Balinese Keris Exhibition in Hollenstedt, Germany

[A. G. Maisey]

As I said Jean:- that is wrong.

Ilining warih is one of the variations of wos wutah:- it's still wos wutah, but sub-motif ilining warih --- at least according to Basuki Teguh Yuwono in "Keris Bali ---' .

I have never seen a pamor in a Javanese keris that anybody referred to as ilining warih. In fact, even though this name could legitimately be used to describe a pamor in a Javanese keris, I've never heard it used.

The word "warih" is Javanese literary usage and in Bali it has a similar position in the hierarchy of usage, it is a Kawi word, which means it is literary usage and it is also OK for court usage.

I do not speak Balinese, I pulled all this out of a dictionary. I asked a Balinese lady I know first, but she only speaks low level Balinese.

However, "ilining" is legitimate Javanese usage. The name ilining warih is legit Javanese usage, it is not normal Balinese, but it may be in use in Balinese as a combination of Kawi + the word "ilining" which could perhaps be deemed a foreign word because it is Javanese.

So let's accept that it is legit usage in both places, even though I have never encountered it in use anywhere.

The only illustration I can find of ilining warih is in Harsrinuksmo, and that entry goes on and describes what I know as an adeg pamor. As is not uncommon with Harsrinuksmo, I think it may be another of his, let us say, "journalistic" entries.

This is a common criticism of Harsrinuksmo, and it could well be unjust. He did not hold himself forth as a keris expert, but rather as a writer about keris. He sourced his info from various accepted keris authorities.

One of the very well known characteristics of information sourced from Javanese informants is that if you ask a question you will be given an answer and the answer you get is very likely to be the answer that the informant thinks will please you. You need to be very close to somebody before you get a "sorry, I don't know", or even a 100% genuine transfer of information, which even then must be questioned and validated.

To be able to name any pamor with reasonable accuracy you need to understand how it was made.

In the Balinese examples that Basuki Yuwono names as "wusing wutah --ilining warih" the pamor has been made by welding the layers of contrasting pamor material with minimum distortion, and then cutting the kruwingan to expose the separate layers of pamor mlumah. In effect we are looking at "laying down pamor" that has carefully had the distorted layers of material removed to expose principally parallel layers of material.

In an adeg pamor we are looking at a pamor miring, where the layers of pamor have been manipulated in the forge so that they stand at 90 degrees to the core of the blade:- a "cross-ways" pamor.

Yet Harsrinuksmo tells us that ilining warih is similar to adeg?

Come on, the bloke simply didn't know what he was writing about and that means his informant didn't understand what he was talking about. Don't think that just because something is written by an Indonesian, or a Javanese, that they all know what they're talking about --- or that they necessarily want to tell you everything they know.

But Basuki Yuwono does know what he's talking about. He is a skilled pande keris in his own right. Some would accord him the title of empu.

In summary:-

Yuwono is right.

Harsrinuksmo is wrong.

Whoever believes that ilining warih is not a sub-motif of beras wutah is very misguided.

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re the indistinct pics --- understood, thanks