[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, I am always very wary of early dated keris, possibly unjustifiably so, but when I consider societal structure, population & development of the Archipelago prior to 1600 all I can see are warning signs telling me to go slow.

Through to around the 1300's or maybe later, in Jawa, the evidence seems to point to the keris style still following pre-Islamic forms. Candi Sukuh is dated to the 1400's, and the several keris found in bas-relifs there are still Buda style. There are longer weapons represented at Candi Sukuh, & they do have some keris-like characteristics, but I think we would now call them "keris pedang".

The early spread of keris from Jawa seems to have been by way of gifts to rulers & other elites in societies with which Javanese kingdoms had trade links, one of the attached characteristics of the keris is as a binding instrument, a physical icon of the Naga Basuki (Vasuki), who does have a binding force. When the physical object was given as a token of friendship, the societal values & beliefs of Jawa did not follow, thus it is that we can find varying keris beliefs & values in societies where the keris is found.

In Jawa until the present day, we can find a belief that maintains that only a ruler can have a keris of 13 luk. This 13 luk is in accord with the current method of count, which in the older method of count, and one that seems to have been used by at least some people in Bali up to at least circa 1978, equates to a luk count of 11.

The number 11 is significant in Balinese society and in pre-Islamic Javanese society as the number associated with Siwa, and with a ruler, the representative of Siwa on earth, as the appropriate number of roofs on a meru dedicated to Siwa, and also to a ruler, not only upon the ruler's personal temple, but also upon his bale, the cremation tower.

If we can assume that the ornamentation on the keris in your possession was placed there at the time of manufacture --- & I believe we can assume this, since it is the foundation for kinatah work --- then this would seem to indicate that the keris itself was made in Sumatera, if indeed this ornamentation can be confirmed as being of a Sumatran style current in the 1500's.

The keris Si Ginjai was supposedly made by Empu Kinom & was gifted by Sultan Agung of Mataram to the ruler of Jambi in the mid-1500's by Javanese dates, or if using the Western system of dating, the first half of the 1600's.

It seems to be generally accepted that it was after this gift of Si Ginjai that the Modern/Islamic form of keris began to proliferate in Sumatera.

If all the above is so, ie, that the keris in your possession is a keris of Sumatran manufacture that dates from the early 1600's or earlier, then this does indeed seem to indicate that we all need to have a little bit of a re-think about the recorded history of (probably) the Archipelago in general.

However, it is --- to me at least --- quite understandable that we do find many more keris with a proliferation of luk from locations outside Jawa/Bali, than we find originating from Jawa/Bali.