PRECOLONIAL PERIOD

Filipinos often lose sight of the fact that the first period of the Philippine
literary history is the longest. Certain events from the nation’s history had forced
lowland Filipinos to begin counting the years of history from 1521, the first time
written records by Westerners referred to the archipelago later to be called “Las
Islas Filipinas”. However, the discovery of the “Tabon Man” in a cave in Palawan
in 1962, has allowed us to stretch our prehistory as far as 50,000 years back. The
stages of that prehistory show how the early Filipinos grew in control over their
environment. Through the researches and writings about Philippine history,
much can be reliably inferred about precolonial Philippine literature from an
analysis of collected oral lore of Filipinos whose ancestors were able to preserve
their indigenous culture by living beyond the reach of Spanish colonial
administrators.

The oral literature of the precolonial Filipinos bore the marks of the
community. The subject was invariably the common experience of the people
constituting the village-food-gathering, creature and objects of nature, work in
the home, field, forest or sea, caring for children, etc. This is evident in the most
common forms of oral literature like the riddle, the proverbs and the song, which
always seem to assume that the audience is familiar with the situations, activities
and objects mentioned in the course of expressing a thought or emotion. The
language of oral literature, unless the piece was part of the cultural heritage of the
community like the epic, was the language of daily life. At this phase of literary
development, any member of the community was a potential poet, singer or
storyteller as long as he knew the language and had been attentive to the
conventions f the forms.

Thousands of maxims, proverbs, epigrams, and the like have been listed by
many different collectors and researchers from many dialects. Majority of these
reclaimed from oblivion com from the Tagalos, Cebuano, and Ilocano dialects.
And the bulk are rhyming couplets with verses of five, six seven, or eight
syllables, each line of the couplet having the same number of syllables. The
rhyming practice is still the same as today in the three dialects mentioned. A good
number of the proverbs is conjectured as part of longer poems with stanza
divisions, but only the lines expressive of a philosophy have remained
remembered in the oral tradition. Classified with the maxims and proverbs are
allegorical stanzas which abounded in all local literature. They contain homilies,
didactic material, and expressions of homespun philosophy, making them often
quoted by elders and headmen in talking to inferiors. They are rich in similes and
metaphors. These one stanza poems were called Tanaga and consisted usually of
four lines with seven syllables, all lines rhyming.

The most appreciated riddles of ancient Philippines are those that are
rhymed and having equal number of syllables in each line, making them
classifiable under the early poetry of this country. Riddles were existent in all
languages and dialects of the ancestors of the Filipinos and cover practically all of
the experiences of life in these times.

Almost all the important events in the life of the ancient peoples of this
country were connected with some religious observance and the rites and
ceremonies always some poetry recited, chanted, or sung. The lyrics of religious
songs may of course be classified as poetry also, although the rhythm and the
rhyme may not be the same.

Drama as a literary from had not yet begun to evolve among the early
Filipinos. Philippine theater at this stage consisted largely in its simplest form, of
mimetic dances imitating natural cycles and work activities. At its most
sophisticated, theater consisted of religious rituals presided over by a priest or
priestess and participated in by the community. The dances and ritual suggest
that indigenous drama had begun to evolve from attempts to control the
environment. Philippine drama would have taken the form of the dance-drama
found in other Asian countries.

Prose narratives in prehistoric Philippines consisted largely or myths, hero

tales, fables and legends. Their function was to explain natural phenomena, past
events, and contemporary beliefs in order to make the environment less fearsome
by making it more comprehensible and, in more instances, to make idle hours
less tedious by filling them with humor and fantasy. There is a great wealth of
mythical and legendary lore that belongs to this period, but preserved mostly by
word of mouth, with few written down by interested parties who happen upon
them.

The most significant pieces of oral literature that may safely be presumed
to have originated in prehistoric times are folk epics. Epic poems of great
proportions and lengths abounded in all regions of the island