Dear friends,
I hope that all of you and your families are withstanding well this new confinement period ahead of us....
A close friend of mine from Solo passed me a very interesting booklet (in Javanese language and tranlated into bahasa Indonesia) containing the tangguh records from the late Wirasukagda, who was the Chief empu at the Surakarta Hadiningrat Palace during the reign of Pakubuwana X (1893-1939).
This booklet is unique as for each tangguh, it describes the features of the krisses made by the various empus of the period, so not only the general ones as found in the reference Javanese kris books such as Keris Jawa and the EK. Of course it does not mean that the descriptions of the krisses attributed to the periods before the Mataram kingdoms are accurate (legendary?) but it constitutes the best information source about tangguh which I ever met.
The described tangguh start with Pajajaran and end with Surakarta PBX, with the notable exception of Yogyakarta.
I am starting the translation of the booklet into English but this will be a very difficult task for me because of my basic level in bahasa Indonesia, and the double translation from Javanese to Indonesian.
Has any of you got an English translation of this booklet which he could share with us?
Best regards