What is the meaning behind this gandik type?

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As keris become more recent we find meditating figures(puthut), buffalo, tigers, lions, manglar monggo, garudas, in fact a whole menagerie of motifs. A nice foundation for a collection could perhaps be to collect only keris with figural motifs --- what we call "picture keris".

- emphasis added -

Greetings,

this idea of concentrating ones collection focus onto "picture keris´s" only sounds good in that it would make easier to stay the course: "no picture, on the keris, I´ll pass". Thus temptations would be easier to evade as the mass to choose from would be considerably lower?

However would this be a riskier approach for the novice keris student in that there would be a higher risk of landing with a fraud than if one were to focus on the "less pictoral", more "regular", keris, pun intended? I´m talking about post original manufacture alterations provided for making the market value higher. Hallucination?

Thanks,

J.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Jussi, what you’ve said is certainly true:- if one were to focus only on picture keris, it is possible that one could buy some comparatively expensive keris that were not what they pretended to be. However, unfortunately this is true of virtually all attractive older keris.

The talented craftsmen of jawa have been busy for over 100 years in altering unattractive older blades and turning them into much more attractive blades. One of the most popular alterations is to make a hujan mas pamor out of a wos wutah pamor; same for bendo sagodo; in fact same for any surface manipulated pamor, but hujan mas is probably the most popular because it is a very popular pamor.

Tuban blades were often very big, heavy blades, but these days it is extremely rare to find come across one of these old “super size” Tuban blades, and they have become extremely valuable because of their rareity.

What happened to all the others? Used up over the last 100-150 years by turning them into picture keris, waved keris, keris with fancy surface manipulated pamor.

So the fact of the matter is that anybody who has a focus on old keris, simply because they are old, has an extremely high possibility of buying something that has been fiddled with --- and it is not at all easy to always pick these changelings, even with much experience. I’ve been tricked more than a few times, as have some very highly respected keris experts whom I know and have known.

Actually some of the picture keris alterations are worth keeping as masterpieces. I doubt that there has been anybody during the last 40 years or so who has been able to do this sort of alteration convincingly.

So its not just novice collectors who are at risk Jussi, its all of us are. I guess that is one of the major reasons for the high popularity of kemardikan keris, and sky high prices of non-noman keris. At least with these types of keris you can be pretty certain of exactly what you are getting, and quality is normally high.

Focus on older keris and it is absolutely certain that no matter how experienced one is, a percentage of one’s acquisitions will be changelings, no matter if one focuses on older keris in general, or only older picture keris. But my suggestion was for picture keris, and probably the biggest percentage of picture keris in the market place are kemardikan.

[drdavid]

They were using the harbour at Kuta in those days as the point of entry to South Bali, and the rhino was brought to Kuta and then gifted to the Raja in 1839. This was not an early effort to save the rhino, because a few years later in 1841 or 1842 the rhino was sacrificed as a part of a cremation ceremony.That's as much as I can remember, but somebody may be able to find more on this, and there might be some connection with the use of a rhino as keris motif.

In 'Visible and Invisible Realms' by Wiener the rhinocerous makes a few appearances but all are related to the gifting of a rhinocerous for the reasons Alan mentions. According to Wiener the dutchman involved was Schuurman and the rhino was given to the ruler/s of Klungkung (at that stage Dewa Agung Putra II and his sister Dewa Agung Isteri Kania were joint rulers). The rhino was sacrificed at a great maligia (purification) ceremony for the establishment of the temple complex at Sengguan.
drd

[Bjorn]

I went through some Dutch sources on Schuurman and the gifting of the rhinoceros to Dewa Agung, at the dewa's request.

But why did Dewa Agung want a rhinoceros? Why not some other animal? None of the sources mentioned anything about what a rhino might have meant to the Balinese of that era. Some did suggest that Dewa Agung specifically requested the rhino for the purpose of it being used in an important religious ceremony - but again, why did he want a rhino specifically?

The only link I've been able to find between Hinduism and a rhinoceros is that it is one of the mounts of Agni (God of fire). There is a relief in Angkor Wat showing Agni in a chariot that is pulled by a rhinoceros (http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/s...iefs/br20.html). Of course, Bali has its own flavour of Hinduism and the above may thus be completely irrelevant; and the use of a rhino as a god's mount may be unique to Cambodia. But perhaps it is possible - that as the rhinoceros was used in a cremation ceremony - that there is a link between fire (cremation), Agni and the rhinoceros?

And even if this is the case, I still don't see how the symbolism behind the rhino and lion on the gandik of a keris.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yuuzan, I'm a bit handicapped with net access at the moment because I've exceeded my monthly allowance, so I don't want to use this link you've provided, however, Agni + rhino is from memory a Khymer association that does not occur in Bali-Hindu, nor in mainline Hindu belief. Again from memory, I think Agni normally uses a ram as a mount. My apologies if I'm wrong.

[Bjorn]

Alan, you're correct that Agni's regular mount is a ram. It could very well be that the Agni + Rhino combo is unique to the Khmer only - which would completely negate my theory of why Dewa Agung asked for a rhinoceros.

Are there any Balinese forum members who might have a better insight into the symbolism of Bali?

[Bjorn]

Regarding Hanuman and nagas, I came across information in two sources that may shed some more light on the relationship between the two.


Aziatische Kunst, Jaargang 34, Nr. 2, juni 2004. (Asian Art, volume 34, no.2, June 2004)
From the article: De Kris van Knaud (author: David van Duuren)
Note that the primary source that David van Duuren cites for this information is: P.J. Zoetmulder, Kalangwan; A Survey of Old Javanese Literature (Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Translation Series 16), Den Haag.

Original text (Dutch)
"Hanuman wordt uiteindelijk gevangen genomen en voor Rahwana geleid. De afgebeelde slang is hoogstwaarschijnlijk de magische pijl van Rahwana's zoon Meghanada (Indrajit) die op Hanuman wordt afgeschoten . Op het moment dat de pijl doel treft, verandert hij in een slang die de apengeneraal in zijn kronkelingen vastklemt."

Translation
"Eventually, Hanuman is captured and led to Ravana. It is highly probable that the pictured snake, which is being shot at Hanuman, is the magical arrow of Ravana's son, Meghanada (Indrajit). Upon contact, the arrow transforms into a snake that traps the monkey general in its coils."


De Gouden Kiem: Inleiding in de Indische Symboliek (author: F.D.K. Bosch / Publisher: Elsevier / Year: 1948)
Below is translated and paraphrased from the original Dutch.

One of the things the author talks about is the symbolism of substitutions: A=C, B=C, ergo A=B.

As an example, it is mentioned that the snake can symbolize the stem of the lotus as both are long and thin. For the same reasons, arrows can also symbolize lotus stems. From A=B, it follows that arrow=snake.

The author further posits that this explains why the snake and arrow are so frequently compared and equated in mythology, and why they so often transform from one into the other.

Examples that are mentioned are the snake-arrows found in wayang, Indrajit's snake-arrow that entwines Hanuman, the Naga-king Acvavena who - in the guise of an arrow - enters Karna's quiver, and both great naga - inhabitants of a mountain lake - who suddenly transform into Civa's [Siva's?] bow and arrow so as to provide Arjuna with the Pacupata weapons that were promised by [the/a?] god.