MADURA ornamental hilts

[jonng]

Here's another motif.

[ganjawulung]

Michael, Marco, Alan and Jonng, thanks a lot for your beautiful pics of maduran hilts. Very useful comparison...

Ganjawulung

[A. G. Maisey]

I selected these hilts for posting because, as I have said, each hilt is a little bit different in some way from the usual run of Madura hilts. I paid no attention to quality, only to whether there was something a bit different in form or motif.When we come down one level, and look at the individual components of the various motifs, some of the inclusions in Madura hilt motifs can create much food for thought.

[Rick]

Here is yet another .

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I selected these hilts for posting because, as I have said, each hilt is a little bit different in some way from the usual run of Madura hilts. I paid no attention to quality, only to whether there was something a bit different in form or motif.When we come down one level, and look at the individual components of the various motifs, some of the inclusions in Madura hilt motifs can create much food for thought.

Alan,

Thank you for bringing this thread to my attention.

Is the type within this post in the link below considered the prototype?
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...49&postcount=6
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...&postcount=109

Initial food for thought is that the the hulu is more than just displaying Kuda Sembrani motifs within, but is itself by design Kuda Sembrani, a classic, mythical, and traditional rendition of what seen within motif.

I cannot even think where to begin with the common name for these hulu...

[A. G. Maisey]

The donoriko?

I think not, there are a number of hilt forms that are attributed to Madura, and I personally feel that the donoriko is a rather late development.

If we're looking for a beginning we would need to go back before Islam, and to my knowledge nobody has yet attempted that in respect of Madura hilts. However, in general terms the hilt function was protective of the shrine that is the blade, similar to the function of protective statues that guard other shrines & temples. Thus what we see in post Hindu-Buddhist hilts is a distillation from humanoid forms.

[jwkiernan]

Beautiful hilts one and all! Here is a donoriko in ivory...unfortunately when I found it several years ago someone sanded a small area to see if it was ivory...guess they never heard of a heating a pin...regardless it does not take away rom the beauty or intricate carvings.

[A. G. Maisey]

My daughter-in-law's mother comes from Madura, she not Madurese, but Chinese, however she does speak Madura dialect, necessary, because of her business activities. Yesterday I spoke with her by phone. She has no idea of the meaning of "donoriko" and suggested that it might be Javanese rather than Madurese.

The little book on hilts that was published in 2003 by Suhartono Rahardjo mentions donoriko hilts as a Madurese form of the Javanese tunggaksemi hilt, but he does not give an explanation of the meaning of the word. Since he does give explanations that clarify meaning for other Madura hilts, maybe he couldn't get a precise meaning for donoriko either.

Perhaps it is possible that "donoriko" is a proper name that applies only to this form of hilt, and its origin has been lost in time.

I do have another Madura contact, but at the moment she is out of reach, when I get the opportunity I'll run this question past her.

[Alam Shah]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

.. maybe he couldn't get a precise meaning for donoriko either.

Perhaps it is possible that "donoriko" is a proper name that applies only to this form of hilt, and its origin has been lost in time.

I do have another Madura contact, but at the moment she is out of reach, when I get the opportunity I'll run this question past her.

Thanks Alan for the effort.

[A. G. Maisey]

No effort mate. My wife is there at the moment, I rang my wife and because she is staying at our D-i-L's mother's house in Malang I used the opportunity to talk about this Madura thing.

[David]

I am reviving this thread because i have finally added one of these chunkier donorika hilts to my collection. The carving is good, but we certainly have much better already posted here. However, i am curious about one particular element in the carving that i have yet to see on these and i wonder whether there are any other examples of this motif out there that we have yet to see. It might just be my imagination, but i have showed this to 4 different people who without the slightest hesitation identified the lower carving on the back of this donorika as a skull. The one above it also looks like a styled face/mask, but it is the skull that really interests me. I have never seen a skull motif on these before, but it seems pretty intentional to me. What do you folks think?
Though not quite pertinent to this thread i also posted a close-up of the pelet wrongko simply because it is one of the most attractive ones i have ever seen. The same stringy pattern continues down the stem invoking all kinds of interesting imagery.
Also, i am curious Alan, if you ever spoke to your other Madurese source regarding the word "donoriko". We never returned to that subject and i think there is still a lot to be learned about these hilts and their possible symbolism.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, I have actually asked several people I know who either are Madurese, or who have lived in Madura, and their responses were all pretty similar to that of my d-i-l's mother.

Further, Aswin Wirjadi ( Pesona Hulu Keris) writes:-

"Nobody knows for sure the etymology of the word donoriko, but there is an assumption that it came from the word jenariko; the word jenar meaning yellow, and riko meaning you. This may have been used to adore Putri Kuning, the yellow queen of Madura."

Maybe.

My own possibility of origin is perhaps no less extreme.

Dono = dana = wedana (spelling is "dana", pronunciation is "dono", or in the case of the unabbreviated word "wedono")

Riko can mean you, or yours, it can also mean "over there"

A wedana is a district head; these big flamboyant hilts are pretty much what one might expect to see an important official wearing.

I'm inclined to think that there is a connection between the donoriko hilt and a district head, or wedana.


As for the skull, I know of no established related motif, however, I am now pretty convinced that the donoriko and similar Madura and North Coast hilts are distillations of the ancestor motif, so if this floral decoration can be read as a skull, it may well be a reference to the ancestor who is hidden in the foliage.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by jwkiernan

Beautiful hilts one and all! Here is a donoriko in ivory...unfortunately when I found it several years ago someone sanded a small area to see if it was ivory...guess they never heard of a heating a pin...regardless it does not take away rom the beauty or intricate carvings.

Hi,
IMO the whiter area on one side of your hilt is not because somebody sanded it to check if it was ivory but because the protruding "ear" was broken so he had to file it to make it smooth. The same happened on the other side of the "head" but earlier so the repair is not visible. You can clearly see the "ears" on the hilt posted by David.
Regards

[Sajen]

Here my new donoriko in ivory.

[Sajen]

Some more donoriko hilts.

[Sajen]

Some tumenggunan hilts.

[Sajen]

Here some of the same "family" from a other form, know someone the name for this form?