THE DARANGUN

The Darangen begins with the foundation of Bembaran, the Maranaos' ideal mythological kingdom, and comes to an end with the episode of Bembaran's fall. This final section describes how Sharief Awlis, a Muslim missionary famous in all of Sulu and Mindanao, visited Bembaran and taught the Islamic faith. The people there refused to accept it, though, so God became angry and destroyed the kingdom with a great fire. A man named Botawanen Kalinan and his 4 brothers , whose barely escaped, is thought to be the direct ancestors of the Maranao....

The epic tells us of pre-Islamic Maranao culture and provides information about the earliest contacts with Islamic missionaries. Thus through the Darangen story we can gain an understanding, on a folk-tradition level, not only of native Maranao folk ways but also of the type of social conditions that existed when the Maranao contacted and adopted Islam. Because of the shortage of historical materials, such information is of great value to the researcher, and this is why I sincerely hope that this Darangen publishing program will continue until its completion.

The episodes in this volume deal mainly with a series of wars between the kingdom of Kadaraan and the kingdoms around it. The forces of Kadaraan are quite powerful, putting its opponents at a disadvantage, but Prince Bantogen of Bembaran (the hero of the epic) provides help for the underdogs.

Though epics may be fictional and lack true historicity, they are not simply fairy tales. At the very least the contents reflect the social circumstances of the period, and may comprise a metaphor of actual events. The Darangen provides a number of cases in point; here I shall point out two that I found particularly interesting.

Nowadays, the Darangen is less frequently performed owing in part to its rich vocabulary and archaic linguistic forms, which can only be understood by practitioners, elders and scholars. Indeed, the growing tendency to embrace mainstream Filipino lifestyles may represent a threat to the survival of this ancient epic. 

 

ranawnews.com