One of India's most iconic weapons excluding pollution and curry, The Katar is without a doubt intimidating just from it's implications alone. Hailing from the southern reaches of the country, the Katar initially came to prevalence within the Vijayanagara Kingdom (1336–1646) who, at the apogee of their power controlled virtually all of the Deccan. 


classified as a push dagger by modern standards, the design of the Katar is unique in the fact that when held, the blade is directly in line with the forearm of the user. This enables the primary thrusting action to be executed in the same manner as a punch, allowing the warrior to place the weight of his body behind his dagger blows similar to a boxer employing his hips into a knockout strike. An operator of the katar would employ the weapon not unlike that of the fists of a pugilist, aiming for the head/torso with a rapid Farage barrage of strikes. This method of attack is described in an Indian martial art dating from the 16th century which utilizes the use of two katars in each hand.


Because the katar could deploy such powerful blows, many of the blades were thickened on specific points to prevent them from breaking or bending during battle. These improvments to the katars design helped it achieve a role as an armor piercing weapon. The katar could literally punch through cloth, mail, and even plate armor depending on the blade shape and steel used against an unfortunate opponent


early forms of the weapon featured a leaf/shell like plate used to protect the back of the operators hand. These hand guards were often ornately decorated with piercings and displays of masterful file work. As the hand guard variant was gradually replaced in favor of the basic hilt design, numerous structural differences emerged alongside the evolving weapon. Longer narrow blades become popular in northern India while the wider curved/wavy blades resonated within the southern population.The advent of European trade bare witness to the importation of European blades, which were often repurposed onto katars dating from the 1500-1600s

 

some interesting variations include.....

scissor katars: When the two grips are squeezed the main splits in two to reveal a third blade, supposedly for parrying strikes and ripping out intestines.... Although i doubt the practicality of this thang it's an interesting design

double bladed kitars: thanks to das and grapes I realized the resemblance between a katar and an energy sword. like the above variant, this was probably inferior to the standard katar

my personal favorite and probably the most practical out of the upper two, the gun katar packs a punch with two side mounted flintlock pistols.

as a final farewell I leave you with a clip of the historically inaccurate show deadliest warrior showing the katar in action.

http://www.spike.com/video-clips/n60ut1/deadliest-warrior-insides-out

One particular Indian weapon that I find quite fascinating is the Pata sword, which is almost like a sword length Katar.

Here's a couple of nice examples

I've seen a couple of those before, really neat stuff, Indian weaponry was really out there but many examples are surprisingly practical

Quote

my personal favorite and probably the most practical out of the upper two, the gun katar packs a punch with two side mounted flintlock pistols.

Spoiler

I want one.. no, I want two.

the government wants to take your katars away

Quote from: Jocephalopod on January 18, 2015, 12:24:35 PM

Quote from: Rinev Jeqkogo on January 18, 2015, 12:14:04 PM

Quote

my personal favorite and probably the most practical out of the upper two, the gun katar packs a punch with two side mounted flintlock pistols.

Spoiler

I want one.. no, I want two.

the government wants to take your katars away

It's for my own personal protection I swear!

never, high capacity ammo dumpers are banned here, you don't need 2 bullets to kill an intruder

I did not expect the gun katar haha, that's just overkill

The double bladed one looks very cool, it looks like you could catch your opponents sword in that gap between the blades.

yea i'm pretty sure I mentioned the parrying aspect in the article. In all honesty, it probably wouldn't do a great job in catching a sword blow. It seemed to be more of a interesting showpiece than anything combat worthy