A Rudus is a sword or cutlass associated with the Malay culture of Sumatra. Together with the ''pemandap'', the rudus is among the largest swords of Malay people. Rudus is also a symbol of certain Malay state in the Island, e.g. the Province of

Bengkulu Bengkulu is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the former Bencoolen Residency area from the province of South Sumatra under Law No. 9 of 1967 and was fi ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Description

The rudus is associated with the Islamic

Malay culture Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are col ...

. It is found to be more common in Sumatra than in the Malay peninsula. Together with the pemandap, the rudus is considered to be a symbol of the Sumatran Malay culture. The

Acehnese people The Acehnese (also written as Atjehnese and Achinese) are an ethnic group from Aceh, Indonesia on the northernmost tip of the island of Sumatra. The area has a history of political struggle against the Dutch. The vast majority of the Acehnese p ...

and the Malay of

are recorded to have the rudus as their cultural identity. Rudus is also found in the Malay

Banjar people The Banjar or Banjarese ( bjn, Urang Banjar; ) are an indigenous ethnic group native to the Banjar regions (notably Banjarmasin, Banjarbaru, Banjar Regency, etc.) in the southeastern Kalimantan hemisphere of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese di ...

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it wa ...

, where it was an official traditional weapon of the province of South Kalimantan, together with the kuduk. In the Islamic period of Indonesia, the island of Sumatra was divided into multiple small sultanates that were at war with each other. The province of

in South Sumatra alone had many sultanates, among the sultanates were the Sultanate of Sungai Serut, Selebar, Pat Petulai, Balai Buntar, Sungai Lemau, Sekiris, Gedung Agung and Marau Riang. These warring sultanate states would equip their warriors with weapons e.g. the badik, rambai ayam and rudus. Rudus was also used in the ceremony of the election of the datuk, the chief of the adat. During the colonial period, rudus was used by the natives as a form of resistance toward the colonial government. Because of this romanticized patriotic notion of using the rudus to rise against the oppressor, the rudus is featured in the seal of the

province to symbolize heroism.

Form

The rudus consists of the ''mata'' (literally "eyes", the blade), the ''ulu'' ("hilt"), and the ''sarung'' ("sheath"). The rudus is often inscribed with

Jawi script Jawi (; ace, Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani Malay, Kelantan-Pattani: ''Yawi''; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese language, Acehnese, Banjar language, Banjarese, Kerinci language, Kerinci, ...

at certain parts of the sword, usually at the blade or at the hilt. The Jawi script is a kind of Perso-Arabic alphabet that was used for writing the Malay language, especially by the Acehnese, Banjarese, and

Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to: * Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people * Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center * Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see belo ...

. The maker of the rudus sword would carve the date of the completion of the sword, as well as his name and his village of origin. In some cases, however, the inscription indicated the date of the re-decoration of the blade. A rudus kept in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

has inscription which identifies that the artist came from a village in Peninsular Malaysia, however the shape of the decoration is not endemic to the Peninsular Malaysia, but more to the northern Sumatran region which is inhabited by the

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

and the Batak Pakpak people. This indicates that the rudus was brought from Sumatra to neighboring Malaysia to be redecorated. Inscriptions can be written on the blade or on the hilt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art example has the inscriptions inlaid with gold. Some chose to carve it on its wooden hilt. The rudus is carried slung at the side.

References

Cited works

* {{Indonesian Weapons Southeast Asian swords Blade weapons Weapons of Indonesia

Description

Form

See also

References

Cited works