Thank you for your additional comments Pak Gonjo.
Your English is more than adequate to express your ideas, and seldom leaves any doubt of your intent.
I am sure that you know sufficient of my background to realise that everything you have mentioned here, I already know, so I will accept your additional comments as being in the nature of information which perhaps may not be generally known by many of our brothers and sisters who follow these discussions.
I know the wayang stories, not from wayang performances, because I cannot understand the dalang's story, I can only understand the current affairs commentary that the dalangs fit into the story. Equally I understand very well the way in which Javanese people will liken people they know, or events which occur, to similar people or events in the wayang. Further, I do have a very clear understanding of the way in which the wayang has shaped Javanese philosophy and world view.Incidentally, it is my understanding that most Javanese people of the last several generations are just about as able to understand the stories as I am:- they know the stories and can follow them , but ask them what the dalang said and you cannot get a straight answer, you get a recitation of the story, not a translation of the words that have been spoken.
As to the meaning of "Pandu", yes, it is the name of a ruler in the wayang, but the word itself is from Sanscrit, and I believe it means pale yellow.
From Sanscrit the word entered Kawi, and Kawi is the literary language of old Jawa, some words from Kawi came into everyday language.
Of course the wayang was a strong influence on Javanese society, and Javanese thought. This is well documented and a number of treatises on this subject have been published.
So, with all of this accepted it must not be surprising that we find names used for keris that can also be found in the world of the wayang.
Pak Gonjo, you yourself are Javanese, I am not, but even I understand the way in which Javanese people play games with words and meanings. Often something that has been said will have at least two possible meanings, and the meaning that is intended is the obscure, rather than the obvious one.Then we have the propensity of Javanese people to play with words, and alter those words as if the words themselves were the personal possessions of the user, and make those words mean whatever the user may care to make them mean, provided that the intent is understood. Over the time of my very long association with Javanese people I have seen this facility with words in action, but apart from my personal experience, this characteristic of the Javanese language has also been well documented by academics.
I do not want to be drawn into discussion on other keris names that have reflections in the wayang world. This is perhaps an interesting field to explore, but to diverge into that field now will only lessen the necessary attention to the matter in hand, which is the possibilities attached to the dhapur karno tinandhing, or karno tandhing.
Any conjecture as to the true and original reason responsible for the affixation of this name to this keris form is exactly that:- conjecture.
It is the expression of possibilities that cannot be proven one way nor the other.
To my mind, the agility of Javanese thought and fondness for hidden humour is well served by naming a keris with two equally matched "ears" sticking out on either side of its base as "dhapur equally matched ears" (dhapur karno tandhing), when the common thought that would readily come to mind amongst virtually all people would be "dhapur karno's duel" (dhapur karno tandhing).
The original maker of this dhapur was having a joke:- he presented it to his lord as a representation of a noted and well loved incident from the wayang, but in his heart he was laughing.
We cannot give "karna tinandhing" the sense "duel of the two brother of the same mother".
Only after we know the wayang story can we accept that this reference might prompt rememberance of the story.
Considered against the background of the Bratayudo "karno tinandhing" may perhaps be given the sense of "karno's duel", or "karno's contest", or "karno evenly matched", but in the mind of a man who sweated blood to earn his living and please his lord, I feel that the true sense of karno tandhing was possibly a little closer to reality.
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