This finely made Balinese keris has a blade with 13 waves or luk and a finely carved horn hilt with silver gilt applique panels set with gemstones. The sheath is of ivory and fancy grained hardwood. Keris of such quality would have been owned by a high ranking aristocrat. The relatively rare hilt form, known as a kocet-kocetan, is thought to have been reserved exclusively for priests of the Brahmin caste. It is a representation of Batara Karpa, a Balinese mythological deity in the form of a beetle, born of a union of Resi Kasyapa, the primordial father of the gods and Dewi Winata who also gave birth to the god Garuda. Interestingly this mythology is exclusively Balinese and is not known in Indian Hindu myth.
