South Indian Katar

The ‘katar‘ is a traditional punch dagger which dates from the early 1600’s and is found in India. They descend from the earlier ‘hooded katar‘ or more known as ‘Vijayanagara katar‘ which point to the Vijayanagara empire which dominated the South of India from the 14th til the near mid 17th century. It basically consists of a hilt with two bolsters and two langets to hold grip and to extend the arms, combined with a blade. The ‘katar‘ from Northern India are often decorated in gold overlay and have complicated fullers on the blades which can be of wootz or pattern welded steel. In contrary to these Northern pieces, the Southern ‘katar‘ have riveted blades, sometimes made of cut down European rapiers, or sometimes Indian made copy’s of European blades. The hilts are often plain steel and decorated with chiseling and pierced hilts. An often seen feature on Indian ‘katar’ is a thick reinforced tip which was ment to punch through mail armor.

This example:

A fine and genuine all-steel Southern ‘katar’ with typical riveted hilt and robust bolsters to provide grip. The arms bars are decorated with a medial ridge, surrounded by a fine cable pattern. The bolsters are chiseled with lotus-leafs and have two moveable iron beads, a feature often seen on early examples. The langets are shaped like a lotus petal and are riveted to the slender, heavy blade. The blade has a chiseled mid section showing four fullers on both sides. The diamond shaped tip shows a fierce reinforced center to be able to punch through armor, easily.