Everything is Possible: A Brief History of the Chakram
You might have seen the chakram in the popular TV show Xena: Warrior Princess, the card game Magic: The Gathering, or as a weapon in the Tomb Raider video games. In fantasy, the chakram has amazing powers, bouncing off multiple surfaces to take out bad guys, blocking or destroying arrows, and returning to the owner like a boomerang. While the fantasy versions of chakrams look pretty epic, what exactly can you do with a real chakram?
The real world version of the chakram originated in South Asia. It’s an Indian throwing weapon, first mentioned in the Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, and the Puranas around 1500–100 BCE. In the earliest stories, Vishnu uses a chakram to battle evil forces. The weapon also appears in epics like the Mahabharata. In one story, a demon tries to swallow the moon but has his head cut off with a chakram.
Variations on chakrams spread to Tibet, Malaysia, and Indonesia, with a few changes. However from the 16th century forwards, chakrams are mostly associated with Sikhs, all the way up until the 1900s, when their use phased out. While they’re often described as flat, steel rings, there are many variations on the design. They range from about 6–8 inches, and depending on how they’re made they can fly further, or with more power. A typical chakram is silent, however some have holes bored into them. When thrown, the…
