Hi Taube, Robert,
The decoration at the base of your jamadhar are stylized lotus buds. They are important in Hindu symbolism, associated with creation and the gods Vishnu and Brahma IIRC.
The word Jamdhar can be interpreted as a distortion of "Yamadaushtra", derived from "Yama" (Lord of death) + "Daushtra" (tooth in Sanskrit). So "Death-Tooth". Forum member Bhushan pointed this out some time ago, and I believe there is also a reference to it in Egerton.
The combination of a death iconography with a creation one in interesting.
This would place the dagger within the Hindu sphere, maybe not the Mughal. It brings up a very interesting thought about the Mughal's adoption of these daggers. Very hard to date these daggers as they were produced and used all over India well into the late 19th century.
Emanuel
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