Katar dagger, Rajput (?) late 18th c (?)

Turkoman.khan · 18th October 2025, 06:49 PM

Thank you, Jim, for publishing this wonderful piece. Katars are such a fascinating topic! Your example is quite classic, with deep chiseling and probably a European blade.
I immediately found a number of very similar examples and selected three pieces from different world museums to show the variations — giving you a range of dates and origins from the 17th to 19th centuries. 😄

https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce

https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce

https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce

And yes, Arthur Bijl is doing a great job keeping everything clear and focused on verified facts. There was also a wonderful recent article on South Indian so-called “Hooded Katars” from private collections — it honestly felt like browsing through a beautifully illustrated album from the old days. What did you think of it? https://objet.art/as/articles/68de54ba95a5c4789ff22de5

Jim McDougall · 18th October 2025, 07:28 PM

Thank you Turkoman! especially for providing these links to these examples.
It is extremely hard to date examples of Indian arms as the elemental conventions remained essentially the same overall structurally for centuries, and only certain nuances can determine the period of a weapon in degree.

It is always safe to estimate 19th century in the assessment of most examples as a prudent measure, while some writers have have been somewhat boldly optimistic in their captioning. As can be seen, with my example there are striking similarities with it compared to the two examples with 19th c. date and the one from the Danish collection, all virtually the same rather austere straight form.
The blades on these all appear of course of foreign origin, and as previously noted, the numerous times these blades have been used in various hilts is uncertain.

For many years of course, the standard reference was the 1885 work by Egerton, which derived mostly from cataloging the collections in British museum holdings from some decades prior to publishing his work. With this of course, most supposed provenance and classifications were second hand at best from items collected in the British Raj in India. Even with this being the case, most of his entries are surprisingly accurate, with minor qualifications.

I am very much enjoying the numerous articles being presented at OBJET, and Arthur Bijl is doing a great job at approaching these Indian arms topics.
We have had wonderful discussions here on Indian arms over the past decades, and OBJET as new venue publishing articles on these esoteric fields presents new resources to augment our studies and discussions here.

I hope that we can further our discussions here, as this new resource presents material and examples from international sources that can help us better understand and evaluate these often very esoteric arms. I know I am learning a great deal on weapons I've owned for decades, and now I see them in entirely new light!

18th October 2025, 06:49 PM	#1
Turkoman.khan Member Join Date: Apr 2023 Posts: 132	Thank you, Jim, for publishing this wonderful piece. Katars are such a fascinating topic! Your example is quite classic, with deep chiseling and probably a European blade. I immediately found a number of very similar examples and selected three pieces from different world museums to show the variations — giving you a range of dates and origins from the 17th to 19th centuries. 😄 https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce https://objet.art/as/subscriptions/6...cb69001f99b0ce And yes, Arthur Bijl is doing a great job keeping everything clear and focused on verified facts. There was also a wonderful recent article on South Indian so-called “Hooded Katars” from private collections — it honestly felt like browsing through a beautifully illustrated album from the old days. What did you think of it? https://objet.art/as/articles/68de54ba95a5c4789ff22de5

18th October 2025, 07:28 PM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,730	Thank you Turkoman! especially for providing these links to these examples. It is extremely hard to date examples of Indian arms as the elemental conventions remained essentially the same overall structurally for centuries, and only certain nuances can determine the period of a weapon in degree. It is always safe to estimate 19th century in the assessment of most examples as a prudent measure, while some writers have have been somewhat boldly optimistic in their captioning. As can be seen, with my example there are striking similarities with it compared to the two examples with 19th c. date and the one from the Danish collection, all virtually the same rather austere straight form. The blades on these all appear of course of foreign origin, and as previously noted, the numerous times these blades have been used in various hilts is uncertain. For many years of course, the standard reference was the 1885 work by Egerton, which derived mostly from cataloging the collections in British museum holdings from some decades prior to publishing his work. With this of course, most supposed provenance and classifications were second hand at best from items collected in the British Raj in India. Even with this being the case, most of his entries are surprisingly accurate, with minor qualifications. I am very much enjoying the numerous articles being presented at OBJET, and Arthur Bijl is doing a great job at approaching these Indian arms topics. We have had wonderful discussions here on Indian arms over the past decades, and OBJET as new venue publishing articles on these esoteric fields presents new resources to augment our studies and discussions here. I hope that we can further our discussions here, as this new resource presents material and examples from international sources that can help us better understand and evaluate these often very esoteric arms. I know I am learning a great deal on weapons I've owned for decades, and now I see them in entirely new light!