Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

nechesh · 3rd January 2006, 06:43 PM

I think that the reason no one wants to wade into this one is that frankly, no one really knows these answers for sure. We can certainly make a lot of guesses and who knows, they might be right, but much of this stuff is just lost information. There have been many in the more recent keris mysticism movement who will claim knowledge to the specific meaning of these parts and if you want you can take their word for it. If it has that symbolic meaning to them today then it is certainly true....for them. I have heard a number of things in regards to the "ron do", those curls on the top of the tail area and the greneng that follows behind it. One is that it is symbolic of writing and is an actual prayer. This seems to be harder to apply to the filings on Moro kris, especially later ones where these marks do not look all that much like writing to me. The figure common on the gandik side is most probably meant as an elephant, perhaps Ganesha, though of course, in Indo keris there are many variations that include Singo, Naga and human figures. Most of the Moro kris seem more elephant like, but i have an old Sulu piece that i would swear is a naga form.

3rd January 2006, 06:43 PM	#12
nechesh Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 940	I think that the reason no one wants to wade into this one is that frankly, no one really knows these answers for sure. We can certainly make a lot of guesses and who knows, they might be right, but much of this stuff is just lost information. There have been many in the more recent keris mysticism movement who will claim knowledge to the specific meaning of these parts and if you want you can take their word for it. If it has that symbolic meaning to them today then it is certainly true....for them. I have heard a number of things in regards to the "ron do", those curls on the top of the tail area and the greneng that follows behind it. One is that it is symbolic of writing and is an actual prayer. This seems to be harder to apply to the filings on Moro kris, especially later ones where these marks do not look all that much like writing to me. The figure common on the gandik side is most probably meant as an elephant, perhaps Ganesha, though of course, in Indo keris there are many variations that include Singo, Naga and human figures. Most of the Moro kris seem more elephant like, but i have an old Sulu piece that i would swear is a naga form.