An interesting South Indian style katar with an imported European blade.
37.5 cm
24.8 cm
Base 6 mm
Middle 4 mm
5 cm from tip 3 mm
Base 24.5 cm
Middle 16 mm
5 cm from tip 9 mm
197 grams
Steel
South India
16th - 17th century
Runjeet Singh
Introduction
One of the most graceful of daggers of old, coined the chilanum by Lord Egerton in his landmark work, Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour of 1896. His proofreader already added a question mark to the term in the book, which seems to mean peeling or to peel in Hindi.1 The circa 1590 Ain-I-Akbari illustrates a similar-looking item and provides the term khapwah.2
Notes
1. Lord Egerton of Tatton: Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour. Dover Publications; Revised edition, 2002.
2. The Ain-i-Akbari (Persian: آئینِ اکبری) or "Administration of Akbar" is the last of the three-volume Akbarnama or "Book of Akbar". Written by court historian Abu'l Fazl (1551-1602), it describes the Mughal empire as it was around 1590. The original manuscript is housed in the Hazarduari Palace, India.
This example
The dagger has an all-steel construction, the pieces being forged and probably welded together. The slender blade has multiple deep grooves, and the work is still very crisp.
The hilt with a thickening in the center, from which both ends split. Two stylized elephants appear at the base.
In very good condition, these are rarely seen with this level of preservation.
Comparables in art
Detail from the painting "The House of Bijapur", circa 1680.
Metropolitan Museum accession number 1982.213.
The person depicted is meant to depict an early Bijapur ruler, so the choice of dagger may refer to an earlier period than the painting's supposed date. All later rulers to the right of the painting wear a katar, suggesting that was a more recent fashion.
A hint towards this earlier date can be found in the 1570 A.D. manuscript Nujum al-'ulum, or "Stars of the Sciences," also from Bijapur.1
This example has an added knuckle guard but, otherwise very similar hilt shape.
Page of the Nujum al-'ulum of 1570 A.D.
Notes
1. Nujum al-'ulum or "Stars of the Sciences", Bijapur, circa 1570. Chester Beatty Library, accession number: In 02
Extant examples
The Metropolitan Museum in New York has a nearly identical dagger, accession number 36.25.728. It came from S.G. Fenton, London, who sold it to George Cameron Stone in 1927. He bequethed it to the Metropolitan Museum in 1935.
Left: Metropolitan Museum accession number 36.25.728
Right: This chilanum
Differences in the pommel section are mainly because the Met's example appears to have been photographed up close with a wide angle lens, distoring the upper portion somewhat.
The basket hilt is elaborately overlaid with silver in floral designs.
Somewhat worn but once very high-quality, with great sculptural qualities and remains of silver "true…
Of a style often associated with Tanjore, the seat of the Vijayanagara empire.
The only set of its type known to me in both private and museum collections.