Wedung for sharing

[A. G. Maisey]

Detlef, I do not know "kudhup" in BI, neither does Mr Echols nor his mate Mr Shadily. Echols & Shadily has been the recognised BI/English & English/BI dictionary for 60 years.

I know the word "turi" & that is the same in both BI & in Modern Javanese, it is a little tree with pretty pink & white flowers. In fact the shape of the bud of the turi flower is shaped much like this motif on the scabbard.

I know the word "khudup" in Javanese, it means a flower bud... my knowledge of Javanese has improved a bit since 2015.

So "khudup turi" means "bud of the turi flower".

I do not know the symbolic intent of this motif, or if indeed there is one. However, one of the names of the turi flower is Agastya and in ancient India it was considered a sacred flower, Agastya was a respected rishi, or sage.

We eat the young buds raw and the flowers are eaten with pecel (peanut sauce), this turi flower supposedly has some medicinal qualities but I do not know what these are.

One idea that occurs to me about this motif is that it might perhaps symbolise the hierarchical position of the wearer, in that it seems to only appear on princely wedung scabbards and princes are in the position of waiting for somebody to die so that they can blossom into their full potential role. Just an idea, I have never heard this, but it is representative of Javanese thought.

I have never owned nor had the opportunity to purchase a wedung that bore this motif on the scabbard, and I have had and now do have a few old ones, good ones, and ones that were the prerogative of princes. The wedungs I have seen photos of that have this motif on the scabbard all have the appearance of 19th century, perhaps this was a style that was in vogue at some point during the 19th century only.

I have run the phrase "kudhup turi" past a couple of native speakers neither of them can relate anything that might sound like "khudup turi" to the idea of dozing off.

EDIT

I thought I had something in my files about the turi flower, I did have:- the flower is associated with Siwa (Shiva), it is sacred to him, and it is symbolic of the creation of new life, as it represents both the male and female sexual organs.