Rand,
Sorry, I meant an email and not a PM, glad you found it interesting.
Have a look at the picture attached, it is from: Holstein, P.: Contribution a L’etude des Armes Orientales vol. I-II. Les Éditions Albert Lévy, Paris 1931.
In vol. I, plate XIII he shows this dagger. It is drawn after a figure from the Gauri temple in Bhuwanesvara/Bhubanshwar in Orissa. The temples, in the area, were build from the 5th to the 13th century. I think the hilt looks very much like the hilt on the sculpture I show above, and both have heavy to very heavy blades, although the one from Holstein is quite a bit shorter.
Then have a look at Elgood’s Hindu Arms and Ritual, page 149 fig. 15.9, here he shows a gauntlet katar from the 16th century, but the blade is short and very solid, like the one I show above, but the hilt Elgood shows is fitted into the blade like they did in south India. And the blade is also decorated. If they in the 16t century had katars refined like the ones Elgood shows in his book, it suggests to me, that the katar as a type is far older than the 16th century.
The interesting questions are, how old is the katar as a type, and why did they in the 16th century make such solid katars, when we see from other of Elgood’s pictures that they also know the very elegant types with many fullers on the blade?
Jens
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