Philippine Almanac

The Literature of Ancient Filipinos

Philippine History has it that Filipinos had oral and written literature. Their oral literature consisted of the following;

• Myths (mito) which told about the creation of the world and of mankind, and legends (alamat) which told of the origin of man, animals, plants, places, and other landmarks.

• Songs (awit) and short poems (tanaga), both of which told about things and events of everyday life

• Proverbs (salawikain) which were wise sayings

• Riddles (bugtong) which is a guessing game which described common objects in a puzzling but interesting way.

Among the songs they chanted were;

• Talindaw (boat songs)

• Indulanin (street songs)

• Tagumpay (war songs)

• Diyuna (songs of revelry)

• Uyayi (lullabies)

• Tagulaylay (songs for the dead)

• Ihiman (wedding songs)

• Tigpasin (rowing songs)

The specimens of their most memorable literature that have best survived are the epics. The ancient Filipino epics told about deeds and daring exploits of their gods and heroes. Of these, the best known are the following;

• Hudhud – an Ifugao epic glorifying Ifugao history centering around the hero, Aliguyon

• Alim – another Ifugao epic telling about the gods of the Ifugaos and somewhat resembling the epic Ramayana of India

• Biag ni Lam-ang – an Ilocano epic about the life and adventures of its hero, Lam-ang

• Handion or Ibalon – an epic of the Bicolanos recounting the exploits of three Bicol heroes

• Bantugan, Bidasari and Indarapatra and Sulayman – all epics from Mindanao which show both Arabic and Indian influences but celebrate the exploits of Mindanao heroes.

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