Is gold or suasa 'better'?

[Rick]

Did you repost the text yet?

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Rick

Did you repost the text yet?

REPOST:

just came up with this interesting suassa text.

It is strange though that they describe it so extendedly with name of the Javanese emperor etc. It was a very early writing, so it might be true back than, and not written and made up by the writer just to put down some text.

I could imagine there is some kind of truth in this, as there are not much Javanese weapons with suassa I know off. Maybe back than there was a period that suassa was in fashion more than gold in Java, and maybe also only to wear by a few noblemen, and not for the regular people..?
This could explain why there is more gold find on Javanese weapons as suassa.

Just a guess,

Maurice

[ariel]

I think Maurice is referring to the text cited by Loedjoe at the opening of this topic.
Maurice, am I correct?

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by ariel

I think Maurice is referring to the text cited by Loedjoe at the opening of this topic.
Maurice, am I correct?

Hi Ariel,

Yes you are right.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.
After rereading my post, I see it was not clear indeed and I expresses wrong.

[David R]

Somewhere in this Forum there is a conversation about Gold versus Suasa and one comment made was that pure Gold was not "good for a Muslim" and so Suasa was used instead. I believe that in the Koran or in the Hadith there are various comments about vain display and even an injunction not to drink from a Gold cup.
I suspect the original passage above was a reflection of this idea.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by David R

Somewhere in this Forum there is a conversation about Gold versus Suasa and one comment made was that pure Gold was not "good for a Muslim" and so Suasa was used instead. I believe that in the Koran or in the Hadith there are various comments about vain display and even an injunction not to drink from a Gold cup.
I suspect the original passage above was a reflection of this idea.

The Original passage above, is not saying that they use suassa instead of gold.
It says suassa is preferred because of thoughts that the one who wears it should be free of all kind of bad luck if something hit him, disease, or in war times.
Also it tells us that the emperor wears it more than gold, not that he did not wear gold.

Maybe gold was the most valuable bullion, but suassa could have been used more as talismanic purposes as gold, I suppose.

[David]

Or perhaps, just perhaps, the quoted passage is simply incorrect. That does happen as i am sure you all know. I cannot say that is the case here with any assuredness, however, everything that i have ever read previously about gold, specifically in regards to Javanese culture, falls more in line with what Alan has said. I am away from my reference books at the moment, but i do have one that is specifically related to the use of gold in Javanese culture and i will check in with that when i return. I cannot say, however, that i can recall seeing much of any use of suasa on Javanese keris at all and find the idea that any Javanese Susuhunan or Sultan would prefer suasa to pure gold a bit of a strange one indeed.