Hello Simon, about the khuda/khunda/kora debate, I recall Beoram (Nepali linguist, on IKRHS) posting a number of guides to Nepali words.
Among them was
"from Old Indo-Aryan (~Sanskrit) kshura 'razor' (cognate with Greek kshuron 'razor') >
*khura > "
This word may be the root of khukuri, but maybe it's also the root for what we call a "kora" in the West. Furthermore, it seems to me that in Nepali the sound "d" and "r" are, to a certain extent interchangeable (open to correction), as in "kothimora / kothimoda" or "kaudo / kauro". Maybe khuDa is not so farfetched for khuRa > kora?
More thoughts...
Emanuel
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