A Good Malay Sundang With One Piece Carved Horn Hilt

[David]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

question is, which came first? the Moro sundang, or the Malay sundang?

Aye, there's the rub?
Which came first? My ideas on this could be wrong, but it has always been my impression that the Moro kris/kalis developed first from the Indonesian keris (influenced by Bali and/or perhaps Bugis styles) and that the Malay sundang developed after the Moro kris forming a circle of influence. One reason i believe this is simply that we can actually see the development of Moro kris from the Indonesian stabbing weapon it emulated into the slashing blade that it became by looking at the early "archaic" forms and watching the transformation over time into the larger, chunkier sword it became. I don't see those transitions in the Malay form of sundang. It seems to appear in it's earliest forms as a fully developed slashing sword. While the "kakatau" pommels discussed here have a more developed form, most of the pommels i have seen on Malay Sundang seem more a copied form from the Moro kris with less line and definition. My understanding of this has been that the Malay copied this hilt form and made it their own without fully understanding the intended symbolism of the Moro pommel, placing upon it the bird head explanation since such motifs and symbolic usage were common in their culture. So if i take Ron's two cents and add my three, hopefully we have a nickel.