I think its a matter similar to 'at what point does a dirk become a short sword' or the nebulous area of when does a sword become a knife? The katar and the pata were contemporary weapons and as examples of katar often used longer blades, and the variations of pata type hilts of course would be hard to categorize.
It is part of the futility in trying to distinctly categorize and classify the many forms of ethnographic edged weapons succinctly.
Whatever the case, these are some of the most intriguing edged weapons of India, and its great to see the variations brought into discussion.
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