Subject: ahadi 'single' heavy cavalryman

Culture: Mughal-Rajput

Setting: Great Mughal empire, Hindustan/Deccan late 16th-early 18thc

Object: khanjar dagger

Shah Jahan Armoury *

National Museum of Scotland > Royal Museum *

* Freer & Sackler Galleries > Freer Gallery of Art

"Dagger India, Mughal dynasty, late 17th century Watered steel blade, hilt of nephrite jade inlaid with gold, rubies, and emeralds ...

Mughal courtiers wore splendid ceremonial daggers embellished with gems and precious metals. Fashioned from the finest watered steel, their blades were, when need arose, lethally sharp. Those made in the imperial workshops were given and coveted as signs of royal favor. The smoothly rounded hilt, with cusps for its wearer's fingers, is made from nephrite, a particularly hard and difficult-to-work jade found in Central Asian riverbeds. Its lustrous surface is adorned with a pattern of ruby and emerald flowers set within pure gold."

Royal Armouries Museum > War Gallery *

"Rock crystal and jewel hilted dagger (khanjar) Indian, Mughal, 17th century" ...

> event photos

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700

Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *

"Dagger (khanjar) Indian, Mysore, 17th century The deep multiple fullers and double-curved blade mark this dagger out as south Indian.

The hilt, of silvered and gilt copper and gilt copper with green enamelled eyes, is in the form of a Garuda head." ...

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Dagger (khanjar) Indian, Mughal, late 17th century The blade is made of watered steel. The hilt is of an unidentified dark green hardstone in a horse's head design favoured by the Mughals."

* Denix

> event photos