Keris to comment

[Bjorn]

Originally Posted by David

I think what we can now see shows why you identified this figures as Singo rather than Naga. They have front legs and paws, not a feature generally shown on Naga. They also seem to have manes. Then again the legs seem to have scales.
I believe we have already established this keris as Kemardikan. As such, many of the rules of presentation go out the window. To my eye the creatures represented on this blade are neither Naga or Singo. Perhaps they were created to be a combination of both. This is a nicely crafted and elaborately dressed bit of modern keris art. I don't believe we can hold it to any of the standards of pakem or say for sure exactly what the creatures on the blade are intended to be as they don't seem to fit into any traditional form.

In his original post, Ridho identified the figures as singo kilin. The kilin part here seems to be key. The kilin/kirin/qilin is a mythological chimera, which I believe has it's origin in East Asia. There are many representations of qilin with scales, which fits with the way the figures on this keris are depicted. In this regard, we could say the depiction fits the traditional form of the qilin, a non-indigenous chimera, rather well.