Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
Recent Census Data from Indonesia indicate that Hindus make up about 1.74% of the total population.
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Indonesian is indeed mostly Muslim. However Bali has an 86% Hindu population. About 15% of the population of Lombok also identifies as Hindu. So the majority religious make-up of Indonesia as a whole is not particularly significant if this pedang lurus is from Bali or even Lombok. What's more, Hinduism left a significant mark on Indonesia as a whole up through the Mojopahit era and those influences remain throughout regardless of Islam being the major religion in the region today. Keep in mind that the keris itself was a dagger of Hindu Jawa that was embraced by the Islam after the fall of the Mojopahit empire. There are aspects of the keris that hold inherent Hindu symbolism that was kept in place despite the advent of Islam. And one can find elements of dress that incorporate figurative representation, in mostly Islamic areas such as Madura well after Islam became the dominate religion there.
Further, what is usual for Hinduism in India does not necessarily apply to Hinduism in Indonesia. The god names and the symbols that represent them are often not the same. So we cannot really compare images of Hindu gods on Indian weapons and expect them to relate to weapons found in Indonesia that bear Hindu references.
These faces do not appear to me to be the Hindu sun god Surya. Dewa Surya is indeed venerated in Bali, but images i have seen of him do not include any facial hair (though we should note that i do not believe the face on the sheath has any facial hair).
This pedang does have some unusual features for a Javanese pedang lurus. The S-shaped cross guard is not a feature you generally see on pedangs from Jawa. This could be some sort of hybrid piece. It could indeed have some European influences. But i am not convinced as a whole that it is from Jawa, though the blade might be. Or it may well be Balinese or from Lombok. It certainly is interesting.