WHEN the Philippines drafted its Constitution, it placed the statue of Manu in the Assembly Hall with this inscription on its base: “The first, the greatest and the wisest law-giver of mankind.” Researches into the racial and cultural origins of the Philippines increasingly prove that it was colonised by some people in South India. In fact, the script of the Filipinos has some obvious similarities with that of South India. “Our dialects belong to the Dravidian family.” says Justice Romualdez. “The names of some places on the shores of Manila Bay and the coast of Luzon show their Sanskrit origin.”
Indian influence is most patent in handicrafts and the old names of coins used there. Many social customs current there show a likeness to the Indian ones. Saleeby says, “The head-gods of the Indian Triad and the earliest Vedic gods had the foremost place in the minds and devotion of the hill-tribes of Luzon and Mindanao. A Ganesha statue too was found there. Indeed as Beyer says, “India has most profoundly affected the Philippine civilisation.”
Even the national flower of Philippines is the Indian champaka. The Indian influence on Philippines is explicable by the fact that it was that it was for 150 years a colony of a Java-based Hindu Empire of Sri Vijaya. (source: The Soul of India – By Satyavrata R Patel p. 30).
“It is impossible to believe that the Hindus, if they came only as merchants, however great their number, would have impressed themselves in such a way as to give to these islanders, the Philippines, the number and the kind of words, which they did give. These names of dignitaries, of caciques, of high functionaries of the court, of noble ladies, indicate that these high positions, with names of Sanskrit origin, were occupied at one time by men, who spoke that language. The words of similar origin, for objects of war, fortresses and battle songs, for designating objects of religious beliefs, for superstitions, emotions, feelings, industrial and farming activities, show us clearly that the warfare, religion, literature, industry and agriculture were at once time in the hands of the Hindus and that this race was effectively dominant in the Philippines.”
(source: El Sanscrito en la langua Tagalag – T H Pardo de Tavera Paris 1887; The Philippines and India – Dhirendra Nath Roy Manila 1929 and India and The World – By Buddha Prakash p. 119-120).
