Description

A North Indian katar, possibly from Gujarat. It has a flat laminated blade with a thickened tip. A raised decorative panel is chiseled at the base, decorated with silver overlay. The hilt has a classic V-shaped base and narrow sidebars, with stylized leaves raised over a chiseled background. 

The unusual handlebar consists of a central flower connected to four acanthus leaves. This is a very rare stylistic feature that appears on a handful of northern katar that I am aware of, including one obtained by Egerton in 1855, which he described in his 1880 Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms, page 102. He erroneously attributed it to Nepal, but the workmanship is decisively North Indian, and there is no evidence the katar has ever been produced in Nepal. It is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, under accession number 2579(IS).

The earliest instance of the feature I have seen is on a silver inlaid Deccan katar I sold previously, which dates from the 17th century. The feature may have made it up north after the Deccan conquest of the Mughals in the later 17th century.

The hilt has remains of its original gold decoration.