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Old 24th March 2020, 01:34 AM   #25
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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Kai, to give a complete and accurate response to your question I would probably need to be Theodore Pigeaud, and frankly, I am not even worthy to be this gentleman's shadow, assuming of course that he were still to be with us, which he is not, he was promoted about 30 years ago.

But I'll do my best to try, if only from the point of view as somebody who can only be regarded as an amateur in the fields involved.

We need to go back into Old Javanese literature, works such as the Nagakertagama and the Nawanatya. If we read these we find that there are mentions of a number of weapon types and we do have some difficulty in working out exactly what these weapon types would be known as now, in the 21st century.

For example, we have this passage in the Nagakertagama:-

"Exterminated were the animals, thrusted, lanced, cut, crissed, dying without a gasp”

the word "crissed" is of course a variant spelling of "krissed"/"kerissed", and in the original in Romanised Old Javanese the word is "kinris" (& angris, silah kris) and means to stab with a keris.

In the Nawanatya a word used for the keris is "twek", another word used for keris is "curigo".

If we look at the way in which each of these different words which can be understood as "keris" is used, what we find is this:-

"Curigo" is associated with a king.

"Twék" is associated with an honour given to a common man for bravery in combat.

"keris/kris/cris" is associated with use in a hunt

The word keris is derived from "iris", to cut or to slice.

So it seems that in Old Javanese the word "keris" (however we wish to spell it now) did not necessarily mean the specific weapon that we now recognise as a keris.

Modern Javanese has been heavily influenced by Islamic languages and Islamic culture, the nature of the keris as it has been known for the past few hundred years has been heavily influenced by Islamic culture and the effect this culture has had on Javanese society.

What we think of as a keris now, if we are thinking in accordance with the Javanese idea of a keris now, is very probably not the same as what the Javanese people in Pre-Islamic Jawa thought of as a keris.

Modern Balinese has not been subject to the same influences as has Modern Javanese, and we will find many words in Modern Balinese that we will not find in Modern Javanese, even though both owe their foundations to Old Javanese.

Language is a mirror of the way in which the users of that language think, for example, in structuring a sentence do the speakers place an adjective before a word, or after a word, do they begin the sentence with the most important idea contained in that sentence, or do they introduce that idea later in the sentence?

Now, with all of the above in mind, please consider your question:-

"Could you please expand why such a piece would be regarded by Balinese as "a keris that is shaped like a sword" rather than "a sword that is shaped like a sword"?"

I believe that it is obvious that a "pedang keris" is a keris that is shaped like a pedang, ie, that it is a form of keris, rather than a form of pedang.

When we come to the word "tewek", we have the word that is found in Old Javanese as "twek", that Pigeaud translates as "kris", and that in the context of its use in the Nawanatya can indeed be nothing other than what we now know as a keris.

In Modern Balinese "tewek" has a specific meaning, and that meaning is as I have given it, so clearly in Balinese thought the idea of "keris" encompasses more than does the Javanese or other ideas of exactly what a keris is. In fact, in a video interview that I witnessed being filmed I heard Pande Wayan Suteja Neka defining the keris pedang (ie, ligan or keris tewek) as a form of keris, not as a form of pedang.

Your second question:-

"Is keris used here in a wider sense encompassing what would be regarded as tosan aji in Jawa?"

requires analysis of cultural specifics in both Javanese and Balinese society at the present time and here is not really the place for that. Stripped to bare bones, the most I can probably say here is that Margaret Wiener explains quite clearly exactly where the heirloom keris stands in modern Balinese society.

"Tosan aji" is a Javanese concept. In simple terms this phrase can be understood as "respected iron/honoured iron"

"tosan" = "iron" in Kromo > from tos/atos = "hard"

"aji" = "value, worth" in ngoko; aji has a number of derivatives that include but are not limited to "respect, honour, value highly, at a particular price,in the amount of"; "aji" has a secondary meaning of "king"; as "kaji-kaji" it means a magic formula or a talisman; it can also be understood as a variant of "kaji" which means and can be used as the title for, a person who has undertaken a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The above should give a very clear idea of exactly how the keris is thought of in traditional Islamic Javanese society, and in addition one of major principles involved in understanding Javanese thought and values in general.

Javanese people and Balinese people do not think within quite the same parameters.
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