Meaning in a Balinese keris

[A. G. Maisey]

Here are a few random thoughts that might be useful to follow through on:-

the base of a wedung blade sometimes does have the treatment such as David has shown, but at other times it has an engraved spiral, not dissimilar to the spiral on the keris shown by David van Duuren, but engraved, not fabricated. In the courts of Jawa the wedung is court wear specifically for those of the rank of bupati & above.

a spiral such as this is called a "widheng", but that is an oblique reference, because a "widheng" is a fresh water crab, and there is a Javanese motif named "lung widheng", which means "river crab tendrils".

when a widheng appears on a wrongko atasan it is supposedly the prerogative of a person of noble blood.

there is a nice little folk story about a high ranking Brahmin, a crab, a snake & and crow, briefly, the brahmin finds the river crab on top of a mountain & it looks half dead, so he places it inside his robe and carries it back to the river, then he sits down to rest. While he is resting a snake sees him and says that he would like to eat him, a crow hears the snake and says that he will help the snake because he would like to eat the brahmin's eyes, the rescued widheng overhears the snake & the crow talking, convinces them to stretch out their necks , the better to eat the brahmin, then the widheng strangles both of them, and the brahmin is saved.


connecting these things I think we might be able to see the place of the widheng as a protective symbol. Some searching on Javanese art motif symbolism might turn up something. In the story the Javanese word used for river crab is "yuyu", this is generic , the word "widheng" refers to a specific type of river crab, so in further searching both words should be considered

Do not confuse:-

wedung:- literally an axe or a chopper, but in tosan aji, a kind of symbolic jungle knife reserved for court wear by nobles

widheng;- a type of river crab