Proper Bali Grip?

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm no martial artist either Emanuel, and frankly, I seriously doubt that we can look towards present day martial arts practice as a guide to how a weapon was used more than 200 years ago (in the case of Jawa).

I base my ideas on the grip used for a Javanese keris upon personal instruction from perhaps one of the last professionals to use a keris as a weapon; what I was taught seems to be in broad agreement with the pinch grip illustrated in , I think Hill, and possibly some other places.

The Javanese relief carvings show a different grip, used with a fore-runner of the modern keris, but in one relief at Panataran, it would be possible with considerable imagination to see a pinch grip in use.

When it comes right down to it, we can really only speculate about how a Javanese keris was held and used when it was actually used as a serious weapon, because by the beginning of the 19th century it had already become something other than purely a weapon.

However, the Balinese keris is a cat of a different colour. It was still used as a weapon up until the Dutch took control of South Bali in the early 20th. century.

Even though use of the keris as a weapon , comes closer to our own time, in Bali, it seems we still don't know very much about how it was held to be used. Again, we are only speculating, but I do think that in the case of Bali, we might be on slightly firmer ground than with Jawa. Nobody wraps a handle with non-slip twine, nor cuts deep non-slip notches in a handle, if that handle is not meant to be firmly held.

In respect of wear of the keris, I have worn a sarung as "at home dress" for most of my adult life. I can assure you that a Balinese keris stuck into the back of a sarung as it is in that picture , would not stay there until you got out the front gate.Even with a setagen, as used by Javanese people when in formal dress, I think it is doubtful that a Bali size keris would be practical to wear in this position.