A GOLD OVERLAID DECORATED GUARDED KATAR

VIJAYANAGARA, CENTRAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A GOLD OVERLAID DECORATED GUARDED KATAR
VIJAYANAGARA, CENTRAL INDIA, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
With wide multi-ridged watered-steel blade narrowing to point, the top of each side decorated with female goddess figure with long extended headress and skirt of lotus flowers in gold overlay, the hilt of normal form with high curved handguard terminating in stylised makara head, the front of the handguard with cusped recesses each with portraits of Hindu deities, the surfaces decorated with portraits of Hindu gogdesses including Durga, demons and sun motifs, in red and gold silk covered wooden sheath
28½in. (64.5cm.) long

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Lot Essay

Two katars of similar form are in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, each attributed to the second half of the 16th Century Vijayanagara, with distinctive parallel bars each with central spheres and multi-ridged blades, (inv. 36.25.905 and 36.25.904, Robert Elgood, Hindu Arms and Ritual, Arms and Armour from India, 1400-1865, Delft, 2004, cat.15.3 and 15.4, pp.146-147). Interestingly according to Elgood, many of the katars which date from this period have had their gold stripped off for scrap value. Our katar is therefore a rare survival with its original gold decoration.

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