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The maharlika (meaning freeman or freedman) were the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society in Luzon, the Philippines. They belonged to the lower nobility class similar to the timawa of the Visayan people. In modern Filipino, however, the word has come to refer to aristocrats or to royal nobility, [1] which was actually restricted to the hereditary maginoo class. [2]
The maharlika were a martial class of freemen. [3] Like the timawa, they were free vassals of their datu who were exempt from taxes and tribute but were required to provide military service. In times of war, the maharlika were obligated to provide and prepare weapons at their own expense and answer the summons of the datu, wherever and whenever that might be, in exchange for a share in the war spoils (ganima). They accompanied their ruler in battles as comrades-at-arms and were always given a share. 1/5 of the spoils goes to the Ginoo and the 4/5 will be shared among the Maharlikans who participated, who in turn will subdivide their shares to their own warriors. The maharlika may also occasionally be obligated to work on the lands of the datu and assist in projects and other events in the community. [2]
Unlike the timawa, however, the maharlika were more militarily-oriented than the timawa nobility of the Visayas. [4] While the maharlika could change allegiances by marriage or by emigration like the timawa, they were required to host a feast in honor of their current datu and paid a sum ranging from six to eighteen pieces of gold before they could be freed from their obligations. In contrast, the timawa were free to change allegiances at any time, [2] as exemplified by the action of Rajah Humabon upon the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan.[ citation needed ]
The earliest appearance of the term is manlica mentioned in the Boxer Codex with the meaning of "freeman". [5] The only other contemporary account of the maharlika class was by the Franciscan friar Juan de Plasencia in the 16th century. He distinguished them from the hereditary nobility class of the Tagalogs (the maginoo class, which included the datu). The historian William Henry Scott believes that the class originated from high-status warriors who married into the maginoo blood or were perhaps remnants of the nobility class of a conquered line. Similar high-status warriors in other Philippine societies like that of the Bagobo and the Bukidnon did not inherit their positions, but were acquired through martial prowess. [4] [6]
After the Spanish conquest, the Spanish translated the name maharlika as Hidalgos (or libres). [7]
The term maharlika is a loanword from Sanskrit maharddhika (महर्द्धिक), a title meaning "man of wealth, knowledge, or ability". Contrary to modern definitions, it did not refer to the ruling class, but rather to a warrior class (which were minor nobility) of the Tagalog people, directly equivalent to Visayan timawa . Like timawa, the term also has connotations of "freeman" or "freed slave" in both Filipino and Malay languages. [7] [8]
In some Indo-Malayan languages, as well as the languages of the Muslim areas of the Philippines, the cognates mardika, merdeka, merdeheka, and maradika mean "freedom" or "freemen" (as opposed to servitude). [9] The Malay term mandulika, also meant "governor". [5]
The Merdicas (also spelled Mardicas or Mardikas), whose name comes from the same etymon, were also the Catholic native inhabitants of the islands of Ambon, Ternate, and Tidore of the Moluccas in modern-day Indonesia, converted during the Portuguese and Spanish occupation of the islands by Jesuit missionaries. Most were enslaved or expelled to Batavia (modern Jakarta) and Java when the Dutch Empire conquered Ambon in 1605. The remaining Catholic natives in Ternate and Tidore were resettled by the Spanish in the communities of Ternate and Tanza, Cavite, Manila in 1663 when the Spanish evacuated the islands under threat of invasion by the Dutch-allied Muslim sultanates. [9]
The name of the Mardijker people of Batavia also comes from the same etymon, and referred to freed slaves and servants under Dutch rule who were composed largely of Portuguese-speaking Catholic Goans, Moluccan Merdicas, and Filipinos (the Papangers) captured by Moro raiders. [10] [11]
During the "New Society Movement" (Kilusang Bagong Lipunan) era in the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos used the word maharlika to promote an authoritarian view of Filipino nationalism under martial law, claiming that it referred to the ancient Filipino nobility and included the kings and princes of ancient Philippine society. Marcos was influential in making "maharlika" a trendy name for streets, edifices, banquet halls, villages and cultural organizations. Marcos himself utilized the word to christen a highway, a broadcasting corporation, and the reception area of Malacañang Palace. [2]
Marcos's use of the word started during World War II. Marcos claimed that he had commanded a group of guerrillas known as the Maharlika Unit. Marcos also used Maharlika as his personal nom de guerre , depicting himself as the most bemedalled anti-Japanese Filipino guerrilla soldier during World War II. In the years before the martial law period in the Philippines, Marcos commissioned a film entitled Maharlika to be based on his "war exploits". [2] [12] However, critic Ernie M. Hizon of the Manila Standard noted that the film does not actually depict any of the details from Marcos' alleged exploits during World War II, but is instead a "run-of-the-mill Hollywood war film populated by third-class actors." [13]
A later variant of the hoax linked with Marcos historical distortionism falsely claimed that the whole Philippine archipelago had once been a single "Maharlika Kingdom," and that Marcos' alleged personal wealth came about because the so-called royal family of this kingdom had hired Marcos as their lawyer in the days after World War II, paying him "192 thousand tons of gold" for his legal services. [14] [15]
Senator Eddie Ilarde was the first to propose to rename the Philippines into "Maharlika" in 1978, citing the need to honor the country's ancient heritage before the Spanish and Americans occupied the country. Ferdinand Marcos was in favor of changing the name of the Philippines into "Maharlika", thinking it meant "nobility", as a symbol of nationalism. In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated the idea, thinking that it means "more of a concept of serenity and peace". [16]
The modern use of maharlika persists in original Philippine music (OPM), notably in the lyrics of "Ako ay Pilipino", a song commissioned by Ferdinand Marcos' First Lady, Imelda Marcos.
The word maharlika is used by the semi-professional basketball league Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, and the football club Maharlika Manila F.C. of the Philippines Football League.
The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest hominin activity in the archipelago at least 709,000 years ago. Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least 67,000 years ago.
Datu is a title which denotes the rulers of numerous indigenous peoples throughout the Philippine archipelago. The title is still used today, though not as much as early Philippine history. It is a cognate of ratu in several other Austronesian languages.
Filipinos are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino, English or other Philippine languages. Currently, there are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines each with its own language, identity, culture, tradition and history.
Filipino nationalism refers to the establishment and support of a political identity associated with the modern nation-state of the Philippines, leading to a wide-ranging campaign for political, social, and economic freedom in the Philippines. This gradually emerged from various political and armed movements throughout most of the Spanish East Indies—but which has long been fragmented and inconsistent with contemporary definitions of such nationalism—as a consequence of more than three centuries of Spanish rule. These movements are characterized by the upsurge of anti-colonialist sentiments and ideals which peaked in the late 19th century led mostly by the ilustrado or landed, educated elites, whether peninsulares, insulares, or native (Indio). This served as the backbone of the first nationalist revolution in Asia, the Philippine Revolution of 1896. The modern concept would later be fully actualized upon the inception of a Philippine state with its contemporary borders after being granted independence by the United States by the 1946 Treaty of Manila.
The principalía or noble class was the ruling and usually educated upper class in the pueblos of Spanish Philippines, comprising the gobernadorcillo, tenientes de justicia, and the cabezas de barangay who governed the districts. Also included in this class were former gobernadorcillos or municipal captains, and municipal lieutenants in good standing during their term of office.
Bagani or magani refers to the class of warrior-leaders of various Lumad ethnic groups of the island of Mindanao, Philippines. Bagani were most notably integral to the traditional society and government of the Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo, and Bagobo people. They usually acquired their status through bravery in battle, fortitude, physical strength, and most importantly, natural charisma and leadership skills. Various bagani of the past have become mythologized as heroes in their communities.
The Boxer Codex is a late-16th-century Spanish manuscript produced in the Philippines. It contains 75 colored illustrations of the peoples of China, the Philippines, Java, the Moluccas, the Ladrones, and Siam. About 270 pages of Spanish text describe these places, their inhabitants and customs. An additional 88 smaller drawings show mythological deities and demons, and both real and mythological birds and animals copied from popular Chinese texts and books in circulation at the time.
The alipin refers to the lowest social class among the various cultures of the Philippines before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the Visayan languages, the equivalent social classes were known as the oripun, uripon, or ulipon.
The timawa were the feudal warrior class of the ancient Visayan societies of the Philippines. They were regarded as higher than the uripon but below the tumao in the Visayan social hierarchy. They were roughly similar to the Tagalog maharlika caste.
The Tagalog maginoo, the Kapampangan ginu, and the Visayan tumao were the nobility social class among various cultures of the pre-colonial Philippines. Among the Visayans, the tumao were further distinguished from the immediate royal families, the kadatuan.
In early Philippine history, the Tagalog settlement at Tondo sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Tondo, was a major trade hub located on the northern part of the Pasig River delta, on Luzon island. Together with Maynila, the polity (bayan) that was also situated on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, had established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago, making it an established force in trade throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.
The Tondo Conspiracy of 1587, popularly known as the Conspiracy of the Maginoos, also known as the Revolt of the Lakans, was a revolt planned by Tagalog nobles known as maginoos, led by Don Agustin de Legazpi of Tondo and his cousin Martin Pangan, to overthrow the Spanish government in the Philippines due to injustices against the Filipinos. It was territorially one of the largest conspiracies against the Spanish rule next to the Katipunan. It ranged from provinces near Manila all the way to the Calamianes Islands near Palawan.
In early Philippine history, the rank of lakan denoted a "paramount ruler" of one of the large coastal barangays on the central and southern regions of the island of Luzon.
There have been several names of the Philippines in different cultures and at different times, usually in reference to specific island groups within the current archipelago. Even the name Philippines itself was originally intended to apply only to Leyte, Samar, and nearby islands. It was bestowed by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos or one of his captains Bernardo de la Torre in 1543 in honor of the crown prince Philip, later Philip II. Mindanao, which they reached first and assumed to be the greater land, they named after the reigning emperor Charles V, who was also Spain's king Carlos I. Over the course of Spanish colonization, the name was eventually extended to cover the entire chain. It has survived with minor changes. The Philippine Revolution called its state the Philippine Republic. The US military and civilian occupations called their territory the Philippine Islands. During the Third Philippine Republic, the state's official name was formally changed to the Philippines.
The known recorded history of the Philippines between 900 and 1565 begins with the creation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 900 and ends with the beginning of Spanish colonization in 1565. The inscription records its date of creation in the year 822 of the Hindu Saka calendar, corresponding to 900 AD in the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the recovery of this document marks the end of the prehistory of the Philippines at 900 AD. During this historical time period, the Philippine archipelago was home to numerous kingdoms and sultanates and was a part of the theorized Indosphere and Sinosphere.
In early Philippine history, barangay is the term historically used by scholars to describe the complex sociopolitical units that were the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the Philippine archipelago in the period immediately before the arrival of European colonizers. Academics refer to these settlements using the technical term "polity", but they are usually simply called "barangays".
In the Philippine languages, a complex system of titles and honorifics was used extensively during the pre-colonial era, mostly by the Tagalogs and Visayans. These were borrowed from the Malay system of honorifics obtained from the Moro peoples of Mindanao, which in turn was based on the Indianized Sanskritized honorifics system in addition to the Chinese system of honorifics used in areas like Ma-i (Mindoro) and Pangasinan. The titles of historical figures such as Rajah Sulayman, Lakandula and Dayang Kalangitan evidence Indian influence. Malay titles are still used by the royal houses of Sulu, Maguindanao, Maranao and Iranun on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. However, these are retained on a traditional basis as the 1987 Constitution explicitly reaffirms the abolition of royal and noble titles in the republic.
Ferdinand Marcos developed a cult of personality as a way of remaining President of the Philippines for 20 years, in a way that political scientists have compared to other authoritarian and totalitarian leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, but also to more contemporary dictators such as Suharto in Indonesia, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the Kim dynasty of North Korea.
Las maneras de ditados que entre ellos ay es sultan que quiere dezir rrey rraxa que quiere dezir prinçipe panguilan que quiere dezir señor de titulo urancaya que quiere dezir hombre prinçipal mantiri que quiere dezir capitan uranbaye que quiere dezir hombre bueno manlica que quiere dezir libre lascar que quiere dezir esclauo gente de guerra quiere dezir uran barca lai.
Media related to Maharlika at Wikimedia Commons