Katar dagger, Rajput (?) late 18th c (?)

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ian

Jim,

You raise some interesting questions. There is a similarity to the example in the Danish museum, so a 17th C piece seems possible. BTW, I note that the two narrow fullers run through the tip of the blade. Is it possible this was a longer blade on a sword that was broken or cut down to create this katar?

Regards, Ian

Thanks Ian! I was surprised at the similarity, and have always thought of this as optimistically 18th c. Rajput, as it seems to correspond with other such examples.
I think it was indeed a full length blade cut down from a full size arming blade of 17th c. but hard to tell. Many European blades were coming into western India through Maratha traders as described by Elgood (2004). These of course diffused notably especially into the Rajasthan regions north.

I attached the katar from Danish museum photo for comparison (from OBJET article), noted as c.1674.

Best regards,
Jim