[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Michael, what you say about the way in which words change when they move from one place to another is very true, that is the reason that I mentioned that perhaps we are not looking for ganja/gonjo at all. However, when we look at Old Javanese, what we find is that a lot of words have moved through into Old Javanese, and Kawi, virtually unchanged from what they were in Sanscrit.

This change is not only apparent when words move from one language to another, but in the same language, over time.

Do not forget that people with one set of language skills may not be able to produce the sounds of another language. For instance, in Australia's colonial days the English word "bullock" was rendered by Australian aboriginals as "bolong". I'm sure we can all come up many examples of this type of thing.Look at the name of the thing we are discussing. Because of the restrictions of the modern English keyboard it gets spelt with "a" 's. If you were not Javanese you would not know that it was really pronounced as if those "a" 's were "o" 's. Things change.Maybe in a hundred years everybody will pronounce "ganja" with "a" for "apple".

Let us not become lost in hypothesis.It would be very easy to do. For instance, in the Nawanatya how is the keris mentioned?
"The keris, a token of manfulness has its place at the front"
Even way back then the keris was recognised in a symbolic sense.
Now, if it is the token of a man, what would be more natural than to give a man's name to it, or to part of it?
In Sanscrit, the words "gungu" and "ganga"(again with a different pronunciation) are masculine names.

But what was the word used for keris at that time in history?
Amongst some other possibilities, it was "twek".

Let's get back and actually look at the thing we are talking about.

Right at the very beginning of its history, long before it assumed the form it has today, long before it became representative of the Cosmic Naga, long before acquired it all of the mystical baggage that is part and parcel of keris belief systems today, right at its birth, we have a graphic representation of it being used to stab downwards, with the pommel pointing at the sky.
Within the same time frame we have other graphic representations of another style of dagger that is the same as the assymetric grandfather of our keris, but this other dagger is symmetrical. It is something quite similar to some Indian daggers, and has a decidedly Indian leaf shaped blade. It is probably not drawing too long a bow to call it a jamdhar katari.

Both these daggers have a feature that is recogniseable as what we would today call a "gonjo".

In Indian and western daggers that are used in the way in which we see these early daggers being used, there is normally found a fairly substantial gaurd that supports the heel of the hand and allows a strike to be delivered with the full force of a hammer blow.

I think it is obvious that the purpose of the "gonjo" in these early daggers was the same as the purpose of a guard in western and Indian daggers:- to support the heel of the hand, and to allow full force to be used with a strike.

Over time and for a number of reasons, the shape of the keris changed, and the way in which it was used changed. I doubt that this happened in a rush, and if we look at the transitional keris that bridge the gap between the keris buda, and the modern keris, what we can see is a blade that could be used to strike down, as with the early daggers shown at Prambanan, or to thrust as with a rapier.I think we can probably assume that for a time the dagger which eventually became the keris as we know it, was used to both stab---a la Prambanan--- and to thrust.
The design of the blade was already established, and methods of use followed the blade form, thus, the "gonjo" that had served as a support for the heel of the hand, now became a support for the index finger.
In short, the existing design was satisfactory, so it underwent minimal alteration.
Probably by the time of the appearance of the modern keris, the keris had already assumed some symbolic value, and we all know that nobody in their right mind fools around with symbols too much. Thus, the gonjo was here to stay.

Ok, so you got a keris, you gotta have a gonjo. Tradition dictates that there just ain't no keris without a gonjo. Take the gonjo away:- you don't got a keris no more.

The method of making a keris was already well established, and was a product of the original lineage of the keris, as well as the available technology.Thus, by this time in the history of the keris, if you wanted a keris, it had to have a gonjo, and that gonjo was produced and fitted in a particular way.

I am convinced that what I have written above is probably a fairly accurate depictation of the origin of the gonjo on a keris, and the reason we still have it on a keris today.

But there is still that question that has not been answered, and that I have been trying to answer for more years than I care to remember:-

what is the origin and meaning of the the word "gonjo/ganja".

To me, that is the big question.

Why?

Because if it can be fixed to a meaning such as "gaurd", or "support" or similar, and if we can fix a date to its use with this sense, we can say:--OKlah, at this point in history it is probable that the keris was still regarded in Jawa as having primarily a weapon nature.

But---if we can fix a meaning to "gonjo" that carries some esoteric sense, or even symbolic sense, and we can place that usage and sense in a time frame, we can say:- at around such and such a point in time, in Jawa, the keris had already assumed such and such a role in society.

This question that Rick has asked is not just some simple little light weight curiosity that that can be settled by application of present day silat styles, or present day philosophical beliefs, or present day collector's desires. This is one of the really big questions associated with the keris, and it goes right to the heart of the history and development of the keris.

This is an important question, and we do not yet have nearly sufficient information or knowledge to be able to form opinions. At least, I do not.

What was the meaning and origin of the word "gonjo/ganja", and when was it first used?

Answer that and you have made a giant leap forward in keris knowledge.