What is the meaning behind this gandik type?

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by yuuzan

I have come across this gandik type twice now and am curious as to what exactly is depicted here. The lower figure reminds me of a rhinoceros while the upper figure may represent a predator of some sort, a tiger perhaps?

Does anyone know what is depicted on this gandik? Does it represent a scene from a story, epic, myth or legend? What are the meanings associated with this depiction? What is this gandik meant to tell the person viewing it?

PS: Both keris I have seen it on are from Bali.

Hullo everybody!

yuuzan,
To me, it looks like a poor representation of a lion standing on a rhino. If so, it symbolises Hanyokrokusumo's conquest of the island of Java; the lion represents Hanyokrokusumo while the rhino ( Sunda rhinoceros; more often called Javan rhino by the mainstream ) represents Java.
Sometimes, instead of the rhino, it has an elephant ( Elephas maximus sondaicus ). It essentially symbolises the same thing.

BTW .....
- Naga may not necessarily mean serpent/dragon
- During Hanyokrokusumo's time, he introduced a plethora of new keris types to be awarded like medals to victorious troops. (On the other hand, he was so merciless that a lot of his troops who were unsuccessful preferred to desert rather than to return and face certain death.)

..... just my view.

mvg,

[A. G. Maisey]

That's a very interesting interpretation Amuk Murugul!

You have noted that "it is just my view".

Does that mean that you have provided us with your opinion, or can you quote a source for this interpretation?

I do have a couple of very minor problems with this interpretation, but I am hopeful that you may be able explain these minor discrepancies .

Hanyokrokusumo, or as he was more commonly known, Sultan Agung (Sultan Agung Adi Prabu Hanyokrokusumo) was the ruler of the Central Javanese kingdom of Mataram from 1613 to 1645 ( not everybody agrees on these dates, and some authorities have them varying by a year at either extreme of the period of reign).

Sultan Agung did extend the influence of Mataram into East Jawa and Madura, but he failed to subdue Blambangan, and he never really had much success at all in dominating either Batavia or Banten. He tried a couple of times to drive the Dutch from Batavia, but he failed both times. So, although he did come to influence a large part of the Island of Jawa, at no time did he ever achieve the conquest of Jawa.

I am unaware of the rhinoceros having any place in Javanese iconography. It may have a place in Sundanese iconography, I do not know about this, but in Javanese iconography I cannot find a place for it. Nor can I find a place for the rhinoceros in mainstream Hindu iconography. It is not possible for the rhinoceros to be understood as the elephant. The elephant has the same value as the naga, and in some interpretations one may be understood as the other, but the poor old rhino just doesn't get a look in anywhere.

It is true that the word naga can have a couple of different meanings, but in the context of Jawa, Bali, the keris and the associated belief systems the word Naga refers to one of the three major Nagas, Anantaboga, Basuki, and Taksaka. These three Nagas are incarnations of Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa, and if the three Nagas are merged into only one Naga, that Naga is known as Basuki. Thus, when we consider the relationship of the keris to the Naga, there is a very solid and demonstrable association between the Naga Basuki and the keris, most particularly so when we are thinking in terms of the keris pusaka, the function of which is to bind, as the character of Sri Naga Basuki is as a binding agent.

However, putting all that stuff to one side, there is one little problem that I have with the interpretation that you have given us Amuk, and that is this:- Sultan Agung was a a 17th century Javanese ruler; the keris under discussion is a fairly recent Balinese keris. I just cannot understand why any comparatively modern Balinese would want to incorporate symbolism relevant to a Javanese ruler of several hundred years ago into his keris.

Your interpretation is, as I have said, interesting, but I do feel it needs a little bit of close examination and clarification if we are to accept it as plausible.

EDIT:- There was one other thing I wanted to mention, but I'd forgotten the details, so I let it go until I could find a reference. I've had a look and I still cannot find what is in my mind, so I'll give you what I can remember and somebody might be able to fill in the gaps.
The Dutch wanted to set up a trading station in Bali, and during the negotiations with the Raja of Klungkung, who is the senior Balinese ruler, a request was made for the gift of a live rhinoceros. They were using the harbour at Kuta in those days as the point of entry to South Bali, and the rhino was brought to Kuta and then gifted to the Raja in 1839. This was not an early effort to save the rhino, because a few years later in 1841 or 1842 the rhino was sacrificed as a part of a cremation ceremony.That's as much as I can remember, but somebody may be able to find more on this, and there might be some connection with the use of a rhino as keris motif.

[Bjorn]

Aland and Amuk,

This is turning into quite an interesting discussion and I'd like to thank you both for your views. It's certainly quite educational for me and I wish that my own knowledge was greater so that I could make a more substantial contribution to this discussion.

[David]

The owner of the image that Bjorn started this thread with asked that it be removed and Bjorn was in agreement, so i deleted it. If anyone has access to a similar one for a reference point it might be helpful to the discussion.

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As keris become more recent we find meditating figures(puthut), buffalo, tigers, lions, manglar monggo, garudas, in fact a whole menagerie of motifs. A nice foundation for a collection could perhaps be to collect only keris with figural motifs --- what we call "picture keris".

- emphasis added -

Greetings,

this idea of concentrating ones collection focus onto "picture keris´s" only sounds good in that it would make easier to stay the course: "no picture, on the keris, I´ll pass". Thus temptations would be easier to evade as the mass to choose from would be considerably lower?

However would this be a riskier approach for the novice keris student in that there would be a higher risk of landing with a fraud than if one were to focus on the "less pictoral", more "regular", keris, pun intended? I´m talking about post original manufacture alterations provided for making the market value higher. Hallucination?

Thanks,

J.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Jussi, what you’ve said is certainly true:- if one were to focus only on picture keris, it is possible that one could buy some comparatively expensive keris that were not what they pretended to be. However, unfortunately this is true of virtually all attractive older keris.

The talented craftsmen of jawa have been busy for over 100 years in altering unattractive older blades and turning them into much more attractive blades. One of the most popular alterations is to make a hujan mas pamor out of a wos wutah pamor; same for bendo sagodo; in fact same for any surface manipulated pamor, but hujan mas is probably the most popular because it is a very popular pamor.

Tuban blades were often very big, heavy blades, but these days it is extremely rare to find come across one of these old “super size” Tuban blades, and they have become extremely valuable because of their rareity.

What happened to all the others? Used up over the last 100-150 years by turning them into picture keris, waved keris, keris with fancy surface manipulated pamor.

So the fact of the matter is that anybody who has a focus on old keris, simply because they are old, has an extremely high possibility of buying something that has been fiddled with --- and it is not at all easy to always pick these changelings, even with much experience. I’ve been tricked more than a few times, as have some very highly respected keris experts whom I know and have known.

Actually some of the picture keris alterations are worth keeping as masterpieces. I doubt that there has been anybody during the last 40 years or so who has been able to do this sort of alteration convincingly.

So its not just novice collectors who are at risk Jussi, its all of us are. I guess that is one of the major reasons for the high popularity of kemardikan keris, and sky high prices of non-noman keris. At least with these types of keris you can be pretty certain of exactly what you are getting, and quality is normally high.

Focus on older keris and it is absolutely certain that no matter how experienced one is, a percentage of one’s acquisitions will be changelings, no matter if one focuses on older keris in general, or only older picture keris. But my suggestion was for picture keris, and probably the biggest percentage of picture keris in the market place are kemardikan.

[drdavid]

They were using the harbour at Kuta in those days as the point of entry to South Bali, and the rhino was brought to Kuta and then gifted to the Raja in 1839. This was not an early effort to save the rhino, because a few years later in 1841 or 1842 the rhino was sacrificed as a part of a cremation ceremony.That's as much as I can remember, but somebody may be able to find more on this, and there might be some connection with the use of a rhino as keris motif.

In 'Visible and Invisible Realms' by Wiener the rhinocerous makes a few appearances but all are related to the gifting of a rhinocerous for the reasons Alan mentions. According to Wiener the dutchman involved was Schuurman and the rhino was given to the ruler/s of Klungkung (at that stage Dewa Agung Putra II and his sister Dewa Agung Isteri Kania were joint rulers). The rhino was sacrificed at a great maligia (purification) ceremony for the establishment of the temple complex at Sengguan.
drd