Chakram
Literally: wheel, circle
Also known as: chakra, thikiri
A flat steel disc with a sharpened outer rim, thrown off the finger with a flick of the wrist; weapon of Sikh Nihangs and Vishnu's Sudarshan Chakra.
Quick Facts
IndiaAbout the weapon
The chakram is a flat circular throwing disc with a sharpened outer rim, originating on the Indian subcontinent. The name comes from the Sanskrit chakra, wheel or circle. The epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, composed around the 5th century BC, describe it as a divine weapon, and Tamil texts from the 2nd century BC call it thikiri. The Portuguese chronicler Duarte Barbosa recorded around 1516, in the Vijayanagara Empire, warriors carrying seven or eight chakrams on the left arm. It reached its greatest importance among the Sikh Nihang and Akali warriors of the 17th to 19th centuries and was used effectively in the Anglo-Sikh Wars (1845-1849). It was traditionally forged from wootz steel. The diameter is usually 12 to 30 cm, the weight 200 to 400 g, and the metal band 13 to 25 mm wide; range exceeds 100 metres. The main throwing technique, tajani, spins the chakram on the index finger and releases it with a flick of the wrist. Today the chakram is shown in kalaripayattu at the Onam festival, and modern gatka trains safe spinning exercises for wrist and arm control. In Hindu mythology it is embodied by the Sudarshan Chakra, a blazing wheel with 108 serrated edges that returns to the hand of Vishnu or his avatar Krishna after being thrown. Nihangs fasten miniature chakrams to their turbans and wear them at the Hola Mohalla festival. It was made famous by the series Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), appears in the Baahubali films, and features in the game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India (2016).