Katar

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A katar, also known as a Bundi dagger, is a type of short punching sword used in Persia and northern India. 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.

Katars were commonly used by the members of the Kshatriya or military caste in Hinduism. Punjabis of Kshatriya descent have been known to possess names such as Katarmaar, which roughly translates to kill or hit with Katar.

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, , 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 popular collection of 3D fighting games Soul Blade, Soul Calibur, and Soul Edge, the blind and acrobatic Voldo wields two Jamadhar katars (katars with three blades).
In the computer game , 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 Dehli 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 weilded a pair of the weapon of the same name with the hands covered with cloth bindings. Katar was revealed after his death to be GrimJack's son.
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 display's a Katar whose blade splits into three separate parts and is said to be used in eviscerating an opponent.
In the online RPG [link]"Dragon Court 2" a katar is one of the two specialized weapons used by Orcs to enhance their "unarmed combat" bonus.

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