I apologise for not playing the vote game.
For me to cast a vote, I would have to have an opinion, and I currently do not have a single firm opinion that I am prepared to defend.
I offer the following thoughts that may---or may not---be worthy of consideration.
1---at Prambanan the dagger which may be considered as an ancestor of the keris clearly shows a gonjo.This dagger is held with the pommel facing skywards, thus the wider section provided by the fitting of a gonjo has a gaurd-like effect in cushioning the heel of the hand in delivering a strike.
2---again at Prambanan the dagger which resembles a keris buda has the same feature of a gonjo.
3---observe the keris which is gonjo iras:- the sorsoran is seldom wide, the buntut urang is seldom substantial, evidence of forging difficulty is often found in the wadidang. My personal experience in forging a keris blade has been that it is quite difficult to forge out the wadidang and at the same time maintain adequate thickness.
4---the spiritual beliefs associated with the keris have developed over a very extended period. I believe it would be extraordinarily difficult to demonstrate the existence of any of these beliefs being attached to a dagger of an essentially Indian type, shown in Javanese reliefs of circa 900AD, but that is where we first see the gonjo.
5---the word "ganja" ( a note on spelling:- ganja is properly written with a dot over the "a"'s, and is pronounced "gonjo"; I prefer to write the word "gonjo" because that is how it is pronounced, and probably how most people in Central Jawa would write it)---to repeat, the word "ganja" is found in Old Javanese, but it appears not to be associated with any root word in Sanscrit , or Malay, or any other language. It appears not to be associated with any other word, in any other language, or with any other idea. At the present time I think we can assume it is a stand alone word with a single purpose:- to describe this part of the keris. I have made enquiries in respect of possible associations of this word, but although the people I have approached are at the top of their fields in Old Javanese, and in comparative linguistics, I have not yet had very enlightening responses from them. I personally feel that the way forward in solution of this question is to identify the root of the word. It may be from an Indian language, it may be original Javanese, but if it is original Javanese, it is a little strange that no associations can be tracked with other Old Javanese words.
It would not surprise me if at some time in the future we discover that the word "gonjo" derives from some archaic dialect of the Indian Sub-Continent, and carries the sense of "gaurd", or "pillow", or "support" or something similar.
Once we have a sense of meaning to the word, we can perhaps assume a reason for its original existence. In the mean time, consider how very painful it might be to recieve the full force of a strike on either the heel of the hand, or the first joint of the index finger, if the piece of metal against which that part of the body rested was narrow. Again consider the difficulties involved in forging and carving a blade with a thick, assymetric base , and a light, thin body to the rest of the blade.
As I said:- I have no opinions, only questions.
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