Hi TVV,
Very nice!!
It is most certainly a rehafted example of what appears to be a war axe of the Khonds, one of the aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur (according to Egerton, 1880, pp.74-75, these tribes found on borders of Cuttack and Ganjora *). In his venerable book, Egerton illustrates one of these in group I , fig. #41.
In Stone, an example like yours is shown in fig.199 (#10) and included among examples of these Chota Nagpur war axes collectively known as 'bullova'.
According to author James Gamble ("Battle Axes", 1981, p.52-54), the battle variations of these Khond axes were only used until around the 1880's. The early examples after 1800 typically had metal shafts which were decorated in the same manner as the head. The early blades were rivetted to the tang, with later examples forged as a single piece. Egerton also notes these fierce tribes, known for particularly gruesome sacrifices known as 'meriah', also used thier axes for hunting wild animals, bear in particular. He notes that they used an axe with short haft and large blade, calling it a 'tungi', but it is unclear whether this would be in that category.
Your example seems to have good age to the blade, and clearly the haft is a replacement, but looks very nicely done. Very nice acquisition
* According to Brittanica, this tribe is situated in the Orissa and Ganjam district of Madras, per "Tribes and Castes of Central India" E.Thurston (1915)
All best regards,
Jim