Ganja !

[A. G. Maisey]

As to exactly when a normal keris that was gonjo iras first appeared, all I can say is that I have never seen a really old one.

16th century?

yeah, maybe---also maybe not.

Further, we seldom see gonjo iras blades from Jawa.South Sumatera, Peninsula---other places,yeah, but I cannot recall ever having seen many from Jawa itself.

Cost cutting would be a reasonable, pragmatic explanation, and looked at logically, completely defensible.

However---I could construct a very elegant esoteric reason for the construction of the gonjo iras blade.Only problem with that is, it would be my construct using 20th century Javanese philosophical arguments. I do not know of anything in any literature older than probably the last quarter of the 19th century that I could call on to support my esoteric construct.

The simple fact of the matter is this:-

making up a story to explain anything is very easy;

believing things that make one feel comfortable is also very easy;

inventing reasons that are in accord with one's personal beliefs, or what one wants to believe others have believed in the past is very easy;

what is not at all easy is to find hard evidence, or to build a logical argument based on indirect evidence, that will give strong support to a position.

If for argument's sake,sufficient people hold the belief that the gonjo iras form was specifically designed to represent a perfect union of the male and the female, and thus has the tuah of strengthening a marriage, which in turn strengthens the community, and leads to both worldly and spiritual wealth, then, for those people who believe this, this is something true and real.Because these people believe this, it will likely have the designated effect for these people.

However--- if we set out to try to find evidence that this was indeed the reason behind the construction of the first examples of this form, we might have a very, very difficult job in front of us.

Never lose sight of the fact that as well as being a royal work of art, a symbol of power, a mystical icon, the keris was also an item of trade that was traded all over SE Asia.

Not all men are equal : not all keris are equal.

What I am saying here is that anybody can believe whatever they wish to believe. That is an individual's right. But if we want evidential proof, or we want a supportive logical argument for that belief---well, that's an entirely different basket of fruit.

[Alam Shah]

Opps! I've took a long break to write my comment and later found Alan Maisey's update. Interesting comments and points.

Some community (outside Java) believed that an enpowered 'ganja iras' blade could circumvent and penetrate an opponent's defences, warrior mystic magic (if any), and thus making the opponent more vulnerable. Perhaps just another story.

I'll need to look-up for info to support this, maybe it's in Skeat's.

[Rick]

Alan, I find this interesting :

http://www.kerisattosanaji.com/PBXIIcalonan.html

Judging by this picture the gonjo is cut from the blank then and shaped along with the rest of the keris?
Am I correct?

Is all the work after this point cold work ?

[A. G. Maisey]

In that foto what we are looking at is just the forging for the blade, the gonjo is a separate forging. There are a number of ways it can be produced:- a piece of the pamor before the core in welded in can be cut off and forged to make a gonjo forging; the same thing can be done after the core is forged in; a separate forging entirely can be produced, sometimes plain iron, sometimes with a miniaturisation of the blade pamor, sometimes with a different pamor.

Yes, in the making of the blade, all the work after the forging has been produced is cold work; you actually carve the blade from that forging. However, at some points in the making you do need to go back to the forge and use heat to create what you set out to create.

[VVV]

I have had several e-mail discussions with Alan Maisey on the "what came first" issue on the ganja.

After this correspondence I have now been convinced and also believe that it first was a physical construction and then later the metaphysical was added.

Fair is fair...

Michael

[jagabuwana]

Error. Deleted.

[jagabuwana]

Some heavy speculation that might jog some discussion.

Ganja in Hindi means cannabis, which is derived from a very similar word with different nuances in Sanskrit. According to various sources, 'ganja' in Sanskrit can refer to the leaves of the cannabis plant, or to a powerful preparation made from cannabis, as opposed to just cannabis itself.

I think this fits the Siva symbology of the keris quite well, as well as the shape of the ganja itself.

Firstly, consider the ovate shape of a cannabis leaf and compare that with a top-down view of the gonjo.

Perhaps more substantially, it seems to relate to the Samudra Manthana story. As the devas used the naga Vasuki to churn the Ocean of Milk to obtain the Nectar of Immortality, the process created an extremely potent poison called halahal. Halahal threatened to kill everyone and so according to some accounts the devas went to Mount Kailash to seek the help of Shiva, who consumes halahal to contain it. Goddess Parvati offers bhang to Shiva to counteract the effects of halahal on his body.

Bhang is a drink made of cannabis. It is still consumed as part of the Maha Shivaratri celebration in India and Nepal.

If I'm to be imaginative, I could imagine that the gonjo could be a way of protecting the keris (as a symbol of Shiva and Mount Kailash) from metaphorical "poisons". Or as a balance against any negative effects that may come about from the keris, considering that an extreme poison was created not by enemies or evil, but in the way of obtaining an elixir of immortality. Or maybe as a symbol of the feminine as a companion for the masculine keris, owing to Parvati's care of Shiva, further supported by the double imagery of the gonjo's yonic shape and its overall shape as a cannabis leaf.

This is not a hypothesis. It is imagination and speculation, a barely baked idea that I haven't gone any further with.