Subject: warrior

Culture: Javanese

Setting: Majapahit empire, Indonesia 14-15thc

Context

Dagger

* Elgood 2004 p252

"Krīs (Malay kěris) A dagger. A variety of forms exist from south-east Asia though there is debate about the date when the design started and where. 'The earliest dated krīs is reported to bear a śaka date equivalent to AD1342 on the blade.' It has been argued that the weapon evolved pre-fourteenth century in Java following the Hindu conquest but in the tenth century Abū Zayd al-Sirafī described how in Sarandib gangs of al-Hind kidnapped wealthy merchants at the ports with their uniquely made sharp krīs. A stone tryptych at the mid-fourteenth century Hindu temple at Sukuh portrays a god forging a krīs and is claimed as the earliest sculptural representation of the weapon."

* Stone 1934 p546

"SELI-BESI. 'Iron kris,' probably the Majapahit kris with an iron hilt forged in one piece with the blade." [refernce omitted]