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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4
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Greetings everyone,
I am in a midst of doing research on Keris an stumbled upon 4 keris with almost identical talismanic numerals. I am quite profound with the Jawi writings but this these inscription also include an "inverted B". Anyone familiar with this style of inscriptions or perhaps provide any references on this topic for me to start with? Thank you in advance. Last edited by panah; 16th November 2016 at 04:34 AM. |
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#2 | ||
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,249
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Hello Panah,
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The 2nd and 3rd keris went through the hands of Robert Hales and are featured in his book. I believe I saw pics of similar (or possibly the same) keris elsewhere but a quick search in my files failed to retrieve anything of note. Maybe Gustav or our Malay forumites are willing to chime in here? BTW, please keep us posted on your results! Quote:
David? Again, any input from the forumites would be great! Regards, Kai |
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#3 |
Keris forum moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 7,084
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Some nice and interesting examples presented here. I am not very adept a Jawi writing so i am not particularly certain about the symbol that looks like a reversed "B". Perhaps it is so variation on the Jawi number 9, which i don't see otherwise presented in these sequences, but that is nothing more than a guess.
These are, of course, as you have noted, talismanic in nature. I believe they are much akin to magickal squares that can be found throughout Western magickal histories. Not to discourage your research, but deciphering such talismanic sequences would be a near impossible task. These undoubtably had a very important and personal significance to the person who placed them there, but their exact meaning is not really intended for anyone else to know, i'm afraid. BTW, i must point out that while you describe these as "almost identical numerals" i believe it is quite the opposite. Yes, the numerals themselves are all similar, but the numerical sequences on each of these blades is quite unique, nothing like the other, and would have completely different personal talismanic meanings to their original owners. We could not say the "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are almost identical simple because they both contain a sequence of similar letters strung together in a similar format. ![]() |
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#4 |
EAAF Staff
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 7,186
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You may also want to contact Oliver Pinchot by email - he's done jawi for me on a Moro kris.
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#5 | ||
Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 4
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Thank you Kai, David & Battara for your replies. Also thank you Rick for guiding me on how to properly post in this thread. I will try my best to keep up with the do's and don'ts of this forum and update on the progress of this topic.
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2. You are absolutely right, three of them, 2nd 3rd and 4th are in Robert Hales book: page 118 & 131. (I will update you if they are really the ones in the book or just similar). Quote:
Below is one sample of azimat (tangkal, charm) and it happens to have similar elements as found on the blades. |
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#6 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Posts: 368
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Hi Panah,
This is a nice topic. If you don't mind, may I know where are you based? Do you study the keris as whole or just the talismanic symbolism on the keris? Apart from the "B" symbol, I am curious about the the "4" and "O" symbol as well. I originally thought the "O" represents the number 5, but since the numbers are probably written in Persian/Urdu, then probably "O" is actually zero (0) ? The picture bellow summarises my thoughts. Do you think this is logical? |
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#7 | ||
Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,249
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Hello Panah,
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Quote:
Regards, Kai |
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