In the second picture ?

It looks more like a Lion to me; see the paws extended ?
Very Dutch whiskers though . ;) :D

Yes, looks like a lion with human face. Note the two pad in down from the face.

sajen

Bumping this old thread up with another variation.
hope we keep threads like this alive , because the are great for info and comparisation.

Two similar type donoriko carving with different style of carving and age (worn out).
Plus another type with european influence.

Another European influence...?

Probably.

But it seems that many if not most motifs in use in Javanese --- and we can read this to include Madura --- ornamental decoration are the result of some sort of influence:- Hindu, Chinese, Islamic, European. It could well be an interesting exercise to identify the indigenous motifs.

Donoriko form
 

Back from the dead.. with a question. :D
The basic form of the Donoriko hilt, what does it represent? Did it evolved from another hilt type?

Hey Shahrial, is that hilt you were just showing on FB part of this thread. If not you should add it. :)
I can't really answer your question, but i've always suspected it is an abstract representation of an animal head. :shrug:

David, these are pictures of my hilt. The other ones I posted on fb belongs to a friend whom I've only had permission to post it there. From what I see it does have a resemblance to a Cirebon/Tegal Ganesha hilt form but with a flamboyant twist to it.

That's the one i was thinking about. Really nice patina on that and lovely detailed carving. :)

Thanks. Anyone have any idea what does 'Donoriko' means?

a parrot?

Well they never struck me as looking much like a parrot, especial front on where they look almost bovine in nature. :shrug:

Good question. This reminds me a lot of Prambanan and Borobudur etymology :D

As a Javanese speaker of Central Java dialect, I would translate donoriko as:
dono/dana -- fund, money, gift, own, etc
riko/rika -- you (polite), especially certain areas East Java dialect
so it might means your precious (high language)
similar sounding words with almost similar meaning: (m)rika : over there (polite) especially Central Java

similar usage:
donorojo: name of several districts -- rojo = king
donowiro: generous -- wiro = hero, brave
donokromo: polite -- kromo = etiquette

Might have different meaning in the past too (name of a district where its originate, short version of other words for example wedono ing mriko, Old Java/Kawi, etc) but at least that is how I would translate at present.

As the object is originate from Madura, it might of course means totally different to a Madurese speaker :shrug: :)

Donoriko Ukiran
 

Beautiful hilts one and all! Here is a donoriko in ivory...unfortunately when I found it several years ago someone sanded a small area to see if it was ivory...guess they never heard of a heating a pin...regardless it does not take away rom the beauty or intricate carvings.

My daughter-in-law's mother comes from Madura, she not Madurese, but Chinese, however she does speak Madura dialect, necessary, because of her business activities. Yesterday I spoke with her by phone. She has no idea of the meaning of "donoriko" and suggested that it might be Javanese rather than Madurese.

The little book on hilts that was published in 2003 by Suhartono Rahardjo mentions donoriko hilts as a Madurese form of the Javanese tunggaksemi hilt, but he does not give an explanation of the meaning of the word. Since he does give explanations that clarify meaning for other Madura hilts, maybe he couldn't get a precise meaning for donoriko either.

Perhaps it is possible that "donoriko" is a proper name that applies only to this form of hilt, and its origin has been lost in time.

I do have another Madura contact, but at the moment she is out of reach, when I get the opportunity I'll run this question past her.

Thanks Alan for the effort. :)

No effort mate. My wife is there at the moment, I rang my wife and because she is staying at our D-i-L's mother's house in Malang I used the opportunity to talk about this Madura thing.

I am reviving this thread because i have finally added one of these chunkier donorika hilts to my collection. The carving is good, but we certainly have much better already posted here. However, i am curious about one particular element in the carving that i have yet to see on these and i wonder whether there are any other examples of this motif out there that we have yet to see. It might just be my imagination, but i have showed this to 4 different people who without the slightest hesitation identified the lower carving on the back of this donorika as a skull. The one above it also looks like a styled face/mask, but it is the skull that really interests me. I have never seen a skull motif on these before, but it seems pretty intentional to me. What do you folks think?
Though not quite pertinent to this thread i also posted a close-up of the pelet wrongko simply because it is one of the most attractive ones i have ever seen. The same stringy pattern continues down the stem invoking all kinds of interesting imagery. :)
Also, i am curious Alan, if you ever spoke to your other Madurese source regarding the word "donoriko". We never returned to that subject and i think there is still a lot to be learned about these hilts and their possible symbolism.

Yes, I have actually asked several people I know who either are Madurese, or who have lived in Madura, and their responses were all pretty similar to that of my d-i-l's mother.

Further, Aswin Wirjadi ( Pesona Hulu Keris) writes:-

"Nobody knows for sure the etymology of the word donoriko, but there is an assumption that it came from the word jenariko; the word jenar meaning yellow, and riko meaning you. This may have been used to adore Putri Kuning, the yellow queen of Madura."

Maybe.

My own possibility of origin is perhaps no less extreme.

Dono = dana = wedana (spelling is "dana", pronunciation is "dono", or in the case of the unabbreviated word "wedono")

Riko can mean you, or yours, it can also mean "over there"

A wedana is a district head; these big flamboyant hilts are pretty much what one might expect to see an important official wearing.

I'm inclined to think that there is a connection between the donoriko hilt and a district head, or wedana.


As for the skull, I know of no established related motif, however, I am now pretty convinced that the donoriko and similar Madura and North Coast hilts are distillations of the ancestor motif, so if this floral decoration can be read as a skull, it may well be a reference to the ancestor who is hidden in the foliage.

It seems that you have been busy recently! :D ;) Very nice Donoriko form and a beautiful pelet wrongko.

I also have added recently a Donoriko hilt to my collection, will take pictures at weekend and show them here.

Regards,
Detlef

May I also offer my thanks to all who have posted photos on this thread.The workmanship is usually of very high quality, and the hilts themselves are well worth seeing.

Hi,
IMO the whiter area on one side of your hilt is not because somebody sanded it to check if it was ivory but because the protruding "ear" was broken so he had to file it to make it smooth. The same happened on the other side of the "head" but earlier so the repair is not visible. You can clearly see the "ears" on the hilt posted by David.
Regards

Here my new donoriko in ivory.

Some more donoriko hilts.

Some tumenggunan hilts.

Here some of the same "family" from a other form, know someone the name for this form?

Another style of madurese hilt called topi (helmet) or pulasir (cuirassier).

Nice collection of this style hilt Jean. Seems that Madura was more influenced by European iconography than any other area of Indonesia.

Thanks David. One reason for explaining the influence of European iconography in Madura may be that many Madurese were enlisted in the Dutch colonial army.
By the way I would like to know how to adjust the size of the embedded pictures in the posts in order to improve their presentation.
Regards