My Katar Collection

[Runjeet Singh]

Hi Kurt/Eric,

Lovely katar, and thanks for sharing!

The gold koftgari on your Katar certainly has some age to it, and bears the hall marks of 17th or 18th work.

My theory would be that the katar is made in Tanjore/Srirangam, as is now popular belief, probably in the 16th or 17th Century, by local craftsmen. I believe the gold is the work of a Northern (Rajput/Punjabi) koftgari artist, probably in the 17th or 18th Century. The alternative is that a South Indian craftsman has been trained by Northern artisans.

The wonderful thing is the koftgari artist has incorporated pure South Indian design, in the form of the upstanding Yali's (Leogryphs) within the gold-work on the sidebars, as Eric has shown.

Another interesting comparison I would like to show you is of some silver koftagri from an 18th Century South Indian pata blade. The
small flowers within the twisting vine or stem, has a close resemblance.

Regards,
Runjeet