BUNTEL MAYAT

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Then again, perhaps we should ask ourselves why any Javanese empu would set out to produce a pamor that no sane person would have in his house.

This is the question that i have always asked myself.
Ganja quotes Harsrinuksmo as saying "It is said that Buntel Mayit has no good tuah (influence?) and bring unfortune to the owner. Though, it will be good for strong people."
Firstly this is a contradiction. If it will be good for some strong people then it must have some good tuah. Why would anyone commission a keris to be made for themselves that would destroy them over time?
It seems very likely to me that the negative reputation this pamor has received in Jawa is due to a confusion and misunderstanding of words.

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by David

It seems very likely to me that the negative reputation this pamor has received in Jawa is due to a confusion and misunderstanding of words.

David,
I think not merely due to a confusion and misunderstanding of words. Javanese people used to relate their opinions with reality, daily and personal reality. This is a hypothesis: There was maybe a misfortune experience of certain Javanese authority in the past (usually, he was king or ruler) relating to such pamor. So, maybe it was a kind of "authoritarian truth". What the ruler's saying (based on his own experience), regarded by certain Javanese people -- to be the truth.

I will try to find example of this. Once I've found such case, while I was reading the Babad Tanah Jawi (a Historiography of Jawa). Someone said in the babad: "Don't use such and such keris, because it will bring misfortune for everybody...," I will try to find this example, in Babad Tanah Djawi (Republished in Javanese latin character, by a Groningen Dutch publisher around 1938).

Ganjawulung