bull motif on a Balinese keris

[Interested Party]

siva

Originally Posted by Anthony G.

I never saw just a bull icon/motif on a Balinese keris and usually it comes with a singa and bull. I am thinking of having someone forges a Balinese modern keris with just a bull motif on it but trying to understand what is the symbol of just a bull as a motif.

Could this be related to the Persian lion and deer/bull hunting scenes that were used from the Caucasus to northern India? Or the kerbau rather than a bull? An animist symbol of the underworld, often paired with it's opposite a bird, a sky/upperworld symbol?

For clarification, I am not proposing alternate views to blade/Siwa riding the bull/wrangka, which could also be seen as a yani, but suggesting possible layers of meaning.