Jamdhar Katari?

[DaveA]

Rick,

Regardless of intent behind their manufacture, these are fine pieces of craft, representative of the style, from a far-flung people in a rarely visited part of the world. I for one am very happy to have this item in my collection and to have opened my eyes to a culture I never knew before now.

[A.alnakkas]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Rick,

Regardless of intent behind their manufacture, these are fine pieces of craft, representative of the style, from a far-flung people in a rarely visited part of the world. I for one am very happy to have this item in my collection and to have opened my eyes to a culture I never knew before now.

My exact feeling. Its a nice item, I usually trade away items that are "dubious" but I like this one :P

[Rick]

There can be charm in village made stuff .

An example from a hundred years earlier .

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Rick,

Regardless of intent behind their manufacture, these are fine pieces of craft, representative of the style, from a far-flung people in a rarely visited part of the world. I for one am very happy to have this item in my collection and to have opened my eyes to a culture I never knew before now.

Well said. I am curious though, which culture are you referring to?

[DaveA]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Well said. I am curious though, which culture are you referring to?

The Kafirs.

After your post Jim will have to learn more about the Kalash! I would also like to better understand the relationship to the chilanum, which is cast as one piece.

Here is information I have gathered from a variety of sources about the this weapon and the Kafirs:

There is much debate about the origin of the name and in fact which name is “correct” (jamadhar, jandad, jamdhar, jumdud). The spelling jamdhar seems to indicate Hindi origin yet “Jamdar” may also be a Persian word with the suggested etymology of janb-dar, that is, 'flank render.'

The Kafirs are an ethnic group located in the southern part of the Hindu Kush valleys, just across the border from Chitral, Pakistan. Today, this is a region of Afghanistan known historically as Kafiristan and today as Nurestan (Nuristan, Nooristan).

The Kafirs are thought to be descendants of an old Indian population that used to occupy the region and did not convert to Islam with the rest of the population. They sometimes claim to be descended from Alexander the Great who passed through the area; he only subdued the Kafirs after a great struggle. Their physical appearance is quite distinct from the Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan.

Until they were forcefully converted to Islam around 1895 by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, the people of the region practiced an ancient Indo-Iranian polytheistic religion. Non-Muslim practices endure today as folk customs. The word "Kafir" is derived from the ancient Sanskrit name of the region that included historic Kafiristan. This may in turn relate to the Arabic word "Kufr", which means not only to disbelieve but also to blaspheme. Its derivative "Kafir" means one who commits blasphemy. Today, the people are known as Nuristanis to outsiders although they do not have a formal tribal structure such as the Pashtun's. Instead, they designate themselves by the names of the local regions where they live.

- Dave A.

[Jim McDougall]

I will say that I am greatly encouraged by Daves notes here, and that he has clearly used the search features here to obtain further detail on this weapon and the example he posted of his own. Most pleasing is that he has brought up the Kalash people of Chitral and as noted, wishes to learn more on this intriguing tribal people.

The reason I did not bring up the Kalash specifically in discussing Abdullatif's weapon, the subject of the thread, is because with the Afghan motif on the weapon it seemed more properly attributed to Nuristan, which as noted in my earlier post would suggest the regions of the Kafir designated denomination. Naturally the weapon form itself certainly would have diffused to the Chitral regions with the assimilation of the Kafirs back into thier ancestral Kalash tribes.
As I had mentioned in posts about two years ago, I had the pleasure of communicating with a tribal member of the Kalash situated here in the U.S. and active in preserving their tribal heritage. He would be most delighted to see this interest. I also had visited with a collector in Germany most interested in the Kalash, and who had gathered a good number of examples of these jamadhar katari's. Interestingly, many of these he had obtained in trips to Nepal. In E.Jaiwent Paul's "Arms and Armour: Traditional Wapons of India" (New Delhi, 1970, p.70) it is noted that these daggers are also attributed to regions in Nepal. We may presume that thier diffusion westward was via trade routes.

The association of these daggers to the chilanum is of course mostly of diffusional influence, and many forms of daggers and knives of India are produced in the manner of single piece forging, such as the bichwa along with the katar . The terminology, as indicated in the 1886 volume on Hobson Jobson on colloquial Anglo-Indian terms and phrases seems to support the Hindu origins of the 'jamadhar' term. As Pant explains (p.162-63) and as cited in the work of the British officer J. Shakespear, the term 'jam', yama=death; dhar =tooth, which are Hindi words. Inscriptions in Hindu using the phrase 'tooth of the god of death' in the term jamadhar support this, while there are of course Arabic and Persian words which are compellingly close in similarity. In Hindi, the term katar may be applied with 'to cut' or to 'knife' but there are 'to stab' or 'to pierce' suggestions.
Transliteration, semantics and colloquial expressions are the bane of the ethnographic weapons researcher, and many assumptions and misleading circumstances have led to what we know as 'collectors terms'. Trying to establish distinct identification and chronology of these weapons by term or etymology in contemporary narratives or colonial narratives can be a slippery slope at best. It is best to carefully qualify references and note accordingly in description.

[Ian]

Another one of these just sold on eBay. Unusual acid etched blade design. Possibly made by the same person as the one shown by DaveA earlier in thread.

Measures 12.25 inches (31 cm) out of sheath.

Ian

[BANDOOK]

Measures: 42.5 cm long (out of sheath).

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by BANDOOK

Measures: 42.5 cm long (out of sheath).