A RARE SOUTH INDIAN DAGGER (CHILANUM), 15TH/16TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BIJAPUR, with broad recurved blade formed with a pair of fullers and swelling slightly at the tip, iron hilt comprising shaped foliate langets enclosing the forte and extending to each side with a pierced bird's head, curved guard rising up in the centre and with a short bud-shaped quillon on each side, recurved slender knuckle-guard with Yali head terminal, integral moulded grip following the contour of the guard at the base, rising up in two branches including a rampant lion with Yali head forming the pommel on one side (pitted, small restorations and losses), 39.5 cm overall Roy Elvis Catalogue Number D85. Hilts of this distinctive zoomorphic form are associated with Royal Vijayanagara edged weapons. Around 1620 King Raghunatha Nayaka (circa 1600-34) sent a 'dagger with a lion handle' as a gift to the Danish Court in Copenhagen. Another dagger from this group is preserved in the David Collection, Copenhagen, (inv. no. 18/1982). See Elgood 2004, pp. 109-126. Highlight from the Roy Elvis Collection (1944-2022)