Bali keris for comment

[hoorn178]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

It would be very relaxing if I could also accept every error that I see in print, regrettably I have been around for far too long, and am carrying far too much baggage to allow me to act in such a way.

I have no problem at all with allowing Mona to continue to believe that she has published a photograph of an image of Garuda---just so long that image stays exactly where it belongs.

I rather feel that if we could see the back of this image we might find that Mona's "Garuda" has tail not unlike that of a monkey.

Thank you all very much for the input.!! When I look close to the mouth of the ivory hilt figure you can see some small teeth. That gives me doubt that there use to be a beak. I also showed the hilt to a friend of mine (not a keris expert) who is a jewelry / goldsmit and he was pretty sure that the holes in the mouth were made for stones of some kind.
Anyway as some forum members have said. Finding out about keris hilt figurs is very difficult. You all know so much more than me so Thanks again for your interesting input.
Best regards,
Bart van Hoorn.

[Alam Shah]

Some other pictures of Balinese Garuda.

Some other Hindu variant [ 1 ], [ 2 ]
- accompanying text -
The story of Garuda’s birth and deeds is told in the first book of the great epic Mahabharata. According to the epic, when Garuda first burst forth from his egg, he appeared as a raging inferno equal to the cosmic conflagration that consumes the world at the end of every age. Frightened, the gods begged him for mercy. Garuda, hearing their plea, reduced himself in size and energy.
- end -

Just sharing these images. What significance it have on this topic, I do not know.