THE MAYAN LITERATURE

POPOL VUH

The Mayans were the only people in the Americas who had a developed form of writing, thus some of their inscriptions cannot be entirely deciphered. Part of the problem is the limited number of texts; only three pre-Spanish Maya books, or codices, are known to exist. One of the few native text that survived from the Spanish colonial period is the Popol Vuh. Many of their text like the Popul Vuh consist of legends or rituals that come down by word of mouth. So the Popol Vuh is a book of chronological happenings that explain the Mayans belief of creation. In the essence, it was a book of guidelines and moral lessons. The Mayans believed that the Popol Vuh was created before man and that it was to be used to answer questions of creation and the earth. According to the Mayans, the concept of time was a neverending process. Their civilization had the most correct understandings of the concept of time. The first known contact with this book for the Mayans was in Quiche. Quiche is an area in the Guatamalan highlands. The Popol Vuh has had many names before it was the Popol Vuh. These names ranged from “The Light That Came from Across the Sea,” “Our Place in the Shadows,” and “The Dawn of Life.” The last and final name that stuck with the book is Popol Vuh or translated means Council Book. The authors of the alphabetic Popol Vuh were members of the three lordly lineages that had once ruled the Quiche kingdom: the Cauecs, the Greathouses, and the Lord Quiches. These founding groups were thought to have existed in the middle sixteenth century. In 1701, a friar named Francisco Ximenez made the only surviving copy of the Popol Vuh and added a Spanish translation.

The Mayans were polytheistic and their gods had many different names. The most commanding of the gods were the Maker, Begetter, Sovereign Plumed Serpent, and Maker of the Blue-Green Plate. All these gods played different roles in the creation of the earth. The Maker was the mother-father of life. The Begetter and Soveriegn Plumed Serpent were in the water and were believed to be a glittering light or reflection. The Maker of the Blue-Green Plate stood for the maker of the sky and earth. The Popol Vuh and the Judeo Christian bible have a large similarity, and that is the story of creation. The Popol Vuh describes the creations of each section of the sky, land, and water. With the moments in creation there is no element of time, it just happens the way the gods want them to occur. After the gods have created all the animals and areas of the earth they decide to create guardians. These guardians are to protect this lavish land and to respect all creatures that share the earth with them. At first, the gods tried to produce a human out of earth and mud. The problem with this idea was that the humans were disintergrating and dissolving, and the body had many imperfections. Later, the gods tried again to construct a human, this time out of wood. These manikins multiplied, having sons and daughters. The problem with the manikins was that they had no feelings, heart, blood, and no recognition of events. The gods were angered by their mistake, so they created a flood and killed all the manikins. Then the gods ground their bodies up and crushed their mouths and faces. Afterward, the gods ate them. ” It has been said that the monkeys were left as a sign because wood alone was used for their flesh by the gods. So this is why monkeys look like people: they are a sign of a previous human work, human design-mere manikins, mere woodcarvings.” In conclusion the Popop Vuh is an example of how a book of a civilization can be lost,and reopened in a new age(POPOL VUH).