Subject: ahadi heavy cavalryman
Culture: Mughal-Rajput
Setting: Great Mughal empire, Hindustan/Deccan late 16th-early 18thc
Object: daggers
Khanjar
* Richardson/Bennett 2015 p30
"The khanjar is the commonest type of dagger, found in a variety of forms across the Muslim world. It has a double-edged curved blade, and in India often has a reinforced point to give strength to enable the blade to be used against mail armour. Rock crystal, nephrite (jade) and other hardstones usually form the hilts of these daggers, and they are often carved in the form of animal's heads, and set with precious and semi-precious stones in gold. Dagger such as this are often seen in portraits of Mughal nobles."
* Arts of the Muslim knight 2008 p142
"In the Mughal period dagger blades, although of excellent quality, took second place to the lapidary and goldsmith's crafts. This development represents the ultimate refinement of a Persian taste for ceremonial display, whose roots can be traced back to the Sasanian period. One of the most popular forms was a hilt with a rounded curled pommel which may have originated in the Deccan in imitation of Safavid pistol-grips. Dagger hilts of this type appear in miniature painting from the mid-seventeenth century, and shortly thereafter they seem to have become the most popular Mughal type."
* Welch 1985 p303 (discussing a Deccan dagger, early 17th century)
"'Khanjar' is an Arabic word used in the Islamic countries for different weapons. In Persia and India the name is applied to a dagger with a double-edged, slightly recurved blade and, usually, a pistol-grip hilt made from metal, ivory, or jade or some other hardstone. Jade hilts may be plain, carved, or set with jewels; fewer khanjars were made with ivory hilts, and they generally have a simple shape. Khanjars were commonly used in India from about 1600. Daggers with hilts of gold, silver, jade or ivory were worn at court or in ceremonies, not carried on the battlefield."
* Welch 1985 p271 (discussing a Mughal dagger ca. 1640)
"A thorough search through the miniatures of the Windsor Padshah-nama, the best source for weaponry at Shah Jahan's court, reveals no examples of this form of hilt, which first appears in the portraits of Aurangzeb. The origin of the form can be traced to the Deccan, where it must have been admired by Aurangzeb and adapted for his use during his years there as viceroy. In the early stages of their evolution, which probably began in the southern Deccan, pistol grips terminated not in the familiar rounded abstract shape but in parrot heads, complete with beaks and eyes. Deccani examples of the seventeenth century ... already incorporated this change. After Aurangzeb had established a vogue for them, pistol-grip hilts became common at the Mughal court during the late seventeenth and the eighteenth century; some of them archaistically repeat the original parrot design."
* Precious Indian weapons 2017 p187
"The influences of ... nomadic peoples on the subsequent art and culture of neighbouring civilizations are manifest in various forms, but strangely enough the trend of hilts terminating with animal heads seems to have died out towards the end of the first millennium BCE. During the Mughal period, however, a remodelled and naturalistic version of the type seems to have emerged in the form of hilts terminating in horse heads, as well as ram heads, goat heads and the heads of large felines such as lions, tigers, leopards and cheetahs. It seems likely that these designs were inspired by earlier models, and that the revival of the trend arose from the Mughals' interest in the art and customs of their Central Asian ancestors."
* Precious Indian weapons 2017 p147
"For undetermined reasons, during the first half of the sixteenth century 'bird-head' pommel hilts appear quite frequently and almost simultaneously in Europe and India, but probably only the Indian examples were intended to represent parrots, as in a manuscript of the Bhagavata Purana attributed to the first half of the sixteenth century. From the second half of the sixteenth century onwards, parrot-head pommels are frequently depicted in the manuscript of the Hamza-nameh and most notably in the Nuju al-'Ulum (Stars of Sciences) manuscript produced for the Sultan of Bijapur, dated 14 Rabi' al-Awwal 978 H (August 1570 CE).
"Given the prominence of the parrot or toti in Indian lore, and considering the number of jewelled ornaments in the form of parrots also dating from the sixteenth century, it is conceivable that the emperor Akbar, who took a keen interests in matters related to Indian culture, might have endorsed the style. Unfortunately, considering the frequent contacts between the West and the Indian subcontinent during this period, it is difficult to determine whether the appearance of parrot-head hilts in India should be attributed to a native resurgence of the trend or to Western stylistic influences."
* Fryer 1969 86
"Khanjar An Indo-Persian dagger, with slightly recurved blade often of finely Damascus steel. The hilt, generally of 'pistol grip' shape, was usually of jade, carved or inset with gems."
* Paul 1995 p68-69
"...[K]hanjars .. have a curved blade of watered steel and a hilt reminiscent of a pistol butt. Though khanjars probably originated in Turkey, they became extremely popular in India, where they are apt to be more elaborately decorated than any other type of dagger. The hilts are made of ivory, jade, crystal, agate and are frequently set with precious and semi-precious stones. The sheaths are also studded to match the hilts."
* North 1985 p37-38
"Many of the Mogul jade hilts for daggers are carved so that the pommel projects at an angle from the grip imitating the angular mounts found on sword hilts. Jade hilts were carved in a variety of designs; horse's heads, flowers and occasionally human figures. The jade hilts of Mogul India were frequently set with gems or inlaid with gold or silver. One form of jade hilt which is variously attributed to both Turkish and Indian workshops has a distinctive 'waisted' profile carved with a series of shallow flutes, the central section of the grip carved as a narrow raised band."
* Metropolitan Museum of Art 1987 p150
"The curled pommel is of a form that appears on sword and dagger hilts during the seventeenth century. It has been variously suggested that this is a refinement of the crooked pommel designed to prevent the hand from losing its grip, or that it was a decorative feature indigenous to the Deccan, and introduced from there into northern India by Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707) while he was still a prince."
Katar
* Precious Indian weapons 2017 p25-26
"Under the reign and patronage of Emperor Akbar (r. 963-1014 H/1556-1605 CE) various indigenous styles, including attire and accoutrements, were subjected to considerable transformation. In this connection one sees a gradual introduction of the katar in paintings from the early period of his reign. There are fewer than ten representations of katar daggers in the Cleveland Museum of Art copy of the Tuti-nameh manuscript, which was commissioned by Emperor Akbar early in his reign, c. 1560-65; all of the katars occur towards the end of the manuscript suggesting that their popularity increased while the manuscript was in production. Depictions of katars are slightly more frequent in the Chester Beatty Library copy of the Tuti-nameh manuscript from c. 1580. In later miniatures, when the emperor is represented as an adult, he generally wears a katar tucked into his sash. By contrast, when the emperor is portrayed as a young prince, as in a miniature from an album in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, attributed to c. 1555-60 (that is, earlier than the production of the Cleveland Tuti-nameh), he is shown hunting with a bow and arrow and with a sword suspended from his belt.
"By 1562-77, when the manuscript of the Hamza-nameh was being produced in Emperor Akbar's court ateliers, the katar appears to have been fully adopted as a favoured weapon, judging from the number of katars depicted in the manuscript, as is also the case in most other paintings dating from Emperor Akbar's reign. The katar continued to be depicted frequently in visual art throughout the reigns of emperors Jahangir, Shah Jahan and 'Alamgir.
"... Whereas the terms katar, jamdhar and variants thereof were mentioned in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century gift-presentation lists and dictionaries, no contemporaneous descriptions of their physical structure exist, as was also the case when these terms were used in the other manuscript sources discussed previously. Similarly, the unlabelled representation of a katar in the Kitab Nujum al-'Ulum fails to shed light on the origins of its nomenclature.
"Furthermore, looking through the inventory of Indian arms compiled by Wilbraham Egerton in the second half of the nineteenth century, one is under the impression that no strict rules governed the nomenclature of daggers. In addition, one would have hoped that in their survey of Indian weapons, Egerton and his contemporaries might have relied on current local appellations that would have reflected the regional popularity of specific weapons. Alas, this does not appear to have been the case, and punch-daggers, as well as other types of dagger, are invariably referred to as katar and jamdhar in regions as far apart as Sindh, Lucknow and Tanjore.
"What is more, Egerton reproduces a copy from an 'original drawing' of the 'Ain-i Akbari manuscript published in 1821 by L. M. Langlès, in which a dagger with a hilt of the disc-and-dome pommel type is labelled katarah, whereas three punch-daggers on the same plate are labelled jamdhars. On further plates, punch-daggers from the armoury of Tanjore are designated as katars, and in a plate grouping weapons from Nepal, a dagger of the 'eared' pommel type is labelled katar bank, and two chilanum daggers, both from Nepal, are labelled jamadhar katari. Egerton also illustrates two punch-daggers, reportedly from Vijayanagara, one of which he labels pattani jamdadu, and the other, which is fitted with a hand guard, bara jamdadu, which the Indian arms and armour scholar G. N. Pant states is a Maratha form of jamadhar.
"Katars also appear to have gone through some form of structural change in a few paintings attributed to the period of Emperor Akbar's reign they are depicted with an additional vertical bar protecting the back of the hand, but in all likelihood this did not warrant a complete change of name.
"Further, complicating the issue of nomenclature, Pant writes that:
it has now been proved beyond doubt that the correct name for this type of dagger is jamadhar and not katar. The etymology of the word jamadhar, as given by J. Shakespear, is jam (from the Sanskrit yama i.e., death or God of Death) and dhar (from dhaar or sharp edge of dadh i.e., tooth). On the blade of one of the jamadhars the name of the weapon together with its explanation is explicitly given. The inscription in Sanskrit reads 'this Kadarkika jamadhar in the hands of Bundirajam, Lord of Bundi, is capable of piercing the temples of elephants and hence is called jamadhar i.e., the tooth of the God of Death.'
Thus the confusion resulting from indeterminate references in early accounts, and the disagreements over terminology from later accounts, leaves us no choice but to rely on visual depictions of the katar in miniatures and architectural reliefs. Although there is evidence to show that katars were in use by the end of the fifteenth century, one can conclude that the use of the punch-dagger was probably not widespread prior to the sixteenth century. As regards appellation, since in present-day India almost everyone seems to refer to punch-daggers as katars, ultimately this issue of nomenclature can be laid to rest."
* Arts of the Muslim knight 2008 p143
"Punch daggers (katar) are an Indian form adopted by the Mughals as shown by an Indian sculpture of the late sixteenth century depicting a mounted Muslim mercenary wearing a katar tucked into his belt. They have short wide blades, sometimes reinforced at the tip, fitted with a transverse grip between the long bars to protect the sides of the hands. The word katar means piercing dagger and, although their ability to effectively punch through chain mail has been debated, they certainly evolved as a close combat weapon and would have been used only on foot, possibly as a last resort, when a sword or mace had been lost. The weapon existed in a fully developed form in the sixteenth century and, as many later examples depict scenes of hunting, it is possible this was their original function, as weapons to finish off a wounded animal."
* Sprague 2009 p180
"The jamdhar dagger of the seventeenth century, particularly designed for piercing chain mail [CONTRA Arts of the Muslim knight 2008 p143 above], was held by a cross grip so that the blade extended straight from the fist. This design allowed the wielder to thrust with the weapon as though he were throwing a closed fist punch, with the full weight of his body behind the blow. The direct alignment of the blade with the forearm made the strike ergonomically correct. A trained soldier could wield such a knife with significant force."
* Fryer 1969 p86
"Katar An Indian dagger designed for thrusting. It consists of tapered blade (the tip often reinforced for piercing chain mail) with a hilt formed of two parallel bars connected by two or more crossbars. Occasionally a knuckle guard is fitted. Blades are found with 'scissors' action, serrated edges or are even forked."
* Richardson/Bennett 2015 p29
"The katar, with its transverse grips, was unique to India, and was to be found across most of the sub-continent. It was fitted with a variety of blades, ranging from narrow wavy blades preferred in the south to short, straight and broad blades in the north, multiple blades, as well as novelties such as the 'scissors' katar, in which squeezing the grips together causes an outer set of blades to open like scissors, and even multiple daggers in which one or even two little katar were housed inside the outer dagger."
Chilanum
* Arts of the Muslim knight 2008 p143
"Less familiar are the indigenous Indian chilanum-hilted daggers. Chilanum hilts first appear in miniature painting from the second half of the sixteenth century. Mughal-period hilts are worked in jade or inlaid with gemstones .... In the course of the Mughal period these evolve into ever more Islamic forms."
* Paul 1995 p70
"The chilanum has a double-edged, recurved blade, generally with two or more grooves. The hilt is beautifully designed with a wide forked pommel topped by a button and the quillons are of similar shape. Occasionally it has a knuckle guard. It is not clear whether the origins are Maratha or Nepalese."
* Precious Indian weapons 2017 p87
"The association with Gujarat seems deep-rooted, as daggers of the chilanum type without a knuckle guard, ... are illustrated by the Gujarati painter Sur Das in the c. 1603-05 manuscript of the Akbar-nameh, in which all the members of a Gujarati delegation visiting the emperor Akbar are depicted wearing such daggers tucked in their sashes. Furthermore it has been said that: 'Sur Das was assigned the entire narration of the emperor Akbar's Gujarati campaign and is responsible for a particularly striking illustration of western natives presenting themselves to Akbar in local dress.' In addition, interconnections from adjacent areas can be seen in a folio of Nizami's Khamsah copied in Lahore in 1597-98, where Gujaratis are depicted wearing the same type of dagger, and in a c. 1580 portrait of Tansen, the great musician at Akbar's court, who was reportedly from Gwalior. It is clear from these examples that most representations of the type are depicted in paintings from the north-central parts of India, mainly Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Maharashtra and the Delhi-Agra area, and as the 'antennae' swords from the second millennium BCE were found in Uttar Pradesh, it is therefore quite likely that the type was most widely used in that area.
"After the middle of the sixteenth century this type of hilt, with either linear or curling bars, with or without a central moulding, becomes increasingly fashionable and a large number suddenly appear in manuscripts from the early period of Emperor Akbar's reign. It is curious, however, that the emperor, who was known to have played a significant role in setting new styles of dress at court, is more frequently depicted with katar daggers tucked in his sash. Nevertheless, a number of chilanum daggers are featured in manuscripts of the Tuti-nameh from c. 1560-65 (Cleveland Museum) and from c. 1580 (Chester Beatty Library.)."
* Coe/Connolly/Harding, Harris/Larocca/Richardson/North/Spring/Wilkinson p196 (Frederick Wilkinson, "India and Southeast Asia" p186-203)
"Another dagger, the chilanum, was fitted with a similarly shaped blade which, like that of the bichwa, was occasionally split into two prongs, but it had a metal hilt with a very narrow waisted grip which flared at top and bottom."
* Stone 1934 p177
"CHILANUM. An Indian dagger with a doubly curved, double-edged blade. The pommel and guard are of nearly the same shape and size and are usually forged in one piece with the blade. The shape of the blade is derived from that of the old horn knives. They are used by the Mahrattas, but a very similar knife was used in Nepal."
* Fryer 1969 p85
"Chilanum An Indian all-steel dagger, with double-curved horn-shaped blade. The hilt is usually forged from the same piece of metal as the blade."
* Withers/Capwell 2010 p88
"The finest Mughal chilanums had hilts of pure gold embellished with inlaid precious stones. The chilanum was supposedly introduced to the Mughals by the Rajputs, by way of Emperor Akbar's marriages to Rajput princesses, which brought with them military alliances and a complex intermingling of the Islamic and Hindu cultures. Chilanum blades were invariably of the finest watered steel, and the arms of the guard were worked into plant or animal forms."
Pesh Kabz
* Richardson/Bennett 2015 p30
"Found only in the north was the pushqabz, a dagger with a single-edged blade, either straight or double-curved, with a T-shaped back and a long taper to the point, which was sometimes reinforced. It is closely related to the larger and usually straight-bladed Afghan 'Khyber knife' or chura. A smaller version, called the kard, had a single-edged, flat-backed straight blade. Both had deep scabbards which conceal most of the hilt of the dagger (giving the pushqabz its name, 'hidden hilt')."
* Precious Indian weapons 2017 p255
"The pish-qabz, a type of weapon whose name combines Persian and Arabic (pish, Persian for 'fore', and qabz, or more precisely qabd, Arabic for 'grip' or 'handle'), probably originated in Central Asia and Afghanistan. It was most likely introduced to India during the Afghan incursions and indigenization in the north-eastern territories from the eleventh century CE onwards and survived as a type for an extended period of time. As is very often the case, its general form was slightly altered to produce the type we recognize today.
"In different areas the type is called karud, chura, bytshaq, Khyber salawar and Khyber yataghan, which reflects the geographical spread of what was probably once a utilitarian tribal knife. Interestingly, the name is listed in very few Persian or Indian dictionaries, and then defined only as 'a type of weapon' with no further description, which suggests that it was a commonplace knife, not worthy of detailed consideration. As the name of the dagger includes the word 'fore' (pish), it has been suggested that it might have arisen from an assumption that the type was worn tucked in the front of a belt. The idea is improbable, however, given the particularly long and pointed shape of the pish-qabz blade. Unlike the Arabian and African janbiyah, which was convenient to wear tucked in the front of a belt, the pronounced curved tip of the pish-qabz blade would certainly have made it awkward and hazardous to wear tucked anywhere in the belt other than at the side.
"Features common to the pish-qabz type of edged weapon incorporate particulars of blades and hilts, either conjointly or independently. Their hilts are generally straight on the back and curved on the front with slightly beaked pommels, and a full tang extending to the upper end of the hilt. The peculiar single-edged blades are pronouncedly wide at the ricasso and jut out on the sharp edge, as do the blades of yataghans and some kards (a type of knife with a straight single-edged blade, no quillon and a vertical hilt, which is worn partially covered by the scabbard); they then generally taper pronouncedly and are either straight or recurve at the tip. Despite the fact that the overall shape of the blade may vary, the majority have 'T'-section spines for extra rigidity and taper to a point, which is sometimes reinforced, hence the claim that the pish-qabz was especially well-suited to piercing chainmail."
* Stone 1934 p493-494
"PESH-KABZ, PESHCUBZ, PESHQABZ. A form of dagger used in Persia and Northern India. The name is Persian and means 'foregrip.' The blade is of T section and is quite wide at the hilt, narrowing suddenly just below it, and then tapering regularly to a very slender point. As a rule the blade is straight, but not infrequently has a pronounced reverse curve. The hilt is often of walrus ivory (Persian, shirmani), and is heavy and has neither guard nor pommel. This knife is obviously intended for forcing an opening in mail; and as a piece of engineering design could hardly be improved upon for the purpose."
* Coe/Connolly/Harding/Harris/Larocca/Richardson/North/Spring/Wilkinson 1993 p197 (Frederick Wilkinson, "India and Southeast Asia" p186-203)
"A larger knife not dissimilar in shape [to the kard] is the pesh-kabz, but on this weapon the blade tapers very abruptly to a narrow point. The hilt is similar to that of the kard but much chunkier."
* Byam 1988 p34 caption
"The pesh-kabz was a specialist dagger from Persia and north India, used mainly for piercing chain mail. The blade was wide at the hilt, narrowing to a cutting edge before tapering to a sharp point."
* Fryer 1969 p88
"Pesh-kabz An Indo-Persian dagger with slender pointed blade of T section. The heavy guardless hilt often has ivory grips."
