The Maharadia Lawana (sometimes spelled Maharadya Lawana or Maharaja Rāvaṇa) is a

Maranao The Maranao people (Maranao: mәranaw Filipino: ''Maranaw''), also spelled Meranao, Maranaw, and Mëranaw, is the term used by the Philippine government to refer to the southern indigenous people who are the "people of the lake", a predomi ...

epic which tells a local version of the Indian epic

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

. Its English translation is attributed to Filipino Indologist

Juan R. Francisco Juan R. Francisco is a Filipino Indologist who discovered the Maranao version of the ''Ramayana'', that is native to the Philippines. He then translated it into English. He is also a professor at the University of the Philippines in Manila. For ...

, assisted by Maranao scholar Nagasura Madale, based on Francisco's ethnographic research in the Lake Lanao area in the late 1960s. It narrates the adventures of the monkey-king, Maharadia

Lawana ''Lawana''Distant WL (1906) The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. 3: 503 pp. Lt. Col. CT Birgham 20 is a genus of planthopper A planthopper is any insect in the infraorder Fulgoromorpha, in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, a ...

, to whom the Gods have granted immortality. Francisco first heard the poem being sung by Maranao bards around Lake Lanao in 1968. He then sought the help of Maranao scholar Nagasura Madale, resulting in a rhyming English translation of the epic. Francisco believed that the Ramayana narrative arrived in the Philippines some time between the 17th to 19th centuries, via interactions with Javanese and Malaysian cultures which traded extensively with India. By the time it was documented in the 1960s, the character names, place names, and the precise episodes and events in Maharadia Lawana's narrative already had some notable differences from those of the Ramayana. Francisco believed that this was a sign of "indigenization", and suggested that some changes had already been introduced in Malaysia and Java even before the story was heard by the Maranao, and that upon reaching the Maranao homeland, the story was "''further indigenized to suit Philippine cultural perspectives and orientations.''"

List of characters and places

* Maharadiya Lawana -

Ravana Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and rakshasi Kaikesi. ...

, a destructive king with seven heads. The son of the Sultan and Sultana of Polo Bandiyarmasir. * Polo Bandiyarmasir - Lanka, the domain of Ravana * Polo Nagara -

Mount Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has an altitude of ...

, depicted as an island where Maharadiya Lawana cut off his heads as a sacrifice. * Agama Niyog -

Ayodhya Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, also known as Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and setting of the great epic Ramayana. Ayodhya wa ...

* Radiya Mangandiri and Radiya Mangawarna -

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

and

Lakshmana Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja () ...

, two brother princes. * Towan Potri Malano Tihaya, or Potri Malayla Ganding -

Sita Sita (; ) also called as Janaki and Vaidehi is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic, ''Ramayana''. She is the consort of Rama, the avatar of the god Vishnu, and is regarded as a form of Vishnu's consort, Lakshmi. She ...

, the princess of Polo Nabanday. * Ba’i or Sultan of Polo Nabanday - the ruler of Polo Nabanday. * Polo Nabanday - the domain where Sita lived. * Kabayan - an elderly woman who lived by the sea. She took in Radiya Mangandiri and Radiya Mangawarna. * Imam * Laksamana - a monkey who helped the two brothers. He is the story's version of

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

. * Potri Langawi - the mother of Laksamana.

References

Hinduism in the Philippines Philippine literature Moro people Culture of Lanao del Sur Works based on the Ramayana Southeast Asian culture {{Philippines-stub

List of characters and places

See also

References