Chapter 4 - Indian Literature in the Philippines

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the extant version of which has come down to the present
century, offers a rather relevant but illusive problem.
Here, there is the folktale incident peculiarly woven into
the fabric of the whole epos, but showing characteristics
.73
of being pre-Christian development, and yet fitted un-
consciously or ingeniously into a piece of literature in-
terspersed with Christian elements. However, the Chris-
tian element can be sifted out of the native and other
alien elements (than the Christian) introduced into the
literary matrix of the Islands ante-dating the advent of
Christianity in the Archipelago. These alien elements may
have been introduced from India.
Another problem would be the date of the introduction
of these pre-Christian elements, if they were not native
independent folktale episodes growing out of pure authoc-
thonous imagination. If they were introduced, when? It
may be surmised that it would likely be at a time far ear-
lier than the 16th century A.D. It is also possible that
these elements may have proto-types in the Javanese and
Malay cycles of tales and stories.
Perhaps, corollary to these parallel elements is that
which may be rarely found in folk-literature - the ring-in-
73 pre-Christian, here, means the period antecedent to
the coming of the Christian missionaries to the Islands.