Exceptional new book on keris hilts and keris

[Bjorn]

[QUOTE=A. G. Maisey]

I do not understand Dutch. I have not the slightest inkling of what the text on the photographed page says. I did add some breaks in the text to increase legibility

EDIT

Hello Alan and Jean. As I speak Dutch, below the translation of the original text. The prose is not that good, but I thought it better to stick to the original Dutch as closely as possible.

Sri Gajah Waktra was king of the Kingdom of Bedahulu in the 13th century. Gajah Waktra looks very similar to Ganesha, but has a more human face.

According to accounts, Maya Denawa was an arrogant demon king, who possessed great magical power and considered himself to be above the gods. He destroyed the gods’ temples. His subjects were no longer permitted to perform ceremonies or to visit the Besakih Temple. Under pain of death, they were forced to worship him.

Under leadership of the god Indra, the gods marshalled a heavenly army and came to earth to punish Maya Denawa. Maya Denawa, however, poisened the drinking water and thus killed many soldiers. However, the soldiers were brought back to life by Indra by shooting a magical arrow into the ground, so that a holy well was created (the well of life and prosperity, the Tirto Empul at Tampaksiring).

Indra then sprinkled the soldiers with the water of life Amarta, which brought the soldiers back to life. Maya Denawa fled and with the help of his magical powers transformed himself into a statue in the shape of an elephant (Gajah Waktra). Indra, however, saw through his guise and killed him with a holy arrow.

The day of his death is celebrated twice a year in Bali as a commemoration of the victory of good over evil, the Galungan feast (or Buda Kliwon Dunggulan on the Bali calendar).

[David]

Originally Posted by Bjorn

Sri Gajah Waktra was king of the Kingdom of Bedahulu in the 13th century. Gajah Waktra looks very similar to Ganesha, but has a more human face.

Thanks for the translation Bjorn.
I do realize that making a positive identification of many Balinese figurative hilts can be next to impossible at times, but this part of the description put me in mind of this hilt that i have had for a few year. There is an elephant's trunk, but certainly much more of a human face, including a human nose.

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you for taking the trouble to do that translation Bjorn.

The translation that you have given is more or less the story of Mayadenawa, but this story can vary from teller to teller in the details. I've heard it and read it many times, and I doubt that it has ever been given in exactly the same way every time. It is a very well known story, I reckon everybody over the age of 8 in Bali has heard it many more times than once.


The essence of the Mayadenawa story is that Mayadenawa was a very unpleasant personality, son of a giant & a goddess. He had magic powers. He was what we would call a "shape shifter", his powers permitted him to change form and become one animal or another, or a tree or rock, or in one story he actually becomes a sweet potato.

Anyway, he became more & more powerful and more & more arrogant. He finished up banning religion & the worship of the Gods. This neglect of obligation caused the prosperity of his kingdom to deteriorate and his people to suffer. A priest, Mpu Kolputih got pretty concerned about this so he meditated and asked the Gods for guidance, he was told to go to India in order to seek help.

After Mpu Kolputih (note:- "mpu" or "empu" is a title of respect, in this context nothing at all to do with a keris maker) returned from India an army of heavenly soldiers appeared in Bali, led by Indra, there was a battle between the Heavenly host led by Indra and Mayadenawa's army, Indra's army was stronger, Mayadenawa's soldiers ran away and left Mayadenawa with only his servant.

Mayadenawa waited until it was dark, then he created poisoned water to kill the Heavenly Host, but Indra threw his staff into the earth and created an antidote water.

After this magic powers battle involving water(important to understand that water is the key to Balinese religious belief and society, as it also was in Majapahit), Indra chased Mayadenawa, and Mayadenawa did a bit of shape shifting and changed himself into a number of different things in an attempt to avoid capture or confrontation:- a bird, a goddess, a vegetable, a leaf, and last of all, a rock. As a rock he was unable to move, and Indra shot him with an arrow and killed him.

The death of Mayadenawa is the story that tells of the victory of good over evil, every 210 days this victory is celebrated in Bali as Galungan.

There is a lot more to this story, lots of detail that I do not remember, I've heard it in various ways & forms, but here I've given only the core. I have heard this story many times, I have read it many times. It is pretty close to the brief version given in your translation. However, there is one very big difference, not in any version of the story that I have heard or read. Mayadenawa did not change himself into the statue of an elephant. He always changes himself into a rock.

Not one single time have I heard nor read that Mayadenawa changed himself into a statue of an elephant.


So the next question is just exactly what does "waktra" mean? Gajah is "elephant", but "waktra"?

I do not know the word. Not surprising because after checking I found out it is Kawi (ie, Sanskrit) word that means:- "--- mouth or snout or face or head ---".

I have good contacts in Bali, some family, more than a few friends, apparently if "gajah waktra" is used colloquially it can mean "big head", in the sense of somebody who has an inflated opinion of himself.

Is it reasonable to accept that Mayadenawa did indeed have a very good opinion of himself?

Incidentally, here is a photo of a carving of Ganesha, it was done in the late 1970's, it is Ganesha, it is not Mayadenawa as "Gajah Waktra". Note the nose?

[Bjorn]

Thanks for that, Alan. Your keynote telling of the story already made it more vivid - especially with the rock form being the very final shape he took after many dastardly attempts to escape.

Perhaps Veenendaal got the story from someone on Lombok, and one of the varians there does contain the elephant form. Or he wrote down the stories so long after hearing them, that he mixed up elements or simply misremembered.

Plenty of possibilities, but all conjecture.
At any rate, this serves as a good reminder to take these descriptions of hilts with a few grains of salt.

PS: That carving of Ganesha is absolutely gorgeous.

[A. G. Maisey]

I know a little bit more about the roots of the van Veenendaal version than I care to make public Bjorn. I would prefer not to name names, but I have been told that he heard this version from a gentleman who lived in Ubud, a gentleman who was rather well known for embroidered versions of reality.

I think that in general lots of things get distorted over time, the way things might be understood now are not necessarily the way they have always been understood. Time tends to distort perception.

That Ganesha carving was done by a carver who was also a Brahmin priest, by a stroke of luck I was able to deal directly with the carver and with no bargaining at all it was given to me at an unbelievably low price.

[Ian]

Alan and Bjorn,

Thank you. I've been following this interesting story as it unfolded. It is fascinating to see just how an historical story/legend/myth can be changed through "creative" recounting that, in turn, can be picked up and amplified within and outside the original culture. This must happen far more often than we realize, which makes it hard to know what the original version may have been.

Just to illustrate within my own family. My great-grandfather settled in NE Victoria and had the job of postman in what was then a sparsely settled part of Australia. One day, while delivering the post, he came across a camp of five men whom he recognized as members of the notorious Kelly Gang. He was upon the camp and among them before he realized who they were. His only chance to escape was to pretend he didn't know who they were, so he kept riding slowly by them, exchanged some pleasantries, bid them "g'day" and kept riding slowly until out of sight. Once he got a mile away from their camp he galloped to the nearest town and raised the alarm. Of course, the gang were gone when the police finally got there. And that's the whole story as told to me by his son (my grandfather).

Fifty years later, one of my great uncles wrote a piece for the local small town newspaper with a more sensational version of the story in which the police arrived as the gang were breaking camp. Supposedly, a gunfight ensued and one of the gang was wounded before they all made their escape. This has become the "official" story in that part of the country, even though family members have tried to debunk it.

This has nothing to do with keris hilts, and sorry to stray off topic. Just another example of how historical stories get changed and sensationalized over time.

Ian.

[A. G. Maisey]

No story is so good that it cannot be improved, Ian.

[Bjorn]

Great example, Ian!

Even mundane events are easily altered. Have several colleagues recount the same work event, and usually smalld details will differ, even when only a few days have passed.

[Bjorn]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

That Ganesha carving was done by a carver who was also a Brahmin priest, by a stroke of luck I was able to deal directly with the carver and with no bargaining at all it was given to me at an unbelievably low price.

Very fortunate indeed, Alan. One might even see it as providence, were one so inclined.