Katar dagger (1700s): Art, History and Details

Katar dagger (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Stabbing daggers called katar were distinctive to India and often worn by soldiers and courtiers, tucked into their belts. Covering the entire handle are tiny scenes of lions and cheetahs hunting deer and buffalo in rocky wooded settings.

Object facts

• Title: Katar dagger
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: India, Mughal
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: Iron handle with gold inlay; steel blade; wooden sheath with velvet cover, brass boss, iron tip with gold inlay
• Dimensions: Overall: 45.6 x 8.2 cm (17 15/16 x 3 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1985.119

A detail from the museum

The ornament on the handle faces up from the perspective of a right-handed user, on all sides.

Collection credit

Gift of Morris and Eleanor Everett

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1985.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26–71.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.