Celurit and an Arit Bendo (?)

[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.