EXTREMELY interesting and informative posting.
I have to admit to being initially confused with the spelling of "kama" as opposed to "qama", with the former also being a Chinese weapon similar to a lohar, usually used in pairs, unless I'm mistaken.
TVV, your observation about the central ridge vs fullers and the unique guard on the one kama were both well made.....I've seen the steel guard that's folded back into the blade itself before, I believe on some late Roman era pieces dating to about 400 AD.
This is one of those threads that I'll be following closely and hoping to see more unfold, as regions like this that have been closed off or inaccessable to most of us for most of our lifetime have been all but forgotten and are just now coming into the light.
As to the "dot within a circle" motif, that has to be the single most discussed blade/hilt decoration ever by now.... I just did a quick walk-through of my own pieces and found it on the blades of my Pakistani fighting axes, the bronzework on my chora and khyber knife, on the blade of my Persian axe/American Indian tomohawk, on the bone hilt and brass haft of my lohar and on the bone hilt of my knife from Crete (somehow, calling it a Cretan knife just feels wrong, even if it is spelled different than cretin
) and I clearly remember it on several pieces from elsewhere in India in the past.
I suspect it's just because it's one of the easiest designs to punch or burn, needing only a steel or metal tube and a punch or nail, as opposed to other designs that require more complex tools to incorporate.
Mike