Dagger pommel

Shaped like two curving leaves with a small triangular projection in the center, this piece was part of the hilt of a khapwa, a Mughal dagger with a double-edged recurved blade. The original hilt would have had a globular grip, and the two leaves would have had a bud finial inserted on the triangular section. Our dagger pommel has a hollow section below so that the globular grip can be inserted into it. Another section repeating the shape of the pommel, but upside down, would have been added below the globular grip, with a knuckle guard in the shape of a curving bud.

There are two extant daggers with the complete jade hilts, one in a private collection in Udaipur, India, the other in the Zarkoe Selo Collection of objects belonging to the Russian czars of 1600–1900 (Pant [year?], 180, fig. 550; Egerton, plate 6, no. 5). Another jade handle, without the blade, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (1995, catalogue no. 217).