Hi Archer,
Congratulations on your find. It is a very interesting type of katar.
There are variations of this type of katars. You can find them now and again but not very often.
I have only handled a few but they all seem to be rather on the heavy side, short, with the side guards widening towards the top.
The interesting thing is, that on the side guards the same flower seem to be shown and the side guards all seem to be pierced, so it is likely they all come from the same area. If I were you I would play it safe, and write Deccan/south India.
The pieces I have seen are silver plated before the chiselling was finished, but I suppose they could also have been gold plated, although it would be the first one I have seen or heard of which was.
As to the age; I always find it difficult to judge a weapon from photos, as I don’t know if the photos have been manipulated with, but the ones I have seen all seemed to be from the 17th century.
Jens
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