Proper Bali Grip?

[A. G. Maisey]

Problem is Rick, we don't really know how Bali handles were attached way back when they were actually using the things.

I've had a couple of Bali keris that had the handles fixed with something like damar, so maybe this was general 100 years+ ago, but I don't know for sure.

If damar was used it would have given a very firm fix to the handle. Any tang that is set in damar will split the handle and bend the tang and blade before it ever comes loose. Sword tangs were set in damar, and those tangs are often not all that long. No way you can get a tang set in damar free without heating the blade to soften the damar.

This being so, there was no need to go to the Moro keris system.In any case, Bali blades are not near as substantial as Moro type blades.

[Rick]

I was unaware of Damar Alan; a plant resin ?

I guess this brings up the question of differing fighting systems with regards to Jawa and Bali.
The different grip could possibly be used for the overhand blow, or strike as well as the thrust.

[David]

Alan may be right about this. I also have a Bali keris that was fastened with some natural resin materal like damar and it was certainly a hardy grip. It took quite a bit of heating and wiggling to remove it. I would image that hilt would have remained extremely stable through use without ever gripping the actual blade.

[Emanuel]

Hello,

The last three comments above brought to mind this picture from http://old.blades.free.fr/home.htm
It shows a grip different from that of Jawa keris, as well as a common? wear of Balinese keris.

Regards,
Emanuel

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Emanuel, it does.

Problem is that these pics used to get set up and posed by the photographer. I don't think they can be regarded as 100% representative of reality. Actually, I've seen this pic somewhere. Can you save me from looking and give us a date?

[Emanuel]

Hello Alan,

You are quite right that the pose may be staged. The picture is on the website I indicated, and I remember seeing it in a book as well, but I cannot recollect which one at the moment. Unfortunately I cannot provide a date for it, as I do not even know its source.
I realize that the relief depiction on the [forgot the name] temple shows the Empu/Deity gripping the blade between his fingers, but I vaguely recall seeing a tapestry or painting of a Javanese battle which showed the warriors grasping the ukiran in a closed fist. I will look for it.
Wouldn't old paintings/depictions offer a reliable look at common wear? Of course, the subjects of these depictions would have dressed for the occasion I guess...

The few keris I have are of a Javanese style, so I cannot contribute to the discussion of Balinese hilts. I was thinking, however that a large Solo ukiran could also be held quite firmly without pinching the gonjo. It feels comfortable in hand. I have seen the grip you showed in a few books as well, and I understand that it is the accepted way of holding Jawa keris, but could this be a result of dance poses. I'm sorry to ramble like this, but pinching the gonjo between the index finger and the thumb seems like a very delicate way of gripping a weapon, akin to the intricate hand/finger movement in dances. I do not practice any martial art with weapons, so these are purely amateurish conjectures on my part.


Warn regards,
Emanuel

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm no martial artist either Emanuel, and frankly, I seriously doubt that we can look towards present day martial arts practice as a guide to how a weapon was used more than 200 years ago (in the case of Jawa).

I base my ideas on the grip used for a Javanese keris upon personal instruction from perhaps one of the last professionals to use a keris as a weapon; what I was taught seems to be in broad agreement with the pinch grip illustrated in , I think Hill, and possibly some other places.

The Javanese relief carvings show a different grip, used with a fore-runner of the modern keris, but in one relief at Panataran, it would be possible with considerable imagination to see a pinch grip in use.

When it comes right down to it, we can really only speculate about how a Javanese keris was held and used when it was actually used as a serious weapon, because by the beginning of the 19th century it had already become something other than purely a weapon.

However, the Balinese keris is a cat of a different colour. It was still used as a weapon up until the Dutch took control of South Bali in the early 20th. century.

Even though use of the keris as a weapon , comes closer to our own time, in Bali, it seems we still don't know very much about how it was held to be used. Again, we are only speculating, but I do think that in the case of Bali, we might be on slightly firmer ground than with Jawa. Nobody wraps a handle with non-slip twine, nor cuts deep non-slip notches in a handle, if that handle is not meant to be firmly held.

In respect of wear of the keris, I have worn a sarung as "at home dress" for most of my adult life. I can assure you that a Balinese keris stuck into the back of a sarung as it is in that picture , would not stay there until you got out the front gate.Even with a setagen, as used by Javanese people when in formal dress, I think it is doubtful that a Bali size keris would be practical to wear in this position.

[VVV]

The picture above of the Lombok Warriors is dated 1870-1890, photographer unknown, in the picture archive of Tropen.
Here are two additional pictures I found on the Internet.
The first is also from Lombok, but 1947.
The second I have no info on date etc.

Michael