Enquiry about a Bali keris motif

jagabuwana · 15th March 2023, 04:25 AM

A type of Yali, perhaps?

From wikipedia:

Yali (Tamil: யாளி, IAST: Yāḷi),[1] also called Vyala,[2] is a Hindu mythological creature, portrayed with the head and the body of a lion, the trunk and the tusks of an elephant, and sometimes bearing equine features.[3]

That said, I know nothing about whether that fits with what we know about what figures are depicted in Balinese hinduism as it relates to the keris. I don't know if Yali's feature in Bali at all and I've never seen one being depicted on a keris, but again, I wouldn't know.

Whatever or whoever this figure is, as we've seen many times on this forum, in absence of glaringly obvious features or by-the-book details by a craftsman intending to do faithful depictions, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to know for sure unless we ask the maker themselves.

Nevertheless I'm interested to see whether this can lead to a positive ID of this figure so that I may learn more about it.

Sources:
1. Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali_%28mythology
2. Wikicommons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...anthapuram.jpg

15th March 2023, 04:25 AM	#3
jagabuwana Member Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 277	A type of Yali, perhaps? From wikipedia: Yali (Tamil: யாளி, IAST: Yāḷi),[1] also called Vyala,[2] is a Hindu mythological creature, portrayed with the head and the body of a lion, the trunk and the tusks of an elephant, and sometimes bearing equine features.[3] That said, I know nothing about whether that fits with what we know about what figures are depicted in Balinese hinduism as it relates to the keris. I don't know if Yali's feature in Bali at all and I've never seen one being depicted on a keris, but again, I wouldn't know. Whatever or whoever this figure is, as we've seen many times on this forum, in absence of glaringly obvious features or by-the-book details by a craftsman intending to do faithful depictions, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to know for sure unless we ask the maker themselves. Nevertheless I'm interested to see whether this can lead to a positive ID of this figure so that I may learn more about it. Sources: 1. Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yali_%28mythology 2. Wikicommons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...anthapuram.jpg Attached Images