Origins of Dha
 

Elgood, "Hindu arms and ritual", p.243
"Dab: (Rajastan). Local name for a variety of hafted weapons such as Bhuj or unusual axe forms"
I tried once to offer a Brahmin (Boston) pronounciation (Dahb) but no one was impressed :D :D
Still, don't you think that the SE Asian Dha (or Darb, as Mark insists) fits the description rather well?
What do we know about Rajastani/SE Asian contacts?

IMHO, they shared the same root, Chinese Dao. ;)

lol. I missed that reference in Elgood, Ariel. Are you running out of reading material yet? How's the foot? :)

I think the similarity in names is coincidental. I agree with PUFF that some forms of dha/daab descend from Chinese dao, and will add that a compelling argument can be made that some are closely related to Naga and Kachin weapons (sword dao) of far northeast India, Assam and Burma.

Language vs sword style
 

Ariel, I think we need to distinguish between the roots of language and the roots of a certain sword style. Language will migrate faster than artifacts and while there is always trade I don't think we can draw a correlation between sword styles based on a correlation to language roots. Not that it can't be done, I just think it is a slippery slope.

Dan

Sure it is slippery, but that's the fun of it!
Ever done sledding? :D
In a more serious vein, we may be too negative about the power of linguistics.

I see no problem that , when in different (but geographically bridgeable) societies, objects fulfilling the same function and having more than passing similarity are called by closely-sounding names, one may assume the existence of a connection between the cultures. Language is the functional DNA of humanity.

Dan! Fayetteville? Welcome home, my friend. :)

Let me know if you have any plans to travel to Florida while you're here.

Andrew sent you a PM.