Much of the modern popular depiction of Gajah Mada derives from the imagination of
Mohammad Yamin in his 1945 book
Gajah Mada: Pahlawan Persatuan Nusantara. One day in the 1940s, Yamin visited
Trowulan, the site of the capital city of the former Majapahit kingdom. He found fragments of
terracotta, one of which was a
piggy bank in the form of the face of a man with a stocky face and curly hair. Based on the look on the piggy bank's face, Yamin interpreted this as the face of Gajah Mada, the unifier of the archipelago. Yamin then asked the artist
Henk Ngantung to make a painting based on the terracotta fragment. The painting was displayed as the cover of Yamin's book. Many people disagree with Yamin's opinion because it is impossible for the face of a figure as big as Gajah Mada to be displayed in a piggy bank. Such a portrayal is considered an insult because usually the state leaders during the
Hindu-
Buddhist era, including Majapahit, were made in effigy as statues. Some even believe that the face was none other than Yamin's own face. from archaeological findings at
Trowulan Site, now a collection of
Majapahit Museum,
Mojokerto,
East Java. Another illustration of the historical Gajah Mada, different from Yamin's, is the result of research at the
University of Indonesia by archaeologist Agus Aris Munandar. He interpreted that Gajah Mada was depicted as Bima in
wayang shadow-puppet shows, with a transverse mustache. In popular depiction, Gajah Mada is mostly shown bare-chested, wearing a
sarong, and using a weapon in the form of a
kris. While this may have been true on civilian duties, his official outfit might have been different: a Sundanese
patih explained in the
kidung Sundayana that Gajah Mada wore a gold-embossed
karambalangan (
breastplate) and was armed with a gold-layered spear and a shield full of diamond decoration. According to Munandar, at first Gajah Mada was depicted as a Brajanata character from the
Panji tales, and as Bima from the
Mahābhārata in later eras. The Panji story was known earlier than the activities of making Bima statues, which apparently began in the mid-15th century, so the former was likely Gajah Mada's original depiction. The glorification of Gajah Mada in the first stage is profane—in the form of its depiction as Brajanata, but then the glorification of Gajah Mada occurs in the second stage which is more sacred, which is equated with Bima as an aspect of Siva. In the statue found at the
National Museum of Indonesia (No. 5136/310d), the statue is depicted with a sturdy body, transverse mustache, and wavy curls, at the top of the head there is a hair tie with a ribbon forming like a
tekes hat. He wears clothes and jewelry, bracelets, and an upper armband in the form of a snake-like Bima's. The traditional Bima statue depiction associated with Gajah Mada was made at the end of Majapahit in the mid-15th century. The characteristics are: a) wearing a
supit urang crown (his hair is shaped in two arches at the top of the head like a shrimp tongs), b) a transverse mustache, c) strong body, d) wearing
poleng (black and white) cloth, and e) the phallus is always depicted standing out. In the Bima statue stored in the National Museum (No. 2776/286b), he is depicted standing upright with both hands beside his body, his right hand holding a
gadha (a kind of
mace); his phallus is depicted as protruding with a shawl hanging between his legs; he is wearing a serpent
upavita, a crown of
supit urang, a grim face, and a thick transverse mustache; and the hair above the forehead is described as curly, forming a
jamang (forehead decoration). The similarity between the statue of Brajanata as the embodiment of Gajah Mada and the statue of Bima is not a coincidence, but there is an underlying conception that is developed along with the distance between historical events and their worshippers at a later time. == Meaning of name ==