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Originally Posted by marto suwignyo
Kudhis and kujangs are similar, and what I have found is that in Solo nobody makes any distinction between the two. An ahli tosan aji might, but ordinary people, craftsmen, dealers, tradespeople refer to kudhi, kujang, and in fact any other small,old, curved type blades as kudhis. This common usage may be wrong, but it is the way people right now refer to these things, in one specific location.
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Comment: The people of Solo (and under Solo) do not generally use kudi, which is more a pasisir tool. Utilitarian kudi are generally not pamor. I have never seen a kudi with pamor but have heard of it. I have however seen a kudi with a short handle. As to kujang there is much more than is in the Ensiklo-keris B.H.
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Originally Posted by marto suwignyo
Similar situation with the "bendho" shown on page 34 of van Zonneveld. Since this discussion started I have shown this picture to four different people who are all Javanese. I don`t have any idea at all what the name for van Zonneveld`s "bendho" is, but the other four people I have shown it to all want to call it a kitchen knife----simply "piso".Maybe the only person who could give the exactly correct name to this thing is somebody who lives where it is used.
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I would find it hard to believe that a Sundanese would use the word bendo because to the Sundanese ear the word would sound funny. I think VZ made a mistake.
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Originally Posted by marto suwignyo
The name bendho is not a generic name for something: it is a specific name for a specific tool but this tool does have some variations, just as a chisel, or a sickle , has variations, however, some people will call a bendho a parang, because parang is a generic name for machete type tools.
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If the bendho has a beak on top (to make it possible to be named an arit-gedhe) it can not be named a parang. However without the beak it could be a parang or a golok but that would not be the precise name. A parang is lighter like a sugarcane cutter, a Rwanda machette like in the films. A golok is finely made to function as a martial weapon as well as a utilitarian chopper. The bendho is the most humble and is not a martial weapon.
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Originally Posted by MARTO SUWIGNYO
I think all this just goes to show how very difficult it can be to try to put exactly correct names on any things from this part of the world. I`m not only talking about tools and weapons, but about anything at all. If we want to name something, the name should also include time and place.
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This is very true. For instance the word yoni in the keris world in Jawa now means the esoteric powers in the keris. It used to mean the female counterpart of the lingga(m). But a Solo prince used the word yoni in a seminar in the 80's and all followed suit, this story is in the Ensikeris.
....Marto, I live around 30 km from Sragen and the dalangs from my village perform in Sragen and vice versa. Around Sragen people know arit gedhe and also they should in Palur. Maybe, your wife, as a nice girl, never went to villages and forests or the kebun to collect firewood for if she did, she would have needed her arit gedhe and she would sometimes call it a bendho too. It is a desa tool. In the kota it is rarely needed.
Hormat,
K. Carita