Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a very interesting original 19th-century Indian dastana, or armored forearm guard, constructed from steel with decorative gold or brass-colored inlay and retaining a substantial portion of its original mail hand defense. The body measures approximately 11 ½ inches long without the mail and 17 inches overall with the surviving chainmail, placing it well within the range of surviving Indian arm guards of the period.

The term dastana is well established for this form of Indo-Persian arm defense. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes dastana as arm guards used throughout India, Iran, and Turkey, generally formed from curved steel plates protecting the forearm and wrist. Surviving Indian examples date from at least the 16th century through the 19th century, so I would avoid limiting the type itself to only the 17th through 19th centuries.

This dastana hand guard is made from iron/steel with gold/brass inlay accents. The hand guard has hinges which lead us to believe it was meant to open up, but we could not figure out how to open it. The handguard retains at least part of the original chainmail hand cover.

It is constructed from two plates hinged together at both sides of the arm, attached by long pins running through the middle of each hinge. There is a sizable hole in the smaller plate and a small hole in the larger plate. There is some loss to the chainmail and some pieces have detached from the dastana itself, but overall it has survived well.

The body measures 11 ½” long without the chainmail and 17” with the chainmail.

This is a strong surviving example of an Indian Indo-Persian dastana, retaining both its rigid steel forearm defense and part of the flexible mail protection for the hand. The combination of hinged plate construction, decorative inlay, surviving mail, and substantial overall completeness makes it a particularly useful example of 19th-century Indian defensive armor.