[Jens Nordlunde]

In my article How Old is the Katar? I took it back to Orissa in the 10th century, and it was well known, and fully developed a few centuries later - in Deccan and south India.
When reading Art and Culture 1300-1900 by S.C.Welch, on page 271 I found something interesting.
Welch discusses the katar and says that it 'probably originated in southern India', and then he coes on saying 'We have not found them on paintings from pre-Mughal Rajput, Sultanate, or western Indian sources. They seem to have been common, however, in the Deccan and at Rajput courts of the Mughal period'.
On page 258 he writes that in the Padshah-nama (completed in 1636) he has found, that the dagger most shown is the katar, followed by the curved khanjar and the straight bladed kard. So about 100 years after the Mughals haad come to India the katar was the most used dagger, but in the centuries before it had no/very little interest.

It is strange to think of, that a fully developed and much used dagger in the Deccan and south India did not 'move' to the north and west till the Mughals started to make war on the south, as even before the Mughals came to India, the north and the south had very close trade connections.

Here is a picture (detail) from Islamic Art of India, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia, 2002. P. 93. The miniature is from c. 1598 AD and it is clear to see that Babur has a katar at the belt.