Nenggala is, I believe, North Coast Jawa terminology for this blade form, in Central Jawa it is known as a "Cis" (pron. : "chis"). The Javanese word "cis" means "angkus" or "elephant goad".
In East Jawa it is known as "pancing buaya" = "crocodile fish hook", for the very good reason that it was used as a crocodile spear.
In parts of East Jawa these were still being made & used as crocodile spears up until about 1950.
Interestingly, the word "nenggala" means "plough" in some dialects & in Balinese, it does not take much imagination to understand the similarity in form of this blade shape to the shape of a Javanese/Balinese plough blade.
Gustav
Do we know where in Raffles that this word "nenggala" appears, & if it is connected to a picture of the implement under discussion?
Amongst the plates following P296, Vol.1 there is picture of a spear that has a "forked" head, both double & single examples, that is very vaguely similar to the nenggala, but it is identified as a "tumpuling".
This name might indicate it is some sort of hunting spear : "tumpu/numpu" means to hunt , I think specifically to hunt deer --- these are guesses, but informed guesses.
Last edited by A. G. Maisey; 4th August 2023 at 09:22 AM.
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