ReVisioning Maharlika

(First of a series)

“MAHARLIKA”……A word, an image, a concept, a symbol, an archetype…..How deep can a word reach? How can a word transcend and transform our consciousness? How can a word be usurped and degraded? How can a word redeem itself? How can a word re-create the destiny of a nation? How can a word guide us into the past, present and the future?”

Grace Odal-Devora, Ph.D

University of the Philippines, Manila

Last month, Ms. Romelene Pacis and I got invited to present at the plenary of the 1^st Maharlika Summit held at the Asian Center Auditorium, GT-Toyota Hall of Wisdom, University of the Philippines, Diliman. 

The organizers, the UP Diliman Alumni, Friends and Benefactors of the Asian Center or AFBAC Inc., the Humanistic Studies 20 Class of Professor Grace Odal-Devora of the University of the Philippines, the UP Manila Alamat Society and the Katipunan ng Samahang Maharlika contacted us to do an analysis and share our perspectives on the future of the Maharlika discourse.

The summit was themed ‘ReVisioning Maharlika’ as a cultural metaphor, folk history and social movement for socio-cultural identity, transformation and development. Within a neutral academic setting, the goal was to study the Maharlika discourse from varying vantage points and to form the beginnings of an applied, action and policy ‘Maharlikan studies’ and research.

Here, I would like to share some of the most remarkable insights the speakers had at the summit.  To write this article, I had to rely on Romelene’s notes and some recorded videos and presentations available on Facebook and the maharlikasummit.com.

Fe Buenaventura Mangahas, commissioner at the National Historical Commission, former Sen. Eddie Ilarde, Prof. Grace Odal Devora of the University of the Philippines Manila, Hari Shri, a Sri-Lankan scholar and expert on Dravidian history in the Philippines, Prof. Ric Vil Hori, Professor Eyle Frayne Argonza, and UP student Angelica Montalbo joined Romelene at the plenary. 

I would like to start with the morphological and the historical discourses on Maharlika.

Mahardikka: Rich, Prosperous and Powerful

Maharlika, as repeatedly define, explained and illustrated in the summit, came from the Sanskrit derivatives Maha meaning good and great (such as Mahatma – great soul) and Lika, a contracted and altered form of the word Likha meaning ‘creation’ and ‘work’. The word is deeply grounded within the Dravidian and Austronesian ancestral traditions and heritage and resonates significantly with the context and meaning of the Malay psyche, worldview or self-perception.

According to Dennis Teves, a friend and alumni at the Asian Institute of Management, Mahar+R+La+Ik+A means a small entity containing good and great qualities and resources in the physical, mental and spiritual spheres. The A in MaharlikA puts in it the feminine gender. And as Professor Frayne Argonza puts it, Maharlika, it being a Sanskrit word, possesses a mantric significance that conveys diverse meanings across different cultures.

In various Indo-Malayan languages, Mahardhikka, Merdeka, Maradeka, Mardika, Maradika means independence or freedom and it meant “rich, prosperous and powerful.” The word was used by anti-colonialists and pro-independence movements in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Mahadhikka, in their struggle against colonialism, meant self-rule, liberation or “freedom once and for all” from the Dutch, the British and the Portuguese colonialists.

The Malay Merdeka and Maharlika according to Prof. Grace Odal Devora of UP Manila has the same Sanskrit origins. Needless to say, a significant number of words in Samtoy or Sao Mi Daytoy (Ilocano today) and Bahasa meaning “our language here” are recognizably Sanskrit in origin. Professor Juan R. Francisco, who spent several years studying Sanksrit in Madras University, discovered that there are more than 300 words in our languages that are traceable to Sanskrit. In the Samtoy language alone, the words dara, baru, mangan, makan has the same meaning in Bahasa. The word Visayas came from the Sanskrit word Vijaya meaning victorious.

Maharlika today is extremely popular among Filipino Muslims, Maguindanoans, Maranaos, Lumads and some indigenous groups and ethnic communities. In fact, in the not so distant past, the late President Ferdinand Marcos popularized and was influential in making the word somewhat fashionable in the 1970s.

engagedforesight.com 

(To be continued)