards and often a conventional helmet, although fabric helmets are known." ...
* Medieval Stocker
Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *
"Armour (chihal'ta hazar masha) Indian, Rajasthan, 18th century
More commonly called a 'coat of one thousand nails', this padded coat has riveted to it two protective chest plates and a back plate,
all of polished steel. The lining is of pink silk, decorated with flowers.
The coat was secured by means of lacing through the rings at the front.
