Help with Indian-issue P1887 Bay&#111;net

Thanks(0)

Quote

Topic: Help with Indian-issue P1887 Bayonet
Posted: October 06 2025 at 7:06pm

I just bought this old P1887 bayonet made in July 1899.

It has the guard and scabbard marked with the inscription रा म ८ ने ३ ६

As far as I can tell, that transcribes to:
Ra M 8 Ne 3 6

Does anyone know what that might mean?

Daeld

Newbie

Joined: July 27 2025
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 10

Post Options

Thanks(0)

Quote

Posted: October 07 2025 at 5:28am

I made a transcription error above and it won't let me edit. so here is the corrected top line:

राम ८ नं ३६

which transcribes to something like "Ram 8 No. 36" (the नं is apparently an abbreviation for Number akin to No. in English).

as for the scabbard, I hadn't looked closely enough and now I realise that they are different. the scabbard has two characters that are different and reads something like:

Ram ? No. ?6

it won't let me post a picture for some reason, so I'll have to describe it. the first unkonwn "?" looks like ८ but upside down and has a little tick at the top (almost like a Japanese U う but connected). I can't find that character anywhere on the devanagari charts online.

The second "?" looks kinda like a roman 4 (but the type that does not touch at the top in a triangle but has two parallel lines instead. Or more like an upside down stick-chair. The only thing similar to that that I could find was the character प, but this character is rounded compared the the square character of the scabbard and it has no line on the top.

EDIT:

I found how to edit and how to put pics in!

and I found one of the letters look more like Nepal Lipi, not Devanagari
the 8 looks more like this in the top line:
𑑘

Daeld

Newbie

Joined: July 27 2025
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 10

Post Options

Thanks(0)

Quote

Posted: October 08 2025 at 3:52am

Sorry to be all over the place with this but i've finally identified the characters. The unknown characters were in a Punjabi script:

the top line reads:
रा म ੮ नं ३ ६
(Ram 8 No 36)

and the bottom line reads:
रा म ੭ नं ੫ ६
(Ram 7 No. 56)

Any ideas what the Ram/Rama might mean?

Shamu

Admin Group

Logo Designer / Donating Member

Joined: April 25 2007
Location: MD, USA.
Status: Offline
Points: 20510

Post Options

Quote Shamu

Thanks(0)

Quote

Posted: October 08 2025 at 1:22pm

Maybe a "Rack Number"?

Rack 8 position 36?

Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)

Daeld

Newbie

Joined: July 27 2025
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 10

Post Options