Katar

The katar is a push dagger of the Indian subcontinent and the most distinctive and well known of India's traditional daggers, built with an H-shaped horizontal grip inside the hilt that sets the blade in line with the user's forearm and holds it above the knuckles rather than projecting from the bottom of a closed fist as with a conventional dagger. This grip let a fighter drive the blade forward with the full force of a punching motion, giving the katar unusual thrusting power at close range, and versions ranging from plain fighting daggers to elaborately decorated court weapons were carried across Indian kingdoms from the medieval period onward. Beyond the battlefield and the practice of personal self-defense, ceremonial katars also held a role in religious worship in parts of India, reflecting the weapon's broader cultural standing beyond its purely martial use.