Chakram

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Sikhs with chakrams, inscribed "Nihang Abchal Nagar" (Nihangs from Hazur Sahib), 1844

The chakram (Devanāgarī: चक्रम) is a throwing weapon that was used by the ancient Indians; it is a flat metal ring with a sharp outer edge from 5 to 12 inches (13−30 cm) in diameter.

The word comes from Sanskrit and means round, circle, or wheel. Earliest references come from the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana (here the Sudarshana Chakra is the weapon of the god Vishnu). It was used by Indian armies, mostly by Sikhs (who have it on at least one flag.)

It has an effective range of 40 to 50 meters. Because of its aerodynamic shape (similar to an aeroplane wing) it is not easily deflected by wind.

Flying discs and Aerobies are somewhat similar, generally plastic devices for recreational purposes.

A much larger (and purely fictional) version of the chakram has been used in a lot of fantasy and martial arts media, including the television show, Xena: Warrior Princess. This version, most likely due to its size, is restricted mostly to being a melee weapon instead of a throwing one, with its fighting technique being similar to the acrobatic use of a hula hoop in circus acts.

[edit] Popular Culture

In Tales of Symphonia, Colette Brunel used several chakrams to attack enemies with several attacks involving throwing her chakrams.
In Xena: Warrior Princess Xena had a chakram that she would occasionally use to stop enemies or to retrieve something.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Axel of Organization XIII uses a pair of chakram.
Jango from One Piece uses chakrams as hypnotic disks and only later revealed that his disks were actually chakrams. He is so skilled with his chakrams that he could cut off several trees with ony one chakram.
In Threads of Fate the character Mint uses a pair of chakrams.
Sailor Moon uses her tiara as a chakram-like weapon in the popular anime series bearing the same name.
The character Tio in the video game Grandia II attacks using dual Chakrams.
In the video game Suikoden 4 one of the characters named Akaghi uses a chakram as a melee weapon, and in Suikoden 5 two characters named Sialeeds and Sharmitsa use a boomerang type of chakram as a weapon.
On the television show Ben 10 an enemy named Charmcaster appears in the episode Tough Luck, charmcaster takes a few ring chakrams out of her bag and throws them at the protagonist named Ben, and later on she transforms one of her chakrams into a huge chakram and uses it to almost run over ben's granfather.
It's also found in the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.