TFIPOST हिन्दी
TFIPOST Global
Tfipost.com
Tfipost.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Premium
  • Politics
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Opinions
    • Trending
    Western Media’s Civilizational Insecurity Against India

    Western Media’s Civilizational Insecurity Against India Masked as Journalism

    Why Is Mamata Shielding Suspected Rohingyas?

    Mamata Defends Illegal Rohingyas Again, Questions BJP’s Crackdown on Infiltrators

    Israeli Businessman is Father, Russian Woman Faces Deportation

    Israeli Businessman Confirms Paternity, Fights Deportation of Daughters and Russian Partner Found in Karnataka Cave

    Pakistani Jasmeen Manzoor Shares Photos of Brutal Assault

    Pakistani Anchor Jasmeen Manzoor Shares Graphic Photos After Ex-Husband Beats Her Brutally

    • Analysis
    • Opinions
    • Trending
  • Economy
    • All
    • Business
    • Economy1
    • Finance
    AI Appreciation Day Celebrated Globally, Spotlight on Innovation and Ethical Progress

    AI Appreciation Day Celebrated Globally, Spotlight on Innovation and Ethical Progress

    India Achieves 50% Non-Fossil Fuel Power Capacity

    India Achieves 50 pc Non-Fossil Fuel Power Capacity, Five Years Ahead of Schedule

    Advantages of Using an EMI Calculator Before Applying for a Personal Loan

    Advantages of Using an EMI Calculator Before Applying for a Personal Loan

    WiseProfitWay.com reviews – Trading Times

    WiseProfitWay.com reviews – Trading Times

    • Business
    • Finance
  • Defense
    • All
    • Defence
    • Strategy
    • Weaponry
    India-U.S. Set to Strike Javelin Deal

    India Seeks Javelin Missile Co-Production Deal with U.S. Under ‘Make in India’ Push

    India Set to Test ET-LDHCM: Hypersonic Missile

    India Tests Hypersonic Missile Aimed at Covering All of Pakistan and Key Chinese Military Zones

    India Conducts Successful Trial of Astra Missile

    India Conducts Successful Trial of Astra Missile BVRAAM Featuring Indigenous RF Seeker

    India Must Stay Vigilant as Turkey-Pakistan Axis Grows

    Pakistan and Turkey Deepen Anti-India Axis Through Defence, Radicalization Nexus

    • Defence
    • Strategy
    • Weaponry
  • Geopolitics
    • All
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe
    • South Asia
    • West Asia
    US-DEA Uncovers Canada–Pakistan–China Narco-Terror Nexus

    US-DEA Uncovers Canada–Pakistan–China Narco-Terror Nexus: A Global Hybrid Threat Emerges

    Pakistan Taliban’s Network in Bangladesh Busted

    Pakistan Taliban’s Terror Web Reaches Bangladesh: Two Arrested Over TTP Links

    Iran Travel Warning: Indian Nationals Asked to Reconsider Plans

    India Embassy Urges Caution: Avoid Non-Essential Travel to Iran Now

    Non-veg milk a red line in India-US trade talks. Here's why

    No Dairy Deal with US if Cows Are Fed Meat: India Stands Firm

    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe
    • South Asia
    • West Asia
  • Knowledge
    • All
    • Culture
    • Education
    • History
    • Indology
    NCERT Textbook Reveals Mughal Religious Intolerance

    Ruthless Babur, Violent Akbar, Destructive Aurangzeb: NCERT Textbook Reveals Mughal Religious Intolerance

    India Built Gardens Long Before Babur Dreamt of Charbagh

    Before the Mughals: India’s Civilisation Built Gardens Long Before Babur Dreamt of Charbaghs

    Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic

    Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic

    Echoes of the Cholas in Today’s Bharat

    Conqueror of the Seas: Rajendra Chola and the Rise of Naval Bharat

    • Culture
    • History
    • Indology
  • Law
  • Lounge
    • All
    • Books
    • Cinema
    • Entertainment
    • Food
    • Games
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Satire
    • Sports
    • technology
    • Travel
    Ace Alliance: Accelerating Growth in the European iGaming Market

    Ace Alliance: Accelerating Growth in the European iGaming Market

    Addiction Recovery in India: Breaking Stigmas and Building Support Systems

    Addiction Recovery in India: Breaking Stigmas and Building Support Systems

    How Under Armour’s Women’s Sports Shoes Are Reinventing Women’s Fitness Experience

    How Under Armour’s Women’s Sports Shoes Are Reinventing Women’s Fitness Experience

    How Digital Tools are Transforming Indian Football

    How Digital Tools are Transforming Indian Football

    • Books
    • Cinema
    • Food
    • Health
    • Sports
    • technology
    • Travel
    • Satire
Tfipost.com
  • Premium
  • Politics
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Opinions
    • Trending
    Western Media’s Civilizational Insecurity Against India

    Western Media’s Civilizational Insecurity Against India Masked as Journalism

    Why Is Mamata Shielding Suspected Rohingyas?

    Mamata Defends Illegal Rohingyas Again, Questions BJP’s Crackdown on Infiltrators

    Israeli Businessman is Father, Russian Woman Faces Deportation

    Israeli Businessman Confirms Paternity, Fights Deportation of Daughters and Russian Partner Found in Karnataka Cave

    Pakistani Jasmeen Manzoor Shares Photos of Brutal Assault

    Pakistani Anchor Jasmeen Manzoor Shares Graphic Photos After Ex-Husband Beats Her Brutally

    • Analysis
    • Opinions
    • Trending
  • Economy
    • All
    • Business
    • Economy1
    • Finance
    AI Appreciation Day Celebrated Globally, Spotlight on Innovation and Ethical Progress

    AI Appreciation Day Celebrated Globally, Spotlight on Innovation and Ethical Progress

    India Achieves 50% Non-Fossil Fuel Power Capacity

    India Achieves 50 pc Non-Fossil Fuel Power Capacity, Five Years Ahead of Schedule

    Advantages of Using an EMI Calculator Before Applying for a Personal Loan

    Advantages of Using an EMI Calculator Before Applying for a Personal Loan

    WiseProfitWay.com reviews – Trading Times

    WiseProfitWay.com reviews – Trading Times

    • Business
    • Finance
  • Defense
    • All
    • Defence
    • Strategy
    • Weaponry
    India-U.S. Set to Strike Javelin Deal

    India Seeks Javelin Missile Co-Production Deal with U.S. Under ‘Make in India’ Push

    India Set to Test ET-LDHCM: Hypersonic Missile

    India Tests Hypersonic Missile Aimed at Covering All of Pakistan and Key Chinese Military Zones

    India Conducts Successful Trial of Astra Missile

    India Conducts Successful Trial of Astra Missile BVRAAM Featuring Indigenous RF Seeker

    India Must Stay Vigilant as Turkey-Pakistan Axis Grows

    Pakistan and Turkey Deepen Anti-India Axis Through Defence, Radicalization Nexus

    • Defence
    • Strategy
    • Weaponry
  • Geopolitics
    • All
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe
    • South Asia
    • West Asia
    US-DEA Uncovers Canada–Pakistan–China Narco-Terror Nexus

    US-DEA Uncovers Canada–Pakistan–China Narco-Terror Nexus: A Global Hybrid Threat Emerges

    Pakistan Taliban’s Network in Bangladesh Busted

    Pakistan Taliban’s Terror Web Reaches Bangladesh: Two Arrested Over TTP Links

    Iran Travel Warning: Indian Nationals Asked to Reconsider Plans

    India Embassy Urges Caution: Avoid Non-Essential Travel to Iran Now

    Non-veg milk a red line in India-US trade talks. Here's why

    No Dairy Deal with US if Cows Are Fed Meat: India Stands Firm

    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe
    • South Asia
    • West Asia
  • Knowledge
    • All
    • Culture
    • Education
    • History
    • Indology
    NCERT Textbook Reveals Mughal Religious Intolerance

    Ruthless Babur, Violent Akbar, Destructive Aurangzeb: NCERT Textbook Reveals Mughal Religious Intolerance

    India Built Gardens Long Before Babur Dreamt of Charbagh

    Before the Mughals: India’s Civilisation Built Gardens Long Before Babur Dreamt of Charbaghs

    Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic

    Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic

    Echoes of the Cholas in Today’s Bharat

    Conqueror of the Seas: Rajendra Chola and the Rise of Naval Bharat

    • Culture
    • History
    • Indology
  • Law
  • Lounge
    • All
    • Books
    • Cinema
    • Entertainment
    • Food
    • Games
    • Health
    • Lifestyle
    • Satire
    • Sports
    • technology
    • Travel
    Ace Alliance: Accelerating Growth in the European iGaming Market

    Ace Alliance: Accelerating Growth in the European iGaming Market

    Addiction Recovery in India: Breaking Stigmas and Building Support Systems

    Addiction Recovery in India: Breaking Stigmas and Building Support Systems

    How Under Armour’s Women’s Sports Shoes Are Reinventing Women’s Fitness Experience

    How Under Armour’s Women’s Sports Shoes Are Reinventing Women’s Fitness Experience

    How Digital Tools are Transforming Indian Football

    How Digital Tools are Transforming Indian Football

    • Books
    • Cinema
    • Food
    • Health
    • Sports
    • technology
    • Travel
    • Satire
No Result
View All Result
Tfipost.com
Tfipost.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Premium
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Defense
  • Geopolitics
  • Knowledge
  • Law
  • Lounge

The Philippines: A land of Shiva, Ganesha and Sanskrit, lost to Spanish and American conquests

Akshay Narang by Akshay Narang
29 December 2021
in Culture, Hinduism Region
Philippines,Hinduism, temples, culture, Hindu, Spanish
Share on FacebookShare on X

You know things have changed when a country cannot identify its original name. The Philippines got its name in 1544, after a Spanish explorer, Ruy López de Villalobos, named the archipelago after the prince of Spain, Philip II. This is a relatively very new name for a country believed to be around 709,000 years old.

There are 7,000 islands in the Philippines. No one knows what they were called before the Spanish invasion, as the colonial powers dismissed the people of the islands as primitive and uncivilised. This is what colonialism did. Not only did the colonialists loot the wealth of the native people, but also destroyed their culture. However, there are remains of the ancient language, culture and religion in the Philippines and they point out that Hinduism had a lot of influence in the pre-colonial Philippines. 

RelatedPosts

4,500-Year-Old Civilization in Rajasthan Shows Link to Saraswati River

Durga Idol Crushed in Dhaka Demolition; India Condemns Bangladesh’s Assault on Hindu Sentiment

“They Have a Choice”- Usha Vance on Letting Kids Decide Their Own Religion

Load More

How Spanish invasion obscured Filipino culture

Today, the Philippines seems like a homogenous society, or almost a homogenous society. The country has a 92.5% Christian population and Roman Catholics comprise over 80 percent of the total Christian population.

This was quite natural, for the Spanish had a reputation of destroying local culture, looting their wealth and massacring local people. Those who converted to the religion of the invading Spaniards, that is, Christianity were spared. And Spanish rule continued for over 300 years in the Philippines, so you can imagine how the Filipino people didn’t have any choice.

The Spaniards went a step further and tried to delete all archaeological evidence of Filipino history. Hundreds of idols were destroyed across the Philippines while converting the native people to Christianity. And even after decades of fully converting the archipelago, Spanish priests kept discovering idols hidden by secret practitioners.

Even till 1773, Spaniards were considering means of stopping the secret practice of the old religion in the Philippines. Most of the idols representing the old Filipino culture have, thus, got destroyed.

Indian culture in the pre-colonial Philippines

Hundreds of years of colonial rule may have obscured the old culture of the Philippines, but India had an ancient connection with the archipelago from around the 1st century to the 14th century.

So, ancient polities in the Philippines were heavily influenced by the Hindu-Buddhist religion and culture. The strong trade links between India and the Philippines was definitely an influence on the archipelago.

And the Southeast military campaign of Rajendra Chola further encouraged Indian influence in the Southeast Asian country. Some Indian rulers like Samudra Gupta had a well-defined navy that extended their reach and influence over the various islands in South and Southeast Asia.

Evidence of Indian culture in the ancient Philippines

No matter how hard the invading colonial powers tried, they couldn’t get rid of the fables, stories, some artefacts, linguistic semblances and folklore in the local Filipino culture. 

The influence of Sanskrit in local Filipino languages like Tagalog, Kapampangan and Cebuano is easily visible. Conscience is called Budhi in Tagalog and seems to have its roots in the Sanskrit word “Bodhi”. Similarly, Guro in Tagalog seems to have been derived from Guru in Sanskrit. 

In fact, the influence of the Sanskrit language in the Philippines is such that sitting Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte even proposed renaming the country as the “Republic of Maharlika”. The word “Maharlika” has its roots in the Sanskrit word “maharddhika”, which means a “man of wealth, knowledge, or ability”. And is believed to refer to the warrior class of the Tagalog people, much like Kshatriyas in Hinduism. 

And then several artefacts are found in the Philippines, which have their roots in Hinduism. The most popular amongst them is the 13th century— 21-karat Golden Tara. It is an image of a Hindu goddess and serves as a proof that Hinduism was existent in the pre-colonial Philippines.

facebook.com / Shipwreckhunter

Other artefacts include a bronze statue, identified as the Buddhist version of Lord Shiva, a copper statue of Bhagwan Ganesh and a golden Garuda pendant.

Surprised, right? Well, the Philippines still has an affinity for the Hindu epic Ramayana. During the 2017 ASEAN summit in Manila, Rama Hari, a ballet company presented a musical version of the Ramayana, which reasserts the Hindu roots of the Philippines. The old Filipino culture has been obscured by centuries of colonialization but the strong influence of Hinduism is still visible in the Philippines.

Tags: Hindi languageHindu CultureHinduismhinduism regionPhilippinesTagalog
ShareTweetSend
Previous Post

How UNESCO’s world heritage status hurts the sanctity of Thanjavur’s Brihadisvara Temple

Next Post

Google feels the heat as Competition Commission of India sets its eyes on it

Related Posts

Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic
Books

Revisiting the MANUSMRITI: Why India’s Youth Must Study This Ancient Epic

14 July 2025

In the vast ocean of India’s civilizational treasures, few texts evoke as much passion, controversy, and confusion as the...

Sanatani Certification to Continue Beyond Sawan, Extend to All Business Sectors
Hinduism Region

VHP’s ‘Sanatani Certificate’ Drive No Longer Limited to Eateries, Will Continue Year-Round

14 July 2025

In a significant move to uphold traditional Hindu values in commerce, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has announced that...

Echoes of the Cholas in Today’s Bharat
Analysis

Conqueror of the Seas: Rajendra Chola and the Rise of Naval Bharat

13 July 2025

Over a thousand years ago, when much of the world was shrouded in darkness, a powerful emperor from the...

Load More

Comments 2

  1. Russel Schuster says:
    4 years ago

    It’s a stigma for an intelligent civilisation to be rules by Islamists and Christians. Both are ruthlessly cruel, forceful, full of deceit, violent, destroy languages, civilisation, way of living, worshipping, destroy history, traditions, culture, rapes, killing, slavery are all associated with Abrahamic religions. In modern world they are highly pretentious and falsely claim to be peaceful.

    Reply
    • Bhanuprakash says:
      4 years ago

      Excellent comment snd that’s the reality you revealed 👍👍👍👏👏👏🙏🙏🙏

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Currently Playing

The Butcher of Pahalgam: Sulaiman — Trained by ISI, Pakistan’s Commando-Turned-Terrorist

The Butcher of Pahalgam: Sulaiman — Trained by ISI, Pakistan’s Commando-Turned-Terrorist

00:04:13

Congress’s Rohith Vemula Bill: Caste Polarization Masquerading as Reform

00:07:33

Bhima Koregaon Won’t Be Repeated; Maharashtra’s Special Act to Wipe Out Urban Naxals.

00:06:06

Conqueror of the Seas: Rajendra Chola and the Rise of Naval Bharat

00:07:47

How UPI went global? Why Namibia Adopted It?

00:07:20
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube
tfipostTfipost.com
Right Wing | News Analysis | Indian Opinion
  • About us
  • Careers
  • Brand Partnerships
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
MASHABLE IS A GLOBAL, MULTI-PLATFORM MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY. FOR MORE QUERIES AND NEWS, CONTACT US AT info@mashablepartners.com


©2025 TFI Media Private Limited

No Result
View All Result
  • Premium
  • Politics
    • Analysis
    • Opinions
    • Trending
  • Economy
    • Business
    • Finance
  • Defense
    • Defence
    • Strategy
    • Weaponry
  • Geopolitics
    • Africa
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Europe
    • South Asia
    • West Asia
  • Knowledge
    • Culture
    • History
    • Indology
  • Law
  • Lounge
    • Books
    • Cinema
    • Food
    • Health
    • Sports
    • technology
    • Travel
    • Satire
TFIPOST हिन्दी
TFIPOST Global

©2025 TFI Media Private Limited