Chapter KOTUL to KUTTAUR of K by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

KUTTAUR, s. Hind. katar, Skt. kattara, ‘a dagger,’ especially a kind of dagger peculiar to India, having a solid blade of diamond-section, the handle of which consists of two parallel bars with a cross-piece joining them. The hand grips the cross-piece, and the bars pass along each side of the wrist. [See a drawing in Egerton, Handbook, Indian Arms, pl. ix.] Ibn Batuta’s account is vivid, and perhaps in the matter of size there may be no exaggeration. Through the kindness of Col. Water-house I have a phototype of some Travancore weapons shown at the Calcutta Exhibition of 1883–4; among them two great kattars, with sheaths made from the snouts of two saw-fishes (with the teeth remaining in). They are done to scale, and one of the blades is 20 inches long, the other 26. There is also a plate in the Ind. Antiq. (vii. 193) representing some curious weapons from the Tanjore Palace Armoury, among which are kattar-hilted daggers evidently of great length, though the entire length is not shown. The plate accompanies interesting notes by Mr. M. J. Walhouse, who states the curious fact that many of the blades mounted katar-fashion were of European manufacture, and that one of these bore the famous name of Andrea Ferara. I add an extract. Mr. Walhouse accounts for the adoption of these blades in a country possessing the far-famed Indian steel, in that the latter was excessively brittle. The passage from Stavorinus describes the weapon, without giving a native name. We do not know what name is indicated by ‘belly piercer.’

c. 1343.—“The villagers gathered round him, and one of them stabbed him with a kattara. This is the name given to an iron weapon resembling a plough-share; the hand is inserted into it so that the forearm is shielded; but the blade beyond is two cubits in length, and a blow with it is mortal.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 31–32.

1442.—“The blacks of this country have the body nearly naked. … In one hand they hold an Indian poignard (katarah-i-Hindi), and in the other a buckler of oxhide … this costume is common to the king and the beggar.”—Abdurrazzak, in India in the XVth Cent., p. 17.

c. 1526.—“On the whole there were given one tipchâk horse with the saddle, two pairs of swords with the belts, 25 sets of enamelled daggers (khanjar—see HANGER), 16 enamelled kitârehs, two daggers (jamdher—see JUMDUD) set with precious stones.”—Baber, 338.

[c. 1590.—In the list of the Moghul arms we have: “10. Katárah, price ½ R. to 1 Muhur.”—Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 110, with an engraving, No. 9, pl. xii.]

1638.—“Les personnes de qualité portet dans la ceinture vne sorte d’armes, ou de poignards, courte et large, qu’ils appellent ginda (?) ou Catarre, dont la garde et la gaine sont d’or.”—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 223.

1673.—“They go rich in Attire, with a Poniard, or Catarre, at their girdle.”—Fryer, 93.

1690.—“… which chafes and ferments him to such a pitch; that with a Catarry or Bagonet in his hands he first falls upon those that are near him … killing and stabbing as he goes. …”—Ovington, 237.

1754.—“To these were added an enamelled dagger (which the Indians call cuttarri) and two swords. …”—H. of Nadir, in Hanway’s Travels, ii. 386.

1768–71.—“They (the Moguls) on the left side … wear a weapon which they call by a name that may be translated belly-piercer; it is about 14 inches long; broad near the hilt, and tapering away to a sharp point; it is made of fine steel; the handle has, on each side of it, a catch, which, when the weapon is griped by the hand, shuts round the wrist, and secures it from being dropped.”—Stavorinus, E.T. i. 457.

1813.—“After a short silent prayer, Lullabhy, in the presence of all the company, waved his catarra, or short dagger, over the bed of the expiring man. … The patient continued for some time motionless: in half an hour his heart appeared to beat, circulation quickened, … at the expiration of the third hour Lullabhy had effected his cure.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. iii. 249; [2nd ed. ii. 272, and see i. 69].

1856.—“The manners of the bardic tribe are very similar to those of their Rajpoot clients; their dress is nearly the same, but the bard seldom appears without the ‘Kutâr,’ or dagger, a representation of which is scrawled beside his signature, and often rudely engraved upon his monumental stone, in evidence of his death in the sacred duty of Trâgâ” (q.v.).—Forbes, Râs Mâlâ, ed. 1878, pp. 559–560.

1878.—“The ancient Indian smiths seem to have had a difficulty in hitting on a medium between this highly refined brittle steel and a too soft metal. In ancient sculptures, as in Srirangam near Trichinapalli, life-sized figures of armed men are represented, bearing Kuttars or long daggers of a peculiar shape; the handles, not so broad as in the later Kuttars, are covered with a long narrow guard, and the blades 2¼ inches broad at bottom, taper very gradually to a point through a length of 18 inches, more than m of which is deeply channelled on both sides with 6 converging grooves. There were many of these in the Tanjor armoury, perfectly corresponding … and all were so soft as to be easily bent.”—Ind. Antiq. vii.