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Old 12th May 2009, 11:18 PM   #7
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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The recognition of individual characters represented in a hilt carving is difficult.

With Balinese figural hilts, some are quite easy to recognise, because of the attributes they carry, but these are virtually always characters who would fit the dewa classification.

In the case of Bali raksasa, or buta, characters, we are simply talking about a class of beings. Maybe the carver, or the person who commissioned the carving can identify the character, but an outsider will just call it a buta, or some other generic name.

With Javanese figural hilts, I doubt that anybody really knows what original character may have been depicted. I certainly have never heard any keris literate person in Jawa give an individual character name to any of the raksasa or dewa style hilts of Javanese origin.

A raksasa will always be shown to be a raksasa by virtue of his fangs.

These fangs are sometimes a bit difficult to identify, because they become stylised and often look like a moustache --- well, they do to me, anyway. But if you can find the fangs, you've got a raksasa. No fangs, something else.

When I get a bit of spare time I'll do some close-ups that might assist in explaining what I'm talking about.

Bulging eyes can be just an indicator of a crude character. In fact, in Balinese art, the way in which eyes, noses and facial characteristics are depicted indicate the nature of the character, so by looking at the features, even if you don't know who the character is supposed to be, you can tell if he (or she) is a refined person or roughneck.

In the Balinese carvings, the original Hindu way in which a certain character might be depicted can very often be changed, and the attributes added to or altered, or left out all together. For example, the Hindu Ganesh becomes Ganesha in Bali and half the time his trunk is cradled in the wrong hand, and his attributes are altered --- but he is still indisputably Ganesh. The carvers will know who they are carving, but they're not Brahmins, and they will often carve for artistic effect, or to suit the material, not necessarily to stay strictly within the bounds of formal Hindu requisites. It is always very unwise to try to interpret things Balinese in the terms of parameters that are mainstream Hindu.

With wayang type figures, it is much easier, as in my experience virtually all Javanese people know the characteristics of the wayang characters --- in fact, they will use these wayang character names to give a nickname to somebody who has the characteristics of a wayang character. A bit of a playboy might get dubbed Arjuna, somebody with a long pointy nose will be Petruk --- and so on. So, when we meet a Javanese wayang character in a hilt --- or any other representation for that matter --- nearly everybody would instantly recognise him.

If you wanted to study this subject of identification of hilt characters further, the place to begin would be by a study of Javanese and Balinese art and iconography. You will learn nothing about the subject by studying keris books.
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