Differnt Armors in India - Through The Ages

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   The Cuirass

The Basic Cloth Armour (The cloth armors were many times padded with
steel "scales" to enhance protection against stronger spears and
swords)

In India, the quilted Kaftan, there called a Kubcha, was
distinguished from two other cloth armours -- the Peti and the
Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha (which translates as Coat of a Thousand Nails).

Peti is a simple wide "girdle" of thick leather or heavily padded
cloth (some being over an inch thick) which hangs from the shoulders
and fastens in the front with toggles or a thong. Often, there is an
extension at the back.

Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha consists of a cloth or leather cuirass with
leaf-shaped cloth pauldrons and a four-sectioned skirting. The skirting
is generally in one piece with the cuirass and the pauldrons are often
in one piece. The name refers to the decoration most commonly found on
this armour, which consists of rivets arranged in a pattern of scales.
The pattern led to H. Russell Robinson suggesting that the armour is
descended from Scale armour (with the scales removed). It may also
descend from Brigandine -- being an idealized false Brigandine.

This armour is worn either as a front and back cuirass or as a
coat -- fastening in front or on the side. One style of this coat,
illustrated here, is clasped only at the waist and worn open at the
front. The opening is filled with a bib of a similar fabric and
decoration as the rest of the coat.

Mongol Nobleman wearing an 'Eastern Jack' Mongol "Jack of Plates"

In addition to the padding and rivets, many Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha
were also reinforced with plates. These were of the pattern of
Chahar-Ai-Ne or Disc Armour.

Example of an Indian Scale armor (Cloth armor with scales)

The Indian Disk Armor (Thick Cloth Armour with a Metal Disk, and several plates for added protection) 

The Indian armour is a cuirass consisting of front and back
sections of padded cloth or leather. The metal plates are sewn to the
backing and do not overlap - but rather, purposefully leave some gap. A
layer of velvet is generally sewn onto the outside. This covers the
backing fabric and the seams where the plates are sewn. It does not
cover the plates. As mentioned elsewhere, this cloth is usually
decorated with a pattern of rivets.

The Discs are set so that the bottom of the disc is slightly above
waist level. Another plate is set above the disc, roughly the width of
the chest. One plate is also set to either side of the disc. These
last, when the cuirass is worn, join under the arm to protect the sides
of the body. The front and back are identical in design.

As are other Chihal'Ta Hazar Masha, this cuirass is worn with leaf
shaped pauldrons and a four sectioned skirting of matching fabric. The
skirting is generally attached permanently to the cuirass. The
pauldrons and skirting often, but not always, have a large plate or an
arangement of plates set in the center. Sometimes, the plates are
omitted, leaving the pauldrons and skirting simply decorated with
patterns formed of large rivet heads.

The Indian Brigandine

It is a Brigandine of the ordinary type (made of garment weight
materials with internal plates), worn as a short jacket (covering the
hips) with short sleeves. What makes it unique is that it seems to have
always, or almost always, been worn open at the front (clasped only at
the waist). To cover the open front a long bib of overlapping plates
was worn, with Mirrors completing the ensamble.

Indian Mail & Plate Armors 

Char Aine (4 mirrors)

This is an Indian armour which may be considered either a special case of Chahar-Ai-Ne, or a special case of the Yushman.

As the illustrations show, it is superficially similar to the
Yushman. However, the front sections are two rows made up of one main
plate each (as opposed to the regular case, where there are several
plates in each row). Similarly, the side rows consist of one plate.

The back of this armour varies. On some armours, it is similar to
that of the Yushman (as illustrated there). Other armours have a single
large plate at the back (as illustrated here). Thus, with generally
five large main plates, this armour is very similar to one common type
of Chahar-Ai-Ne -- varying from it only in that this one is attached
with maile rather than with straps or hinges.

The armours illustrated have extra reinforcing plates at front and
back as does an armour photographed in Stone's "Glossary". The pattern
at the back of five overlapping rows of small plates is a very common
back reinforcement in Indian armour (often appearing on the "Sind"
armour described above).

Sindh Armour (Place of Origin) 

The major defining characteristics that make the Maile and Plates
of this region of India a separate style of armour are it's vertical,
non-overlapping rectangles and the "scale-shaped" - scaloped, small
overlapping plates. These "scales" often alternate between those of
yellow and those of white metal.

A complete armour consists of a waist-length coat - either
pullover or fastened in the front, pants, shoes, a soft helmet, and a
pair of solid Bazubands.

The vertical rectangles allways appear on the front of the armour
in a girdle pattern. Additional plates may be at the back and chest. On
the pants, the most likely plates to appear are those on the lower leg.
The rest of the armour may be completed with maile only or with the
scales described.

The illustration is based on a very complete armour of this type in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

It is interesting to note that, if the drawing from Dura Europos
illustrates an armour of Maile and Plates (as shown at the begining of
this chapter), the "Sind" pattern is the one closest to it. This may
contradict the view of H. Russel Robinson (one of the foremost
authorities on the subject) that Maile, and hence Maile and Plates, did
not arrive in India until a very late date (with the Muslim invasion of
the Moghuls) and developed into indigenous forms far later than that.

Some more pictures

This is from Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Its quite interesting, they
continued to use the cloth-lamellar armors when most of North India had
started using the mail armors. 

Here are some models of S. Indian warriors 

Armored Elephant

Elephant Armor (The Indian speciality) 

(From Alexander Movie)

The First two soldiers that I have shown are actually soldiers from the
Mauryan and post Mauryan period. Also the North East Indian armors were
very much like SE Asian. SE Asian armors are based on the Tibetan
design and therefore very similar to what is used in India. 

Many people don't know this but Indian soldiers have been using
chainmail armors BEFORE Islam came into India. Even the Gupta armies
are known to use chainmail armor. Chainmail became a much more popular
style after the arrival of Islam because of its preference by the
Jihadis. The chainmail armors in its designs are very similar to the
scale and Lamellar style armors before it. The only difference between
the chainmail armors and the cloth-lamellar armors before it is that
the cloth padding was removed and replaced with mail. The Central disks
and the extra plates remained for protecting key parts of the body. I
believe the Gupta dynasty soldiers used mail armours extensively. 

The steel disk is also an Indian feature, and it appears before the
Arabs and Turks came to India. The disk was usually a small shield that
was just tied to to the cloth armour to protect the body (for early
foot soldiers), but in more advanced armors, it was shaped properly and
sewn into the armor with extra plates attached. 

Here are armors using the Turkic/Persian Disk armors. 

Those armors were also used in India (obviously after Islam), but their
plating pattern is much more complex than the ones used in India. The
Indian Char Aina literally means 4 mirrors - and therefore 4 plates.