Balinese hulu

[Anthony G.]

Originally Posted by Jean

A very fine & detailed modern carving (a bit overdone) with a very expressive face and plenty of Hindu symbols (Bhoma, naga, etc).
It may depict Guru Agastya, a Hindu ascet, or simply a balinese priest (pendita), this style of figure is quite common.

Guru Agastya?

I did not know this person until you mentioned it and do some read up on the internet. I tend to think it might be Guru Agastya based on the sculpture and those photo i saw on the net.

Many thanks Jean for sharing.

[Jean]

I attach the pics of 4 hilts in similar style (bearded priest or sage). The attribution to Guru Agastya was taken from Martin Kerner. The third specimen is supposed to depict "Empu Barada" according to a Javanese keris specialist.
Regards

[Anthony G.]

Originally Posted by Jean

I attach the pics of 4 hilts in similar style (bearded priest or sage). The attribution to Guru Agastya was taken from Martin Kerner. The third specimen is supposed to depict "Empu Barada" according to a Javanese keris specialist.
Regards

interesting. Thanks for sharing

[A. G. Maisey]

Possibly we can see Mpu Barada here Jean, possibly.

Or maybe we can see whatever it is that we wish to see.

In this third picture I can see a figure that is perhaps supposed to represent a priest, but what kind of priest?

Normally, a Buddhist priest would hold the bell in his left hand, and if using the vajra, he would hold that in his right hand.

I believe, but am not certain, that a Hindu priest would also hold the bell in his left hand, but in Bali I have see Hindu priests use both right & left hand for the bell.

In the Nagarakertagama Mpu Barada is identified as a Buddhist priest.

This hilt figure that is supposedly a depiction of the Honourable Mpu Barada shows the bell in the right hand. Perhaps that might be a vajra in his left hand.

Surely a Buddhist priest as respected as was Mpu Barada would know what hand to hold his bell in?

Did Mpu Barada get his left hand confused with his right, or did the carver not know right from left, or as is very often the case we simply cannot assign definite personalities to Balinese keris hilt carvings?

[Jean]

I agree about the uncertainty and confusion of the hilt attribution to a specific figure but it does not detract from their artistic value.
To further add to it, I attach the pics of a well-known reference book about Bali/ Lombok kris hilts from an experienced Dutch author.
Regards

[A. G. Maisey]

Very probably interesting Jean, but I cannot read Dutch, and I cannot see the pictures particularly well.

I do not consider that all Balinese hilts , or for that matter, all figural hilts, are unable to be aligned to known characters, but personal experience involving several very well known and respected carvers in Bali has caused me to rather unwillingly accept that hilt carvers are not usually possessed of the type of knowledge that would permit them to unerringly depict folk characters and religious characters in a way that always will permit a person other than the carver to identify that character.

Then there is the widely acknowledged fact that Balinese folk & religious characters are frequently interpreted by artists in ways and forms that make them unrecognizable if they are compared to the established forms from Hindu belief and in the case of folk characters, from generally accepted belief.

Where this matter of keris hilt characters is concerned I think we just need to accept that some questions cannot be answered.

Might it not be reasonable to assume that somebody as knowledgeable and as respected in the field of Balinese art as Pande Wayan Suteja Neka would have not the slightest difficulty in naming hilt characters?

Most especially so when Pak Neka is in a position where he can easily call upon many other knowledgeable Balinese art authorities, keris enthusiasts and craftsmen & artists.

But if we thumb through his Bali keris book, and then carefully read the exhibit tags in his keris museum, I feel that we might be excused for believing that even somebody in such a fortunate position as Pak Neka is sometimes at a loss for a name, and at other times perhaps a little confused.

Maybe the only way one can really know the identity of some keris hilt characters is to make the appropriate offerings and then go to sleep with a hilt under one's pillow. The correct answer will come in a dream.

Going back a few years I raised this question of identities of the characters represented in keris hilts with a well known Balinese hilt carver. Stripped of the fifteen minutes or so of verbal padding his answer came down to this:-

"when we carve a figure we do not always try to make that figure look like a person from a story, mostly we carve a figure that is intended to generate an idea, but this can change when we carve a figure that is so well known that people expect it to look like who it is supposed to be"

Nobody seems to be in doubt about Nawasari when he appears, but when we meet with a broadly generic figure the carver might have been doing what I was told:- he was attempting to carve a figure that would cause an idea to be formed.

[Jean]

Thank you Alan, I agree that the pics are small and about what you say about the hilts ID; the book from Neka caused me a lot of confusion while writing my hilt book.....