The Indian katar (jamdhar/jamadher) has undergone very little change in form during many centuries. This can be seen by studying old paintings, miniatures and other ancient art. It is known that Ibn Battuta, an Algerian travelling in India in the 14th century, described an attack with a katar, but so far the roots and the age of the katar have not been researched further back. Jens Nordlunde has traced it back to Orissa in the 10th century, showing a form very similar to how it looks today.

The Metropolitan Museum has 82 katars in their collection, of these only 2 are on display and 63 are available for viewing online. The majority of the museums katar were willed to the museum by George C. Stone, it is a superb and varied collection and yet it is practically unknown and unseen. Many of the images are high resolution which allows the fine details to be brought out with editing.

I have gone through and edited all of the images and created many new ones including some with incredible detail. I have also created a pinterest site and added the images of each katar there so that anyone can view them. Unfortunately there is not a lot of info attached to the museums katars as far as region of manufacture etc.

http://www.pinterest.com/worldantiques/katars...t-collect/


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Those katars look wicked, especially the engravings. :eek:
This one has a cobra's head acting as its handguard.

Great pictures. Thanks for making us see on otherwise obscure collection!
What a fantastic elaboration of the weapons.
Were they actually intended for real combat or are they prestige items for showing off your wealth and taste?

Thanks for posting this Eric, some of them are really stunning even though I personally prefer more plain looking ones.