Quote:
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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Marius, one of the problems in identification of the characters depicted in Balinese hilts is that very often these characters are not sculpted in a way that will permit identification by the use of the traditional indicators.
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While i do understand your reluctance to ID this figure i do have to say that this hilt does indeed have indicators that
should allow us (or somebody) to identify it. While i certainly agree that the artists of many new Bali hilts tend to use a good deal of "poetic" license in their design, the hilt shown here by Marius does seem to follow fairly closely to the design of a commonly accepted Balinese hilt form which i believe has been around at least since pre-WWII times and perhaps earlier. The common indicators on these hilts are generally the body position, jeweled crown, right arm across the body holding a stylized fan (or mirror?), left hand in a mudra position usually with extended fingers (or nails?). Since this figure appears again and again with all of these same features i can only presume that there was originally some intention as to his identity beyond "royal figure". I have heard this figure referred to as Bayu for quite some time, but i am unaware of the exacting reasons for this identification. Bayu is a wind god AFAIK so perhaps people have regarded the fan as an indicator of that persona. Perhaps the mudra connects the figure as a godly one due to the ritual nature of the hand sign. I write this not to defend the attribution of Bayu per se since i cannot personally be sure that is correct from my own researched information, but only to point out that this particular figure has been used and portrayed in pretty much this same exact manner for enough time that it seems most likely to me that there must be some original intention as to the identity of this character, even if he has been mistakenly identified as Bayu all this time.
