The Katar
I love katars. They are tactile and beautiful objects and, taking up much less room than any sword, they are mercifully easy to display if you collect them. Unique to South Asia, this weapon has fulfilled a variety of roles for the societies it has served being a hunting weapon, an indicator of social status, a fashion accessory, a religious accoutrement and, of course, a part of the panoply of war. They also excel as objects of art and it’s no surprise to learn that they were used as gifts at least as far back as the first quarter of the 1500s, being mentioned as such as in the Baburnama: the memoirs of Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire. In this introductory article, I hope to outline for those new to the weapon some of its historical uses.
The hilts of katars all generally follow the same rules of construction: a transverse bar to secure the blade, one or two transverse handles to for the wielder to grasp and twin side-bars to contain these elements. The blades, however, are not so regimented in form and, just as with that other icon of Indian weaponry, the tulwar, their wide variety mirrors the colourful cultures they are associated with. The collector will regularly find katars with curved blades, straight blades, short, long, slim, wide—even with serrated aradam and arapusta-style blades. Rarer examples have multiple blades or hidden blades that spring out when the handle is squeezed and some even incorporate firearms, usually in pairs, sprouting from the side-bars with triggers dangling behind the blade. The world of katars is a wonderful and interesting place indeed.
As you’d expect from a land of myriad languages and dialects, the katar is known by a host of other names too: the jamadar (death tooth), the kattari, the katara, the Bundi dagger (Bundi being a centre of manufacture closely associated with the katar) and many others besides. Other terms are listed in Lord Egerton of Tatton’s important 1896 work, Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour and these include the following:
Garsoe jamadar—a katar with side bars that cinch in where they meet the handles.
Bara jamdadu—a hooded katar with a long blade that is not quite sword-length.
Pattani jamdadu—a katar with a long, straight blade.
Katar bank—a katar with a curved, grooved blade, the grooves filled with seed pearls.
Bundi katari—a katar with a narrow grooved blade.
It’s worth noting that not all of these terms are used today. Whatever the nomenclature and whatever the form, katars were so important to Indian society that they featured commonly in period artworks, usually sheathed and then tucked into men’s waist sashes, and often worn in circumstances that seemed to prohibit (or, at least, rendered unnecessary) the presence of swords. This, I think, ably shows that they were widely regarded as a socially accepted weapon of easy portability. Certainly, the ateliers were able to bring their comprehensive skills to bear and hilts covered in precious metals and precious stones were married to finely smithed blades made from much desired wootz steel. In the British Museum collection presented below, Portraits of Indian Princes, we can see again how these weapons were carried and valued by even the most high status of men. On the left we have Shivaji (1627–1680), the founder of the Maratha Empire, captured in a beautifully detailed portrait and shown well-armed with a basket-hilted sword, a pata and a katar. Next to him is a prince possibly called Shah Shujah whose katar and tulwar perfectly match in their costly decorations. Thirdly, Shah Mirza of Golconda is observable wearing a simple outfit and a golden katar. Lastly, Shah Jahan (1592–1666), builder of the Taj Mahal and the fifth Mughal emperor, has been painted in sumptuous regalia which includes a matching katar and basket-hilted sword.
Of course, it wasn’t just the nobles and the members of royalty that carried katars in their daily lives. The basic all-steel katar of varying quality is widely available in the world of antiques today in far larger numbers than the gold-laden examples and this is surely evidence of its popularity amongst the lower and middle classes of Indian society. Going even further than this, again in Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour, Lord Egerton illustrates how significant the relationship between the katar and at least one section of Gujarat society was in the 1800s:
With such significant social importance placed upon the katar it’s easy to see why many people would have owned their own katar and why wealthy citizens commissioned expensive examples for themselves and their family members (diminutive versions were even bought for higher status children).
When it comes to martial matters, the main purpose of the katar was to pierce an enemy’s mail armour. As a useful form of protection, mail had lasted far longer in India than it had in the West, especially in the wilder or more rugged areas of the Subcontinent where technological advances in firearms had penetrated less deeply. Katars, with their straight blades with reinforced tips, were designed to break apart mail rings and then pass easily into the mortal body beyond. This grisly process was facilitated by the katar’s transverse handle, the grasping of which meant the blade—the tongue of death as one katar’s Sanskrit inscription puts it—extended forwards from the user’s knuckles and was able to transmit most of the energy of a punch into the unfortunate target. The side-bars usually extend up to or past the wrist and while they offer some small protection for the hand in my opinion it is only a trifling amount. What they do offer, though, is reinforced stability during use, reducing the risk of the katar twisting awkwardly under impact. This is also true when the blade is used in a cutting role—the stress of impact being transferred along the side-bars to the wrist and reducing the risk of the blade breaking away from the hilt. One only has to grasp an example with suitable dimensions to realise how secure they would feel when held in anger.
Picture Credit: Simon Ray
Indeed, katars were used by Rajput princes (and others) to hunt dangerous big game animals such as tigers and crocodiles—a rather bold rite of passage and a clear demonstration of bravery and skill—so those warriors must have been confident in the dagger’s status as a weapon and its ability to puncture thick hides and sinewy muscles in the close, intimate confines of desperate combat. In fact, hunting was such a widespread use of the katar that many can still be found today with carved or inlaid hunting scenes on their blades.
The painting pictured to the left is called Maharana Ari Singh Hunting Wild Boar by Shiva and is dated to 1764. It provides us with two depictions of the katar at hunt. The subject of the painting, Maharana Ari Singh, rides into the scene with an arrow nocked, coming to the rescue of a fellow hunter being gored by a wild boar. A jewel-encrusted katar can be seen at the Maharana’s waist—an extremely expensive item no doubt made to be not just decorative but also practical as a weapon should the need arise. The hunter on foot, though fallen and in disarray, still grasps his dhal and katar, the latter being of plain all-steel construction.
The South
Katars from the South often have hilts with elaborate perforations, motifs and carvings mirroring styles and features found in the religious architecture of the region. The blades are usually slimmer than their northern counterparts, with less of an overall taper and it is not uncommon to find southern katars with high quality European blades attached, a trend noted in at least one account as far back as the 1600s as being partly due to the properties of the local steel as much as the prestige imparted by what must have been considered an exotic component. The blades of these southern katars sometimes nestle within their chumtas (the reinforcing ‘langets’ either side of the blade’s base) in what appears to be an almost careless fashion considering their significant quality of decoration, occasionally being notably off-centre; even in expensive examples.
Earlier katars from the southern region called Vijayanagara are distinctive as they tend to have long, triangular blades with many fullers and hilts with hoods that acted as hand protection. These were probably the first katars to find a degree of circulation but I would not be surprised if they themselves evolved from some sort of proto-katar. Regardless, they are said to have mainly been in use from the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s before their popularity waned and they inspired the gauntlet sword called the pata. (A note to unwary collectors: hooded katars are still made to this day and not always advertised with honesty.)
The North
As one would expect, katars from the north of India have strong Mughal influences and are usually constructed with wide triangular blades that taper steeply to the thickened points. The hilts can be richly decorated with gold, silver and jewels and acted amply as vehicles for the accomplished Islamic ateliers’ skills. The aged blade of the katar to the left has been eroded by centuries of polishing and sharpening but more recent examples tend to retain the crisply wrought fullers and edge geometry of their manufacture. Those with wootz blades sometimes have their edges highly polished and their fullers and sunken panels etched to provide an aesthetic contrast for the eye to appreciate.
Of course, the examples of the northern and southern katars shown here are to be taken as guides only. The blending of styles, the influences of fashions and the movements of weapons via trade and war mean that it is commonly impossible to pinpoint any Indian weapon’s specific region or date of origin and some of what is described online or in some books is based upon contentious foundations.
As a subject, Indian weapons are controversial and people often have strong opinions on all aspects of them. I am merely a starry-eyed enthusiast so if you would like to add to this article in any way then please send me a message via my contact page outlining your research; I will be happy to hear from you.
Finally, as one would expect, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a superb collection of katars and offers the collector photography to match. I encourage you to browse their archives if you wish to really discover the true magnificence of this unique form of weaponry and I include a small selection from their collection below in order to whet your appetite.
Thanks to Salim Al Askari Khan and Simon Ray for their help with this article.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
How Old is the Katar by Jens Nordlunde
Treasures from India by Mildred Archer, Christopher Rowell and Robert Skelton
The Art of Attack and the Development of Weapons by H. S. Cowper
The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule by the Victoria and Albert Museum
A History of Weapons by John O’Brian
Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour by Lord Egerton of Tatton
Le Armi del Museo Stibbert: a guide to the European and Oriental Collections
Maharana Ari Singh Hunting Wild Boar by Shiva
Decorous and Deadly: Weapons of the Royal Hunt in India by Rachel Parikh
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/vijayanagara-hooded-katar
http://www.sikhmuseum.com/nishan/weapons/katar.html
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24306
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nat507/8104033355
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Shivaji_British_Museum.jpg
https://issuu.com/chromadesign/docs/simon_ray_2013_web
https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results#!/search?q=katar
https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/browse/-/1/SORT_TITLE/DC:indiancollection/
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24990
https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=265601&partId=1
https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?partid=1&assetid=1043286001&objectid=265608
https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=1043338001&objectId=265595&partId=1
https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=01130156001
https://www.bradfordmuseums.org/blog/splendours-of-the-sub-continent-katar/
https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/page/1
https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/28/collection/11393/punch-dagger
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