Collection of Sajen

[David]

Originally Posted by TikusLaut

Hello, this would be my first post in the forum, and I must admit I am hesitant, not being confident in my limited knowledge of rather a confusing subject. However, I am interested in the differences between the examples Sajen has shared, and the early excavated examples I am familiar with, (I apologise for the low quality of the figure included) in which the figures are standing rather than seated, more similar to the (admittedly limited number) of dongson hilts I have seen. I wonder what could account for this, and if one group could be identified as older, or of a different region.

Also, I might add, whatever relevance it might have: Bapah Kadir has suggested that the examples found in the area of east Java are characterized by a slight inclination of the head to the right, versus those from west Java are more uniformly upright.

Finally, although somewhat unrelated: I recently read that princess Darawati, (Dwarawati, or Anarawati) who married Kertawijaya (Brawijaya V, or Angka Vijaya?) in the 15th century may not have been from Champa at all, but rather from south Sumatra... I do not know if it's ok to link the blog which asserts this. I would be curious if anyone else has an opinion on the matter.

Ok, I hope my first post remained faux pas free!
-Alex

Hi Alex. Welcome to the forum. Don't worry, i think we all find this subject a wee bit confusing. The information you have added is interesting if it can be verified. Though i must admit my ignorance of who Bapah Kadir is and what evidence be presents to affirm this claim.
As for your last bit, it is certainly alright to link to blogs and other none commercial sites within a discussion, however i don't quite see how the marriage of princess Darawati and Kertawijaya is pertinent to this particular conversation.

[TikusLaut]

Thanks for your response! Bapah Kadir is just someone with a collection of old Sajen who knew the archaeological source of each piece, and suggested that differentiation. I thought it worth mentioning for anyone who has some Sajen and knows where they came from, so that they could look for this inclination of the "head" and possibly verify or refute the notion.

As for princess Darawati, I thought that maybe if she was from Champa, we could then begin to see if certain motifs or items originating from Champa were introduced to Majapahit art at that time. Then we could look at the age of those forms, or otherwise to see if any of those forms survived within the region that Dongson daggers have been found between the time that they were produced and the 15th c. If we saw that there was an influence from Champa at that time, it might be a piece of the puzzle at least to discovering where the idea for the "sajen" began. Of course all of that might only be worth looking into if there were first some indication of interaction between the empires, e.g. intermarriage, and might be a bit of a waste of time if it turned out that what we thought was a royal connection was in fact just between south Sumatra and Majapahit. So for your consideration: https://nusantarahistory.wordpress.com/tag/darawati/
https://nusantarahistory.wordpress.com/tag/darawati/