South Indian Sacrificial Chopper or Axe from the Malabar coast

 A very attractive small axe or chopper from the Malabar coast of South India, beautifully made very sharp heavy steel blade designed for lopping! the edges deeply chiselled with a repeating design, the tip with a shaped steel finial, the back egde of the blade with a wonderful crisp deeply-chiselled relief design. The lower grip of facetted steel, and the long handle of turned ebony. These axes were presumably used for sacrifice not unlike the ram-dao sword, the shape is similar to the popular sword/chopper of this region used for war known as the Moplah knife, and the Ayda Katti. Dating to the 19th century. indo persian, indian, arab