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Originally Posted by ariel
Personally, I would choose a good high-caliber rifle, just like big game hunters. They were available in 17-18 century India,
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I acted differently. I analyzed all the available literature and memories of hunting a tiger before I wrote something. A rifle or spear does not save from a sudden attack, the tiger does not attack in another way. Are you confusing a tiger hunt with a hunt for ... what did you hunt?
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Third, African lion hunters manage quite well without katars: they use rather flimsily-looking spears and do just fine .
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For the West it is no matter where cultural or historical events of the East take place: in Africa or India or Zombieland. I know.
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Both knife and katar sacrifice safe distance for the dubious glory of a heroic kill with high likelihood of being maimed beyond recognition.
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I said about this already. For someone it is heroism, for another it is stupidity. For someone it is the history, for another it is politics. For someone it is culture, for another it is barbarism. For someone it is research, for another it is just to talk.
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As an aside, Elgood's book on Hindu weapons shows statues with katars piercing some non-tiger looking animals: do I see hooves on some of them? If I am correct, would we call katar " buffalo dagger" or "horse dagger"?
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"Would we call..."
Indians called.
We called just "zirak boukh", "mel puttah bemoh", "tooth of death god" and other rubbish. Enough already.
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I fully understand your excitement: it would have been very nice to pinpoint the original intended purpose of such an unusual weapon. I just find this hypothesis implausible. Sorry
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This is normal. Thank you. Just no other hypotheses.
But wait ... Katars were able to penetrate through the chain mail! And they were so good for it that such daggers were independently invented in all countries where there were chain mails! Or not? It is so hard to live in a country in the middle between The West and The East.
