Catalogue of my collection

[BluErf]

As promised, pictures from K. Jensen's book Den Indonesiske kris.

1st 2 are hilts referred to in the book as 'Siva Bhairava'. The next 3 are referred to as 'stylized rakassas'

The Shiva hilt's posture (rajalila, I believe) is quite different from the realistic Rashaksa hilt's.

The stylized rashaksa hilts have a slightly more angular form compared to my example, but it supports the theory that my hilt could really be an abstract form of rashaksas.

The interesting thing however, is that the Shiva hilts were collected in the early 1600s while the stylized ones in 1690 (except the 3rd one, which was 1700s). In the book, there were many realistic rashaksa forms collected from the early 1600s (and dated to earlier periods because they were already old and worn when collected then) right up to the 1800s. This could mean that there was/and still is a period of co-existence between the realistic forms and the stylized forms.

Of course I would admit that I am relying on Mr K. Jensen's books and his pictures in postulating that my example is an abstract rashaksa.

Hidayat, a fellow member at Kampung net, shares that the realistic form is called 'Putro Satu' while the abstract form is called 'Putri Satu'. Putro means son while Putri means daughter. This could be a recent terminology like the 'wadon' term that has been given to the famous hilt that was commonly referred to as a form of Durga in another earlier (and very heatedly debated) thread. The thing is, the original terms for these hilts could have been 'lost'.