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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Pak Usman, do you know the progression of this farce?
Please allow me to enlighten you.
In the 1988 edition of Ensiklopedi, Bambang Harsrinuksmo published a photo of a relief to be found at Candi Prambanan which does indeed show the first monumental depictation of a keris-like dagger. He erroneously captioned this photo as being a relief from Borobudur.Thus the error was planted that grew into the belief that a keris buda was shown in the Borobudur reliefs.
In the second edition of Ensiklopedi, Pak Bambang tried to smooth this error over.
On page 26 of the second edition of Ensiklopedi the photo of the Prambanan relief was published again, this time correctly captioned, however, the published photograph when compared with the earlier published photograph, and with my own photographs of the same relief, gives the appearance of having been retouched to emphasise the pommel and guard of the Prambanan dagger, thus providing a stronger resemblance to the Borobudur dagger.
It would be better for the study of the keris if we could put behind us this nonsense of trying to link the keris to the Borobudur reliefs.
The keris has its roots in Javanese-Hindu culture, and its development to the point of its absorption into Javanese-Islamic culture can be shown to reflect the Javanese-Hindu world view.
There is no evidence available at the present time that can in any way link the keris to the Syailendras.
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Dear Usmen, Alan and all,
Alan's finding is very interesting. This argument shows us, that we still need to research furthermore on the origin of keris form. Archeologically, or whatever. Thank you, for the enlightment, Alan.
This will bring a good discussion too, if we bring this finding to -- for instance -- writer on keris world such as Mr Haryono Guritno. In his book, "Keris Jawa, Antara Mistik dan Nalar" (Java Keris, Between Mystique Belief and Logical Reasoning?) Mr Guritno wrote "on inscription" as follows (page 7):
... In some prasasti (old inscriptions) found in Java, as Prasasti Karang Tengah and Prasasti Poh (inscriptions on stones) which was made around 750 CE in the era of king dynasty of Sailendra (Buddhist), it had been mentioned of the word "kres" which bore the meaning of "keris" now. These prasasti which were found in Kedu (Magelang) Central Java, had said that a king from Sailendra dynasty had ordered an empu to make keris.
Also, according to Mr Guritno -- in Prambanan (Hindu) temple -- which was build around 910 CE (after Borobudur), there is a statue of Roro Jonggrang (Durga) which in one of her eight hands held a kind of "keris" that called as "kadga"...
It shows, that Mr Guritno still believes that keris had been known in the era of Syailendra (Buddha) too...
Ganjawulung