Actually Chht.Shivaji Maharaj possessed 3 swords
- Jagdamba (today in London museum)
- Tulja( today in Mumbai museum)
- Bhawani ( with Chht Udyan Raje Bhosale)..
Now what's the weight of Bhawani Talwar?
Before coming to this answer let's first how exactly was Chht. Shivaji Maharaj physically and tactically.. and after that we will ultimately get answer to this question.
Chht.Shivaji Maharaj was a king in South and Western India.( Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh)…
And people in these areas are mostly short in height. And Chat. Shivaji Maharaj was also short in height (5.3–5.5) and weighed less than 70kg..
And the enemies of him were Turks(Mughal), Abyssinian( siddis), Britishers, Portuguese, Nizamshahi, Adilshahi,etc all of which were heighted( above 6feet) and way healthy. (For e.g. Afzal Khan(height 7feet and weight more than 200kg).
Hence in order to fight these enemies only weapon available with him was speed. i.e guerilla warfare.. and he indeed made many changes in his war tactics like
- As his soldiers were short and thus confronting his heighted enemies was nothing less than death.. hence he made it compulsory for his soldiers to use long and slim swords rather than heavy and hefty one..
This is the true heir of Chht. Shivaji Maharaj Chht.Udyanraje Bhosale with Bhavani Talwar.
2. Chht Shivaji Maharaj never compromised on speed hence his soldiers were not allowed to carry things of luxury while on battle( like mattresses, clothes,etc).
3. Slow animals like Elephants, Camels were not included in his army. ( There was also another fair reason behind this decision and that was the extremely difficult mountainous terrain of Maharashtra.)
4. His guerilla warfare tactics included surprise attacks and retreats as well.. ( Yes I totally mean it Surprise retreats as well)..
It was like Chht Shivaji Maharaj never fought with whole of his army. His army would be divided into 3 to 4 parts of equal numbers. And these 4 groups would be sitting on different locations on the same route.. the first group would attack an big army (like 100 men would attack on an army of 5000. ) They would fight for 10 -15 mins and retreat.. the enemy army would think they have accepted defeat and thus are retreating and would run behind Chht Shivaji Maharaj's army. Now this small group of Maharaj's army would run on a path where the 2nd group of Maharaj's army would be hiding. And once they reach this 2nd groups location the 1st group would simply get vanish from the battlefield. Now this would provide an tactical advantage to Maharaj's army.
i.e 1) the enemy army would have lost their positions and
2) they would have exhausted due to the early fight with 1st group and the long run..
Whereas Maharaj's 2nd group of army would be fresh and free to slaughter this enemy army…
And the cycle would continue for the 3rd and 4th group as well..
5. Heavy armoury like bhala( javelin), gada, kurhadi was also prohibited as this would compromise the speed..
From above all tactics and techniques of Chht Shivaji Maharaj and his own personality we can guess the weight of the swords which he used to posses.. which I think should not be greater than 1–3 kgs. As his own weight was around 60–70 kg..
Original photo of Chht.Shivaji Maharaj (Debatable)
But the information which we find on the internet suggest that the weight of his sword was 65kg which is highly debatable and unacceptable.