Interpretation of the Pre-Islamic Javanese Keris

[A. G. Maisey]

In the late 1970's I wrote the draft of an article on keris symbolism. At that time I understood very little about keris, and after reflection I decided not to publish this article.

In 1982 in Bali I met and spoke with a Brahmin of advanced age. I gained some quite startling insights from this conversation and I wrote the draft of another article, which once again I decided not to publish.

From the early 1980's onwards I wrote a lot of drafts, and published a few articles, but I did not publish anything that touched on the things that I considered to be really important.

In September 2011 I wrote the first draft of an article in which I have attempted to bring together knowledge and ideas that I have gathered over the last 30 years or so. This article has now been published in the Journal of the Antique Arms Collectors Society of Australia.

I have produced an on-line version which can be read here:-


http://kerisattosanaji.com/INTERPRETATIONPAGE1.html


I would request anybody who wishes to read this article to read the Preface very carefully before diving headlong into the actual article.

Hard copies of the Journal in which this article has been published are available, and anybody who wishes to obtain one should contact me for details.

[kai]

G'day Alan,

Wow, thanks a lot for this article! Kudos for your longtime efforts and sharing your ideas!

I will certainly need time to carefully digest it and will try give you feedback later...

Regards,
Kai

[rasdan]

Wow.. Have not finished reading it, but I have an instinct that this publication will clear up many of my unfinished thoughts on keris symbolism that had been lingering in my mind for quite some time. Precious! Thanks Alan!

[Jean]

Alan,
What a fascinating and novel article in my view, very documented and clearly written, congratulations and thanks! I was privileged to receive it few weeks ago and read it carefully but I will need to come back to it several times for fully absorbing it, and it gave me the motivation to learn more about the Javanese and Balinese culture as you strongly invite us to do!
Best regards

[Montino Bourbon]

this is an excellent article. I just read the whole thing, and plan on going back and rereading it very slowly.

[Rick]

I think the research combined with the hands-on experience at the forge makes for a compelling argument .

[Jussi M.]

It is indeed a rare occasion when paradigms do shift. Shall this article become the catalyst of such a event thus remains to be seen in the decades to follow. Regardless the possible outcome(s) the article itself is a triumph achievement and deserves to be treated as such regardless whether one chooses to agree, or disagree, with the actual information embedded on it. Past facts and findings we humans usually end up seeing what we want to see and hearing what we want to hear. In this regards the keris represented and still continues to represent a system of belief. I personally will most probably never look at a keris like I did before reading this article. Thank you.

[Rick]

Maybe you'll even count the luks differently .

[A. G. Maisey]

I don't think its a good idea to count the luk in the different way that I have suggested was used during Majapahit times. That was possibly a system that applied at that time, but there has been 500 or so years of a tradition with a variant base in place since then. I'm not urging change, only understanding.

[Tatyana Dianova]

It took me more than week to read the article – I can only imagine what time and effort it took to write it down! Alan, it’s really great that you have found a time and desire to publish the article and share your really insightful and deep research!
The presented Keris interpretation looks really convincing to me: it is straightforward and simple, and what is simple must be also true! It would be also interesting to know, why Keris has obtained its asymmetrical outline – on the early carvings its form is symmetric.
What is also interesting is the Shiva symbolism in Keris, which can be applied perfectly to the symbolism of Indian Katar! The triangular grooves and the tree of life on the central ridge of many Katar are even more obvious than on Keris. And there are Katar which have a wavy tree of life on the central ridge – maybe another food for new ideas :-) ?

[A. G. Maisey]

I cannot comment on katar Tatyana, this was not a part of what I looked at, but it certainly does seem that the same or similar iconography can also be read in katar form.

Tatyana, we cannot take early monumental representations of keris as exact photographic depictions of keris, in addition, we cannot know with any certainty what the people of Hindu-Jawa regarded as keris. It is very possible that what we call a keris had a number of other weapons that shared a common classification, but bore different names. The word "keris" itself is a lower Javanese word (ngoko) in Modern Javanese, whilst in the higher levels of Javanese there are other terms for a keris, and the use of these other terms depends upon the situation. In Old Javanese there are a number of words that are commonly translated as "keris", but we do not know if the original word in Old Javanese is what we think of as a keris. However, it is certain that our Modern Keris was a part of the classification of weapons that could be considered as a "keris" in literary,societal and cultural terms.

In the earliest depiction of a true keris, the relief carving at Prambanan, the essential features of what we regard as a keris are clearly shown, however, in later East Javanese depictions the weapons shown in carvings must be interpreted as "keris" for various reasons. For example, in the case of the Sukuh lingga, the gunungan form and the text does not permit this weapon to be understood in any other way than as a keris, but as I have said, what the Hindu-Javanese people regarded as falling within the classfication of "keris" and what we recognise as a "keris" may not be exactly the same. There is a very well known carving of a monkey warrior in the Panataran reliefs waving a dagger that is probably intended as a keris, but it is perfectly symmetric. Very often when this carving is shown in Indonesian publications the photo is retouched to give this weapon a form that is closer to our idea of a keris.

It is probably unlikely that many of these carvers had ever seen a real keris, let alone held one. In Hindu Jawa the true keris was limited to the ksatriya caste, it was not a widespread object. People along the north coast copied the aristocrats of the kraton, but they did not really understand what they were copying, so what they had was very probably often an interpretation of the keris, maybe not exactly the same as the keris worn within the ksatriya caste. Probably carvers often worked from a description of a keris, rather than an actual keris.

The simple answer is that when we look at early Javanese carvings, or Javanese artifacts, we cannot necessarily understand what we are looking at in the absence of prior knowledge of time, situation, intent, and accompanying texts.

Its pretty much a matter of having to interpret what we see in terms applicable to the time and place of origin or execution. The one thing we cannot do is to use modern terms of reference in attempts to understand carvings created by people in an entirely different cultural and societal setting from our own.

[Bjorn]

Alan, you produced a thought-provoking and thoroughly enjoyable paper. Your hypotheses seems very plausible and it's fascinating to think of how keris were adopted as a form of societal regulation by Gajah Mada. Logically, it all makes a lot of sense and I do hope this will spur further research into the modern keris and its origins in the Mojopohit era.

The luk hypothesis also seems sound and, I think, intuitive in that a keris novice is more likely to count 11 waves than 13 (as least this was my experience with my very first keris).
Related to this, different numbers of luk are said to have different qualities, e.g. five luk symbolizing the hope of the owner to become a skilled speaker. Based on your paper I would guess that these meanings are applicable to the Islamic era rather than the Mojopahit era. This is just something that crossed my mind.

I also really enjoyed reading about the symbolism of the gonjo and how so much of the keris' form and symbolism can reference to the churning of the milky ocean.

My appreciation of the keris as a symbolic microcosm has been strengthened after reading your paper. I love how there is always more to learn about keris and the society it sprang from. This paper is definitely required reading for anyone with a genuine interest in keris. Many thanks!

PS: For those who are interested in learning more about Indonesia's history and who as of yet know very little, I would recommend "A Short History of Indonesia: The Unlikely Nation?". It offers a great introduction to the country's history and an excellent platform on which to base further reading.

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for your comments, Yuuzan.

In respect of the present day understanding of the keris, yes, investigation will show that a very large part of that understanding can be tied to beliefs that have their roots in Islam.

Something else that needs to be remembered is that with anything of an esoteric nature in virtually any culture there are several layers of understanding.

The popular understanding, that is, the understanding that is permitted to the lay-person, is often only vaguely related to the understanding of the initiate, and even the understanding of the initiate will have one or more layers behind it.

Over time those layers tend to erode in one direction and develop in another direction, and eventually the understanding that was the foundation upon which the system of belief was founded becomes a travesty of the original ideas. As time passes, the fabric of the system is stretched this way and that, tears appear in the fabric, parts of it become lost and patches are added to it. Eventually the weft, the warp and the motifs of the original fabric become unrecognisable and come to reflect the characteristics of the major societies that have adopted the system of belief.

This can perhaps most easily be seen in the belief systems that are the major religions.

The keris belief system is no different.

[Richard Furrer]

Beautiful words Alan.

Ric

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you Ric.

Alan.

[auk]

thanx fore the article its verry usefull great research
greetings auk

[manteris1]

thanks alan, i know more now and some day i'll known more i'm just a beginner, i'm learning, it but its slow......................jimmy

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you gentlemen.

Yeah, it is slow Jimmy, and worse still, you never really know. At best you gain plausible insights.