- Title
- Push Dagger (Katar or Jamadhar) and Sheath
- Date Made
- circa 1850
- Medium
- Parcel-gilt steel, cotton tassels with metallic thread; velvet-covered wooden sheath
- Dimensions
- 15 1/2 x 3 in. (39.37 x 7.62 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.74.101a-b
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The ubiquitous katar (push or punch dagger) is a deadly stabbing instrument unique to India. This example consists of a stout triangular steel blade with thickened edges and tip. Along the median in a V-shaped fuller (recessed groves designed to lighten the blade), there is a complex composition of raised parcel gilt decoration in the form of a lobed cartouche at the blade’s base. It has a punch-marked ground with a gilded pendant flower head in the apex followed by a trefoil and spear head. Continuing along the axis towards the tip, the fuller shape is repeated with a gilded raised border enclosing a trefoil and elongated spear head. An effaced gilt inscription is on the base of the blade. The idiosyncratic hilt has long, parallel (sometimes slightly widening) steel sidebars and transverse crossbars adorned with a raised parcel-gilt lattice of floral cartouches with blossoms in the center on the sides and rows of leaves along the edges. Cotton and metallic thread tassels dangle from the acute angles in the hilt’s corners. The wooden sheath is covered with red, green, and gold velvet.
The katar was originally a Rajput weapon that was adopted by the Mughals by the mid-16th century. These distinctive thrusting weapons are also known as a jamadhar (tooth of death) or phulkatar (flower [decorated] dagger). More elaborate variations include double or scissoring blades, smaller blades hidden inside the larger blade, and even gun barrels extending from the handles.