Katar

Ornamented katar

A katar, also known as a Bundi dagger, is a type of short punching sword used in Persia and northern Indiafor swift and quick attack's. It is notable for its horizontal hand grip, which results in the blade of the sword sitting above the user's knuckles. Typically, katars were used in close range hand-to-hand combat, which is effective in armour piercing. The blade was often folded or corrugated for additional strength. Some katars have a mechanism responsible for making the blades split. This happens when the user pulls the hand grips together. In this variety of katar, two hand grips are used, so that the mechanism can be activated. This feature was often used to inflict a greater damage to the enemy, having the blades splitting inside of them and slashing their insides. "Hooded katars" are katars with a shield extending over the back of the user's hand. Katars ceased to be in common use in the 19th century.

The katar is unique because to stab an opponent one has to punch instead of thrust, unlike when using a regular knife or dagger. This leads to much more acrobatic fighting styles. It is more like an extension of the fist than a dagger, and it seems more natural to attack and defend with a katar. Sometimes, a katar is also used as a main-gauche in dual blade fencing. A longer bladed weapon similar to a katar is the pata.

Katar is a also a basic term for any short bladed weapon with the same handle as the one in the picture above, although stabbing is its primrary purpose, many blunt ended Katars have been made, some with no tip at all.

Popular culture

The Katar was a type of unarmed combat (UA) weapon in Turbine's MMORPG Asheron's Call (1999).
The katar and a number of variations on the weapon's basic design, such as the Jamdhar, served as the class-specific weapons for the Assassin class of Blizzard North's computer role-playing game, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and may also used to perform a number of martial arts attacks as well.
It is an exclusive weapon for the Assassin class of Gravity Corp.'s MMORPG, Ragnarok Online.
Katars also serve as one of the two class-specific weapons for the "Twin Blade" class in the .hack franchise.
The Protoss Zealots in Blizzard's StarCraft wielded psychic energy blades similar to hooded katars.
In Square Enix's video game, Final Fantasy VIII, the character Kiros uses katars, though the game spells it "katal" due to poor romanization of its Japanese language form.
In Phil Foglio's Girl Genius, one character, Zeetha, is armed with a pair of katars.
In the Soul series of fighting games, the blind and acrobatic Voldo wields two katars as a weapon.He can change the actual stucture of the weapon from a mini-guillotine,to a paor of large drills,and even to giant scissor's.
In the computer game Planescape:Torment, the character Annah wields weapons very similar to katars, using an acrobatic fighting style.
The DC Comics character Hawkman utilized katars, as well as many other types of Terran and extraterrestrial weapons.
In the manga Berserk, the character Silat uses katars.
Possibly the earliest use of a katar in comic books came in the 1970s Manhunter miniseries from DC Comics, and was written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Walt Simonson.
A Katar was also seen in the James Bond movie Octopussy wielded by one of Kamal Khan's henchmen during the New Delhi Street Chase scene.
The Golden Tiger Claws Shen Gong Wu from the cartoon series Xiaolin Showdown resembles a Katar, although it is magical and used for transport, not a weapon.
A goon used this weapon in one of the albums of the French comic book Les 4 As.
Followers of Kali Ma pull out katars as they capture Indiana Jones in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
In the GrimJack comic book series, one of GrimJack's arch-enemies was Katar, who wielded a pair of the weapon of the same name with the hands covered with cloth bindings.
Edward Elric, the Full Metal Alchemist, turns his mechanical hand into a katar to fight. Given the length of the blade, however, it could be considered a pata.
In the live action adaptation of Disney's The Jungle Book, a character displays a Katar whose blade splits into three separate parts and is said to be used in eviscerating an opponent.
In the online RPG "Dragon Court 2" a katar is one of the two specialized weapons used by Orcs to enhance their "unarmed combat" bonus.
In the anime Ragnarok the character Illuga uses a pair of katars.
In the MMORPG MapleStory, players in the thief class can wield Triangular Zamdars and Triple Tipped Zamdars
The Drazi from Babylon 5 generally used Katars in fights.
Sora from the Anime .hack//Sign wields twin retractable Katars
In the Hellboy Film, The Character Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is shown wielding Two Katars that snap together at his wrists in his first scene in the movie