Meaning in a Balinese keris

[A. G. Maisey]

Firstly, a clarification:-

in my post #5 I wrote:-

"The first time I saw a keris with this extremely exuberant spiral ornamentation to the greneng was in the courtyard of a very well known Balinese m'ranggi and keris dealer, it was a recently made Madura keris, and it was hanging from the exposed framework of a small pavilion. When I asked why it was hanging there, along with a large number of other newly made keris I was told that all these keris were there to permit them to age naturally.

I have not seen this type of gonjo ornamentation in an old keris, only in recently made ones."

I was not referring to the similar exaggerated style that is shown in The Little Red Book.

It is the spiral treatment that I have only seen in recent keris.

The similar form that we see in the Ghiringhelli book, and again in the Jasper & Pirngadie book, looks like a forerunner of the spiral.

But what do I mean by "recent"?

Pretty spongy sort of expression, isn't it? Maybe I'm doing an imitation of Humpty Dumpty, you know:-

"When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

I need to stop reading Lewis Carroll.

With Javanese keris I probably think of recent as PBX era and later, but I think of post 1980 as kamardikan. Javanese people generally seem to think of keris after Sultan Agung as recent.

With Balinese keris I have come to the belief that after the puputans the rules of the game changed. I think of pre-puputan as still being a part of the old society, & thus an "old keris", and post-puputan as being a part of the new Bali, and thus a recent keris.

These are my own parameters, I'm not using something general here, just my own way of thinking about these things.

I've never given much thought to this spiral treatment in the greneng, but accepting the propensity for Balinese symbolism to be dominated by the number three, I am beginning to wonder just what symbolism might be intended to be conveyed by this substitution of a spiral for the more usual treatments found in the greneng.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Firstly, a clarification:-

in my post #5 I wrote:-

"The first time I saw a keris with this extremely exuberant spiral ornamentation to the greneng was in the courtyard of a very well known Balinese m'ranggi and keris dealer, it was a recently made Madura keris, and it was hanging from the exposed framework of a small pavilion. When I asked why it was hanging there, along with a large number of other newly made keris I was told that all these keris were there to permit them to age naturally.

I have not seen this type of gonjo ornamentation in an old keris, only in recently made ones."

I was not referring to the similar exaggerated style that is shown in The Little Red Book.

It is the spiral treatment that I have only seen in recent keris.

The similar form that we see in the Ghiringhelli book, and again in the Jasper & Pirngadie book, looks like a forerunner of the spiral.

But what do I mean by "recent"?

Pretty spongy sort of expression, isn't it? Maybe I'm doing an imitation of Humpty Dumpty, you know:-

"When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

I need to stop reading Lewis Carroll.

With Javanese keris I probably think of recent as PBX era and later, but I think of post 1980 as kamardikan. Javanese people generally seem to think of keris after Sultan Agung as recent.

With Balinese keris I have come to the belief that after the puputans the rules of the game changed. I think of pre-puputan as still being a part of the old society, & thus an "old keris", and post-puputan as being a part of the new Bali, and thus a recent keris.

These are my own parameters, I'm not using something general here, just my own way of thinking about these things.

I've never given much thought to this spiral treatment in the greneng, but accepting the propensity for Balinese symbolism to be dominated by the number three, I am beginning to wonder just what symbolism might be intended to be conveyed by this substitution of a spiral for the more usual treatments found in the greneng.

But isn't the example in the van Duuren book an example of this extremely exuberant spiral ornamentation. While we certainly can't jump to any conclusions on the age of this example from this one photograph i am willing to entertain the notion that this keris is very possibly pre-puputan. Other's mileage may vary.

[A. G. Maisey]

Klungkung in 1908 was the last of the early 20th century puputans.

Gustav has advised that the van Duuren example was donated in 1952, and his opinion is pre-1940.

J&P published in 1930 and Gustav has offered the possibility of pre-1920.

I cannot disagree with Gustav's estimates.

I've never seen that spiral ornamentation on any keris in Bali apart from the one I have already remarked on, I've never seen one anywhere else either, except for pictures in published works. Over the years there have been a few offered online, and those offerings were not old keris.

I'd like to see an example or two that dates with certainty from pre-1900, even better if we could get pre-1800. I'd like to hear some local Balinese opinions on it too, I did try to dig up an opinion or two some years ago, but the keris literate people I spoke with did not recognise the form.

[Gustav]

Keris from van Duuren's book was donated by the heirs of Willem Frederik Carel Cornelis Pijnacker Hordijk, who died in 1938. As almost always, it's not known where and when he collected it. I did find a resume of his life, there are no data of him working or traveling in Dutch East Indies.

But - his father was brother of Cornelis Pijnacker Hordijk (1847-1908), Governor-General of Dutch East Indies from 1888 to 1893. Judging from the names, there is a connection, possibly he could have been our guy's godparent.

So there is some chance this Keris is indeed pre-1908, and also some chance Willem Frederik Carel Cornelis just bought it in a curio shop in Amsterdam. Most likely we will never know.

[Gustav]

Possibly we should ask ourselves about the feature associated with Laler Mengeng, which also can be found on Gonjo.

[David]

Originally Posted by Gustav

Keris from van Duuren's book was donated by the heirs of Willem Frederik Carel Cornelis Pijnacker Hordijk, who died in 1938. As almost always, it's not known where and when he collected it. I did find a resume of his life, there are no data of him working or traveling in Dutch East Indies.

But - his father was brother of Cornelis Pijnacker Hordijk (1847-1908), Governor-General of Dutch East Indies from 1888 to 1893. Judging from the names, there is a connection, possibly he could have been our guy's godparent.

So there is some chance this Keris is indeed pre-1908, and also some chance Willem Frederik Carel Cornelis just bought it in a curio shop in Amsterdam. Most likely we will never know.

Like i said, i am willing to "entertain the notion". I agree that we probably will indeed never know. Thank for the additional info Gustav.

[David]

I don't wish to take the discussion outside the realms of keris, but i have noted that this spiraling feature can be found on the wideng of many old Javanese Wedung.

[A. G. Maisey]

Here are a few random thoughts that might be useful to follow through on:-

the base of a wedung blade sometimes does have the treatment such as David has shown, but at other times it has an engraved spiral, not dissimilar to the spiral on the keris shown by David van Duuren, but engraved, not fabricated. In the courts of Jawa the wedung is court wear specifically for those of the rank of bupati & above.

a spiral such as this is called a "widheng", but that is an oblique reference, because a "widheng" is a fresh water crab, and there is a Javanese motif named "lung widheng", which means "river crab tendrils".

when a widheng appears on a wrongko atasan it is supposedly the prerogative of a person of noble blood.

there is a nice little folk story about a high ranking Brahmin, a crab, a snake & and crow, briefly, the brahmin finds the river crab on top of a mountain & it looks half dead, so he places it inside his robe and carries it back to the river, then he sits down to rest. While he is resting a snake sees him and says that he would like to eat him, a crow hears the snake and says that he will help the snake because he would like to eat the brahmin's eyes, the rescued widheng overhears the snake & the crow talking, convinces them to stretch out their necks , the better to eat the brahmin, then the widheng strangles both of them, and the brahmin is saved.


connecting these things I think we might be able to see the place of the widheng as a protective symbol. Some searching on Javanese art motif symbolism might turn up something. In the story the Javanese word used for river crab is "yuyu", this is generic , the word "widheng" refers to a specific type of river crab, so in further searching both words should be considered

Do not confuse:-

wedung:- literally an axe or a chopper, but in tosan aji, a kind of symbolic jungle knife reserved for court wear by nobles

widheng;- a type of river crab