Good questions Johan.
To clarify a point:-
In 1745 the House of Mataram relocated from Kartasura to Surakarta. This became necessary because the throne of Kartasura had been contaminated by civil rebellion, so the ruler of Kartasura sent out his representatives to find a new location for the Karaton (the place of the Ratu --- ruler --- ke-ratu-an = karaton =kraton) a suitable place was located in the valley of the Bengawan (Solo River), the name of the place was Solo.
When the Karaton relocated it was given the name of Surakarta Hadiningrat.
Karaton Surakarta Hadiningrat is the name of the walled city that is the dwelling place and seat of the principal branch of the House of Mataram. By extension, all the area that was formerly under the control of the ruler is known as Surakarta, but within this area there are various towns and villages, the major city is Solo, the old name of this area prior to 1745.
The city of Solo contains the Karaton of Surakarta, and shares its name. The popular abbreviation for Surakarta is SKA. and this abbreviation can be seen on public buses and in other usages.
Surakarta is more formal, Solo is more colloquial.
The first thing that must be understood about Javanese symbolism is that it is multi symbolism:- there is no one correct answer. The same symbol can and does have many interpretations according to the circumstances and situation.
The most usual, and the easiest to understand, of the interpretations of the faceted Javanese hilt is that it came into being in response to the Islamic prohibition on representing living things as physical objects. In Hindu Jawa, keris hilts were mostly figural and were associated with both the ancestors and with various deities. The multi-faceted hilt was an old Javanese form, and this was enhanced with carvings that were sufficiently abstracted to be acceptable to Islamic norms. These carvings are believed to be the vestigial remnants of the old figures which were previously used as hilts.
In Javanese thought the actual figure of the deity/ancestor does not need to be present, the only thing that needs to be present is the belief that the ancestor is constantly with one, thus the patra can be interpreted as "memory hooks" to constantly remind one of the presence of the deity/ancestor. This is a classical interpretation, and I have no doubt at all that very few present day Javanese people are even aware of this.
Johan, you have asked about the "Kala face". I am aware that this term "Kala" is thrown around fairly freely, but in fact Kala is Yama, the judge of the dead; "kala" is also the abstract idea of "time". The deity Bhoma, who is actually a deity of growth and nature is sometimes called "Kala", but in fact the two are opposites that take quite a bit of philosophical thought to reconcile.
The patra can more readily be understood as a generic interpretation as I have outlined above. It is unlikely that Bhoma alone was fixed upon as the model for the distillation that is the patra. Bhoma in an iconographic sense can be interpreted as a protective element. However, if we do wish to include Bhoma/Kala as an element represented in the patra, this can be understood as the inclusion of an additional protective element, as well as, not instead of, the ancestors.
Mankind is surrounded by an unseen world that is full of dark forces and evil, and it is impossible to have too much protection against this evil.
The wood used in the hilt looks like it might be timoho. I massaged the image of the hilt a bit to more clearly see it, I hope you don't mind.
In respect of the possible mix of the component parts of this keris. The mix of keris components is not at all unusual, in fact, if we consider the entire world population of keris, it is probably the norm,. Generally speaking, serious collectors prefer that all the component parts of a keris share a single origin, but at the present time many keris do exist which have genuine societally correct matings of blades from one place, scabbards from another place, hilts from somewhere else. There are many legitimate --- as well as illegitimate --- reasons for this.
As an example only:- if a Madurese man served as a mercenary for a Central Javanese lord, he would need to change at least the hilt of his keris to a form acceptable to his employer; if the scabbard for the keris was too far different to a Central Javanese form, he would change that as well.
Another factor that might explain the presence of a Central Javanese hilt form on a keris from a different area is that for some time now this planar form has become almost ubiquitous, just as the Surakarta form of dress has become almost the national standard.
The overall form of the Surakarta hilt is supposed to express the posture of a man in the presence of his lord, thus the slightly bowed "head" of the hilt, and the human terminology.
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