A steel dagger (chilanum), India, Deccan, circa 1600

Sotheby's London, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One, Arts of the Islamic World, 6 April 2011, lot 134. 

Made from a single piece of steel, this type of dagger is known from Indian manuscript illustrations of the second half of the 16th century. The double-edged and double-curved blade, with characteristic hilt terminating in a winged pommel, is associated with the Deccani Sultanates of south-central India. A similar steel dagger is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 36.25.751) and is illustrated in Elgood, R., Hindu Arms and Ritual, Arms and Armour from India, 1400-1865, Delft 2004 p.179, fig.16.36. The rectangular recesses on either side of the forte derive from an earlier tradition of flanking the forte with elephants. This dagger and the example in the Metropolitan Museum show the transition of the hilt from the 16th century leading to the development of the kanjarli in Western India in the late 17th century (ibid., p.179).