Pawakan

[jagabuwana]

Hello all. Returning to this discussion as I have some more questions.
Alan - these are primarily addressed to you as they are formed after reading your posts and I would be grateful for more of your knowledge on these subjects. But I also welcome perspectives from others should they have a view on them.

I'd like to apologise in advance for what may be long-winded ways of approaching the questions.

On Pawakan (overall visual appearance)


From other discussions in this forum, I have seen pawakan used in a way to describe how a keris generally looks for the purposes of discussing classification.

For example, it seems that someone could say that a keris has the overall visual appearance of a Madura keris, despite having more specific features that might not be Madura.

But I have also seen pawakan used in such a way such as to describe a keris as awkward or not-harmonious.

I can see how the former is related to overall visual appearance, but the latter seems to me to be a description of the feelings generated due to its physical appearance i.e. wanda.

❓Is there a blurry line between pawakan and wanda, or am I misunderstanding?


On Wanda (the feeling or personality of the keris)



Worldly and experienced people who are good judges of character could use different words or characteristics to judge the same man. On the other hand they could also have polar opposite judgments depending on their experiences, biases or values.

A proud-chested well dressed man might cause a person to judge him as confident and brave, while another might judge him to hiding some kind of insecurity.

It seems much more subjective than pawakan as we are approaching internal feelings and qualities informed by, but not formed entirely by what our eyes see, which can be anchored to shared commonly shared perceptions shaped by society.

Then it seems reasonable to me that two esteemed ahli keris could easily have different feelings about the same keris and that wouldn't be controversial.

This leads me to ask what the purpose of this judgment or information is.

My initial assumption is that if wanda is part of menangguh ('doing' tangguh), then a positive wanda - e.g. bravery - would be better for the keris' prestige or value than a negative wanda - e.g. cowardly. And if the tangguh system was made by a particular class of people in Javanese society as a way of judging the real-world market value of a keris, then an esteemed ahli keris' judgment of a keris' wanda seems to be important.

❓But what if we take tangguh out of the picture?
❓Is this information useful or valuable outside of the context of "value"?


On Batin

❓Given that this has no basis in how a keris looks, from where does batin originate?

[A. G. Maisey]

Pawakan is usually used to refer to a man, it is his outward appearance, for example if a man stoops a little too much and bows his head, he looks humble, if he stands too straight he looks awkward, so with keris, what we are looking for is an overall appearance of harmony, the overall form of a keris should create a harmonious impression.

Wanda (wondo) is the personality of the keris, the feeling that we might get from the keris; just as a man might create an entirely different feeling in different people, so the wanda of the keris can create a different feeling in different people.

Pawakan:- outward appearance, we want to see a harmonious appearance

Wanda :- personality, the feeling generated by the keris, and this feeling can be different in different people.

Wanda is NOT an indicator used in keris classification, pawakan is.

In Basa Jawa, batin refers to one's inner feelings, the core of self; kebatinan is the inner self, it is a synonym of spiritualism and mysticism.

Example:- Empu Suparman's house was diagonally opposite a mesjid, the call to prayer from this mesjid was often unreasonably loud, some would say that although it was situated in Kampung Komplang, Solo, that call to prayer could be heard in Jakarta. When it would start up, Empu Suparman's constant complaint was that it "--- menganggu kebatinan saya---" in English, it disturbed his inner self.

In Bahasa Indonesia it has wider applications, related, but some marginally different, I believe it probably came into BI from Malay, as BI originates from a dialect of Malay that is spoken in Southern Sumatera.

However, it would, I believe, have come into both BJ & Malay from Arabic, where I think the original meaning was "hidden" or "esoteric".

I don't think I have heard the word "batin", or "kebatinan" used in relation to a tangguh classification, but I guess some people might be able to relate wanda to an effect upon their inner self.

In respect of the value of wanda & pawakan, well, assessment of pawakan can play a role in determination of the tangguh classification of a keris, and thus of its monetary value.

In respect of wanda, this can impact upon the personal value to an individual that the keris might have for the specific individual. Thus pawakan is something that can be perceived by everybody, wanda is specific the individual.

Now I will issue the same caution that was issued to me:- do not think for one moment that you can understand pawakan or wanda where it relates to keris until you have a very high level of keris knowledge and you understand how a keris should look and feel. This will take years of study & experience. You cannot learn something like this in five minutes.

[jagabuwana]

Thank you for clarifying so clearly, Alan. Your caution is well noted.

[rasdan]

Hello everybody,

I thought I'll put my understandings on pawakan, wondo and batin/roso based on what Alan explained here. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Pawakan : The physical form, the shape. Size, length, width, curvatures and the combination of the shapes. It is harmony if the combination is good. Like people, the person looks good if the physical proportion of the person is balanced; not the hands are too long.. stuff like that.

Wondo: The feeling that comes from looking at the physical form. Different combination can generate different feeling. On a person, wondo means a person can look athletic, can look happy, strict etc. - due to his/her physical appearance.

[A. G. Maisey]

Rasdan, I think you've got the pawakan right, but wanda is very difficult. As I warned these things take years of experience to understand and not everybody gets the idea.

Lets think about the keris as if it is a person.

Now, there you are in the office, at the meeting, wherever, and one of your friends walks in with somebody you've never seen before, this new comer is a bit lopsided, his left eye squints, his hair seems to wanting to go in several different directions at the same time, he's skinny, his coat hangs on him like it is on a clothes hanger, he is constantly hitching up his pants because he doesn't have sufficient meat on his frame to hold those pants up for very long.

In short, this is a pretty unattractive person. His outward appearance is just straight out off-putting. He is definitely not going to get head hunted to be the new head of customer relations.

Later in the evening he comes up to you and strikes up a conversation, and believe it or not the two of you find common ground and that conversation continues way past the end of the meeting.

The two of you really hit it off, for you, that ugly little man has an aura, a captivating personality, his inner self is in harmony with your inner self.

But for somebody else, that ugly little man might forever be no more than an ugly little man.

Now apply that same idea to a keris.

I have a keris that I rescued from a dealer's rubbish bin. The wrongko was in several pieces, but it was complete and not really badly damaged. The keris itself was worse than corkscrew shape, rusty, frayed edges, loose gonjo.

The dealer was not prepared to spend the necessary money on restoration because restoration cost would have been higher that sale value --- or so he thought.

I asked to buy it, it was not sold to me, it was given to me.

I took it home, I reforged it and reworked it, I repaired the wrongko & pendok. It restored as very nice Pajajaran Kebo Lajer. I feel a very close attachment to this keris. It has --- for me --- a very special personality.


This is wanda.

We are talking about something you cannot see, only feel.

[rasdan]

Thank you Alan for the correction. I can understand now what you mean by wondo can be difficult to comprehend.

So wondo is not physical observation. Rather it is the feeling, the "acquaintance". Therefore wondo can be different from person to person. So does this means that wondo cannot be learnt? Since the feeling generated is different to different individual?

[A. G. Maisey]

I think you might be part right Rasdan.

I do not think it is possible to teach somebody how to gauge a personality that is in balance with one's own personality, I think that is something we probably have from birth, or maybe learn as we grow up.

I was taught that wanda is about the personality of a keris and you can only feel it, but I really don't know what it is that makes some keris feel nice and comfortable and like a companion, and others you just want to get back into the wrongko ASAP and put away.

I have no clue at all why we have these different feelings. I guess it might be from an impression formed by the way a keris might look, and then that generates the feeling. Maybe. Or it might be from the feeling you sometimes get when you handle a particular keris.

Anyway, whatever it is, it is personality of the keris, and personality is a characteristic that we cannot see, only feel.

Maybe this "feeling" thing is universal with all living things, have you ever noticed how animals, for example, dogs can be attracted to one person but not another? Obviously the dogs can feel something that is in harmony with their own spirit, and this can vary, dog to dog, & person to person.

Incidentally.

If we look at the dictionary meaning of "wanda" it is the exact opposite of what I was taught and what I have written here.

"wanda" is actually literary language, Kawi, in Kawi it means the body of something (awak) or the form of something (dhapur).

some keris people use "wanda" to refer to the shape of a keris hilt

I do not know why this should be, but what I do know is that the way I have explained it is the way it was understood relative to keris, by the keris elites in Solo during the 1980's & 1990's.

In respect of "pawakan" it is a very commonly used word, it normally refers to a person, and the overall impression of his or her body:- fat, skinny, sexy, lopsided or whatever, however, although I have access to 5 or 6 Javanese dictionaries I can find it in only one of these dictionaries, a fairly recent one, if I ask a native speaker of Javanese in Solo if it is a Javanese or Indonesian word, the response I get is that it is both, but "pawakan" does not appear in Indonesian dictionaries nor Malay.

I sometimes feel that as with a lot of keris words and meanings, my own understandings are decidedly old time Solo, and not necessarily general.