Khatvanga or Khatvangam is a curious sort of club, made up of the bone of the forearm or the leg, to the end of which a human skull is attached through its foreman.

From this description it must be clear that this peculiar weapon comes from very remote antiquity. In the ornate style of the later Chalukya-Hoysalas, the shaft of this old weapon is dispensed with and a well turned wooden handle is substituted in its place.

A khatvanga is a long, studded staff or club originally understood as Shiva’s weapon. It evolved as a traditional ritualistic symbol in Indian religions and Tantric traditions like Shaivism, and in the Vajrayana of Tibetan Buddhism. The khatvānga was also used as tribal shaman shafts.

Shiva-Rudra carried the khatvāṅga as a staff weapon and are thus referred to as khatvāṅgīs.

In Hinduism the khatvanga is an emblem or weapon of Shiva, and is variously described as a skull – topped club, a skull – mounted trident, or a trident – staff on which three skulls are impaled.