Thank you Kai, David & Battara for your replies. Also thank you Rick for guiding me on how to properly post in this thread. I will try my best to keep up with the do's and don'ts of this forum and update on the progress of this topic.
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Originally Posted by kai
Hello Panah,
Are all 4 currently in the same collection?
The 2nd and 3rd keris went through the hands of Robert Hales and are featured in his book. I believe I saw pics of similar (or possibly the same) keris elsewhere but a quick search in my files failed to retrieve anything of note. Maybe Gustav or our Malay forumites are willing to chime in here?
BTW, please keep us posted on your results!
Your best bet is to contact Michael (aka VVV here in the forum) via PM, I guess.
David? Again, any input from the forumites would be great!
Regards,
Kai
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1. Yes, all 4 are in the same collection of a total number of 12 keris. Only four of these have talismanic inscriptions on the blades.
2. You are absolutely right, three of them, 2nd 3rd and 4th are in Robert Hales book: page 118 & 131. (I will update you if they are really the ones in the book or just similar).
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Originally Posted by David
Some nice and interesting examples presented here. I am not very adept a Jawi writing so i am not particularly certain about the symbol that looks like a reversed "B". Perhaps it is so variation on the Jawi number 9, which i don't see otherwise presented in these sequences, but that is nothing more than a guess.
These are, of course, as you have noted, talismanic in nature. I believe they are much akin to magickal squares that can be found throughout Western magickal histories. Not to discourage your research, but deciphering such talismanic sequences would be a near impossible task. These undoubtably had a very important and personal significance to the person who placed them there, but their exact meaning is not really intended for anyone else to know, i'm afraid.
BTW, i must point out that while you describe these as "almost identical numerals" i believe it is quite the opposite. Yes, the numerals themselves are all similar, but the numerical sequences on each of these blades is quite unique, nothing like the other, and would have completely different personal talismanic meanings to their original owners. We could not say the "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" are almost identical simple because they both contain a sequence of similar letters strung together in a similar format.  |
I strongly agree with you, David. My approach is merely to understand the influence of these talismanic numerals from perhaps other region - Arabia or India. It would be great if any of the forumites who happens to have talismanic inscriptions on their keris to share & discuss about this topic. I have seen talismanic elements in medallions, coins and azimat.
Below is one sample of azimat (tangkal, charm) and it happens to have similar elements as found on the blades.