Kalantiaw, Maragtas, Urduja: ARE THEY FOR REAL?

      Ten Malay datu from Borneo who settled into the Philippine islands. They left their kingdom together with their families in search of new homes across the sea to escape the merciless rule of Sultan Makatunaw.  Led by Datu Puti, the Borneans landed in the island of Panay and bought the lowlands from the Ati king named Marikudo in exchange for one gold saduk (native hat) and a long gold necklace for Queen Maningwantiwan.

       Datu Puti, Balensusa, and Dumangsil sailed northward to Luzon and landed in the region around Lake Bonbon (Taal). There they built their settlements. Dumangsil and Balensusa’s families occupied other neighboring regions now known as Laguna and the Bicol Peninsula. Datu Puti left for Borneo after he knew that his men were leading peaceful lives. The other seven datu stayed in Panay. They divided the island into three districts. Hantik (now Antique) was under Datu Sumakwel. Datu Paiburong ruled Irong – Irong (now Iloilo). Datu Bangkaya governed Aklan (now Aklan and Capiz).

     Led by Datu Sumakwel, a political confederation of barangays (Madya-as) was formed for purposes of protection and close family relations. The story as told by Fr. Francisco Santaren, further describes the expansion of the Malay settlers to other parts of the archipelago. The legal code written by Datu Sumakwel also known as the Maragtas Code was previously known as the “oldest known written body of laws” in the Philippines.

  A book written by Pedro Monteclaro’s publisher in 1907, noted that this Maragtas should not be considered as facts, all of which are said to be accurate and true.  Many of the author’s data do not tally with what hear from the old man. The author wrote that two of his manuscripts were rotten and hardly legible. None of these written materials was preserved for future generations. He made no explanation about the date as well as the origin of his sources.  Neither were there claims to clarity.

There is no tradition of recording history nor legal decision in Panay during the precolonial times.

    The Code of Kalantiaw is a set of ancient laws promulgated in 1433 by Datu Bendara Kalantiaw (Spanish spelling, Calantiao) of Aklan, the third Muslim ruler of Panay. The code itself was contained in one of the chapters of the Las antiguas leyendes de la isla de Negros (Ancient Legends of Negros Island) written by Fr. Jose Maria Pavon., a Spanish secular priest who became a parish priest of Himamaylan, Negros Occidental in 1838 – 1839.

Jose E. Marco of Negros Occidental discovered the alleged Pavon manuscripts and presented it to Dr. James Robertson. According to Marco’s confession, he obtained the two manuscripts volumes from someone who had stolen them from Himamylan convent during the revolution. He concluded that the Pavon manuscripts were not genuine and that the Code of Kalantiaw was a hoax. He presented his serious objections to his fake “historical” code.

1. There is no evidence that Fr. Pavon, the alleged author of the manuscripts, was ever in the Philippines in 1838, or parish priest of the town in 1839, the dates of the manuscripts. The discoverer of the alleged manuscripts, Jose E. Marco, was also involved in the sale of other fake historical documents. There is no historical evidence for the existence of Datu Kalantiaw, or a code of his name other than the documents presented by Jose Marco.

2. The contents of the manuscript are dubious value. For example, the author prays for the preservation of the King of Spain in 1838 and dedicates a book to him in 1839, but Spain had no king between 1833 and 1874.

3. The author also states that the month of November was called a bad month for it brought air laden with putrefied microbes of evil fevers. It was only in the 1850’s that Loius Pasteur discovered the theory of infectious germs. The word “microbe” itself was invented by Dr. Charles Emmanuel Sedillot. He proposed the term for the first time in a lecture before the Academy of Sciences in 1878.

4. The Kalantiaw Code contains many strange edicts that contradict the character of the Filipino. For example, the code prescribed death penalty for the crime of trespassing on the datu’s house, but imposed only a year’s slavery for stealing his wife.

  

She has been adopted as a symbol of a woman of distinguished courage, an inspiration for women in the country.

Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Ibn Batuta also known as Ibn Batuta (1304-1378), an Arab traveler from Morocco. His book Rihlah (Travels) includes descriptions of the Byzantine court of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and the Black Death of Baghdad (1348).While somewhere in Southeast Asian waters, he reached the land of Tawalisi after a voyage of 71 days, and China was 15 days away with a favorable wind. In Tawalisi, he mentioned a mysterious amazon named Princess Urduja who would only marry the man who could beat her in fistfights. She presided over a court so fascinating and majestic. She gave Ibn Batuta gifts of silk, spices, sheep, buffaloes, and two elephant-loads of rice.

 

Modern historians agree that Princess Urduja was just an illusory creation of Ibn Batuta, a contemporary of Marco Polo (1254-1324), the Venetian traveler whose accounts in the East, particularly China (the English translation of the original title of the book was The Description of the World recorded by Rustichello, a romance writer from Pisa), drew the attention of a great number of Europeans and stimulated interest in Asian trade.