The meaning of the tikel alis

[jagabuwana]

Thank you David and Alan, but my apologies to you both as well for the silence after posing the question.

David - yes I did expect there to be many interpretations. Since posting this I have found one blog article which cites an interpretation found in the Serat Centhini of 1813 (III:235.9):

Tikêl-alis ginupita |
nêpsu tri prakara èstu |
Darana ingkang rumuhun |
mila kaping kalihira |
Maklum kaping tiganipun |
yèku nêpsuning kang manah |
Maknawi sukci rahayu ||

I am not able to make much sense of this Javanese passage after running it through Google translate.

Alan - thank you for translating the term "tikel alis" and proposing its function.

The thing that made me think of the sogokan as a fuller (function preceding form) is seeing this leaf shaped dagger at the National Museum of Korea, 2nd Century BC if my memory serves me correctly. Of course I am not suggesting that there is a connection between Korea and Java that would explain this, only that this made me wonder if the sogokan might have a functional precedent in a similar feature. This is an observation rather than an opinion, and in any case I would defer to your knowledge.