Dadanhayan ha Sugay, the Lord from Whom Permission Is Asked

Dadanhayan ha Sugay, whose name ethnographers gloss as 'the lord from whom permission is asked', is one of the three divine persons of the Bukidnon creation myth recorded among the Talaandig. Where the creator Magbabaya is human in form and wills only good, Dadanhayan ha Sugay has a human body crowned by ten heads, all of which drool sticky saliva without ceasing. He represents the unformed and contrary pole of creation: it is from his soil and saliva that the matter of the earth is drawn, but only through the creative will of Magbabaya and the cooling mediation of the winged Agtayabun. Scholars such as Demetrio have noted that his ten drooling heads resemble multi-headed beings of Indic iconography, a possible echo of early Hindu-Buddhist contact in Mindanao and Sulu. He completes the triad as the necessary counterweight to Magbabaya, the two held in equilibrium by Agtayabun.

Domains

• permission and primordial matter

Powers

• to yield from his saliva and soil the substance of the earth

Epithets

• Dadanhayan ha SugayFrancisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Fernando N. Zialcita and Roberto B. Feleo, The Soul Book (Quezon City: GCF Books, 1991). (secondary)

Relations

• rival: Magbabaya, the One Who Wills All ThingsThe ill-formed, ten-headed Dadanhayan ha Sugay is the dark counterpart to the comely, human-formed Magbabaya who wills good; their opposition is held in balance within the creative triad.Francisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Fernando N. Zialcita and Roberto B. Feleo, The Soul Book (Quezon City: GCF Books, 1991). (secondary)
• ally: Agtayabun, the Winged MediatorAgtayabun the winged mediator holds Dadanhayan ha Sugay aloft beside Magbabaya, cooling his many heads by the beating of his wings.Francisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Fernando N. Zialcita and Roberto B. Feleo, The Soul Book (Quezon City: GCF Books, 1991). (secondary)

Sources

• Dadanhayan ha Sugay, 'the lord from whom permission is asked', is the ten-headed, drooling member of the Bukidnon creative triad whose saliva and soil furnish the substance of the earth.: Francisco R. Demetrio, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Fernando N. Zialcita and Roberto B. Feleo, The Soul Book (Quezon City: GCF Books, 1991). (secondary); Carmen Ching Unabia, The Bukidnon Batbatonon and Pamuhay: A Socio-Literary Study (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1986). (secondary)