Quote:
Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Over the years I have had a lot of celurits from Madura, none have looked like the "arit" here, however, the obvious intent of this "arit" is as a weapon, thus it would be more correct to refer to it as "celurit" (often "clurit").
An arit is a tool, yes, certainly sometimes used as a weapon, but not made as a weapon.
I have not encountered the little metal knobs in the grip of both the celurit & the bendo, I have not encountered a bendo like this one in Madura.
The bendo is pretty general throughout Jawa but in Central Jawa it was in general use as a weapon in times past --- in Surakarta the Kraton used a giant bendo as an execution tool.
As to geographic point of origin, I cannot be certain because I have not ever seen an arit, celurit or bendo precisely the same as these two items under discussion, so my comment here is only a guess.
Taking into consideration the overall form of these two items & the ornamentation on the celurit, I am inclined to nominate East Jawa, say, roughly Ponorogo through to Jember & including north & south.
These celurits were highly favoured during the Merdeka struggles, the usual method of use was to round up the people identified for execution, line them up at the edge of a mass grave & cut their throats from behind with a celurit. Looking at this example of a celurit, I think the blade angle would probably suit this mode of use quite well.
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Thank you Alan! These brass knobs and pins in the handles of similar blades from Madura seems to be very common, see the attached pictures from celurits from the collection of RMV Leiden, a kudi tranchang from Tatyana and a celurit as well a Arit shown in "Steel And Magic", all this examples show these knobs and pins. And all can get attributed to Madura.
But if they are from Madura or East Java, who will be sure about this?
The sword I have named "Arit Bendo" is indeed unusual and I am not aware of having seen a similar sword before. Name I have taken from the last picture.
Regards,
Detlef