History Paper

The First Dhivehin

Naseema Mohamed, 2000 (Images added by DO Editorial Team)

Who were the first settlers of Maldives? It is a difficult question to answer because all traces of their lives in these islands were lost a long time ago. There are the remains of ancient Buddhist temples dating from the 2nd century A.D. and some materials from even earlier times. Most exciting is the evidence gained from the dispersal of cowrie shells from the Maldives to many countries of the ancient world at a period further back in time, indicating a much earlier date for the peopling of these islands. Maldive cowrie shells called cypraea moneta, dating back to more than 2000 B.C., have been found in China and the Middle East. Maldives was the only source for this type of cowrie, and was sometimes called the "Cowrie Islands" by Arab travellers. The Chinese knew that these shells originated in islands in the Indian Ocean.

Sources of early Maldivian history are scarce, but there are some documentary evidence as well as artefacts from archaeological sites. Documentary evidence includes the copperplates of Maldives, the information contained in ancient records of India and Sri Lanka and written records of historians and travellers. In recent years, some of the archaeological sites in Maldives have been investigated, resulting in more reliable information. All the available information from these sources show that ancient Maldives had a culture, that was related to other cultures of the Indian Ocean region and that these islands were not unknown to other countries of the region, and to some even beyond. Records of a Maldivian visit to Rome in the fourth century A.D., and to China in the seventh century A.D., also exist.

Early Settlements

It has been said that if we knew the period when people first settled in Maldives, we would be able to know when travel first began in the Indian Ocean. The islands lie almost in the centre of the most frequented routes of the Indian Ocean, the most travelled ocean in ancient times. For this reason, some writers feel that, Maldives was peopled when travel across the Indian Ocean to India and the Far East began. The close proximity of Maldives to the Malabar coast and the Laccadives, also suggests settlers who were fishermen who lived in this region. In very ancient times, the islands of the Laccadive –Maldives – Chagos Ridge seem to have been considered as one group, and it would have been possible for fishermen to move freely from one group of islands to the other.

The most probable theory is that, early settlements in the Maldives were caused by various navigational activities in the Indian Ocean. "Post-Indus maritime migrations, Iron Age in South India and Sri Lanka, Graeco-Roman maritime trade - all contributed to the navigational activities in the first millennium B.C. Prakrit speaking Satavahanas of the Deccan, Tamil speaking Chera, Chola, Pandyas of South India, and Prakrit speaking

Sinhalese of Sri Lanka - all were active participants in the Graeco-Roman maritime trade. Availability of cowries, turtle shell, ambergris etc. which were valuable commodities in the Asian trade, the possibility of providing services to the navigators, and shipwrecks might have made people settle in Maldives." (P.Ragupathy 1993:1). The channels between the atolls of Maldives are like gateways to the southern parts of South and Southeast Asia. Since the atolls are full of reefs and shallows, travellers who did not know the islands were frequently shipwrecked here. People thus shipwrecked, often did not find a passage out of the country and stayed on, settling in the islands. Hypotheses mentioned by Dr, Ragupathy on the earliest settlers are the following:

Prakrit speaking people akin to the Sinhalese from the Western part of India,
Old Tamil speaking people from the nearest Kerala coast,
Old Sinhalese speaking people from Sri Lanka.

Travel in the Indian Ocean in the early days depended upon the monsoons, therefore when trading ships arrived at Maldives, they had to wait for the winds to change before they could return to their own countries. This could take many months, and often the sailors married women for the duration of their stay, on the understanding that they would divorce them before their departure. Ibn Batuta, visiting Maldives in 1343 A.D., recorded this age-old custom.

"When ships arrive, those on board take wives, and repudiate them on their departure: it is a kind of temporary marriage. The Maldive women never leave their country". (Gray1996:13).

The above custom would have resulted in many children of mixed races in the Maldivian population. Ibn Batuta himself married many local women and had a son from one of these wives. The child was left with the mother.

One common observation made on the populations of various islands of Maldives is that, the people of one island can be very different from those of another island, in terms of their appearance and habits. This is especially evident in people of an island like Giravaru, where the islanders kept mainly to themselves, and marriages were made within the same community. The island being close to Male', the capital, the differences between the Giravaru islanders and the people of Male' were remarked upon more than those of other islands. It is probable that the ancestors of the Giravaru islanders came originally from an area where people lived conservatively and had the same habits that the islanders preserved until recent times. Many writers called the Giravaru people, the indigenous people of Maldives, because of a story told by the islanders in their folk lore. However, it is unlikely to be true, because the Maldives has so many islands that no one really knows where the first settlers made their home. The difference in the appearance and habits, which exist in the populations of various islands, is probably due to the different places of their settlers' origin.

Gujarat on the north-western shores of the sub-continent is a region with long-standing contacts with Maldives, and may have been the origin of some of the early settlers. With its proximity to the Indus Valley civilization, Gujarat has had a tradition of navigation since ancient times. The earliest Buddhist literature often indicates seafaring from Gujarati ports. It was from Gujarat that "elements of civilization, such as writing, kingship, religious systems and concepts of cities reached the coast of Tamil Nadu, opposite Sri Lanka, and stimulated formation of the first civilization in South India. The export of this civilization to all the coasts of South Asia and South-east Asia began about 500 B.C." (Maloney 1980:49). Maldive cowrie shells discovered in the ruins of Lothal in Gujarat, a port used during the days of the Indus Valley civilization, proved the ancient contacts with Maldives. For many centuries, Gujarati ships traded with the Maldives, a fact proven by many historical records, and in later centuries, some Gujarati merchants established businesses in Male'.

Jataka Tales

There are some Jataka tales from Buddhist literature, which refer to islands that can be identified as Maldives. Clarence Maloney, in his book "People of the Maldive Islands" speaks of three Jataka stories, which seem to refer to the Maldives. He says that one of these, " Jataka No. 213, the Bharu Jataka is set in Gujarat, for King Bharu must have ruled around Bharukaccha (modern Bharuch), often mentioned as a port in the early literature. This Jataka story says that King Bharu caused ascetics to quarrel, and, therefore, the spirits that dwelt in the realm of Bharu were angry with the king. They hence brought up the sea, and the inhabitants of the kingdom perished." (Maloney 1980:38).

He adds that the ancient commentary accompanying this passage added the following significant note:

"And those who at that time spoke the truth, blaming King Bharu for taking a bribe, found standing room upon a thousand islands which are yet to be seen today about the island of Najikara." (Maloney 1980:38).

Maloney states that the "thousand islands could refer only to the Maldives; especially because they are so tiny that there is not much more than standing room on them!" He also says that the Chinese writer Hsuan Tsang (629-645A.D.) referred to the Maldives by the name of "Najikara" (coconut island). Maloney also says that most of the legends, which possibly refer to the Maldives, suggest that "the islands were peopled by political exiles." (Maloney 1980:39). There are other Jataka tales that suggest that ships from Gujarat going to South-east Asia stopped in the Maldives, and that merchants in search of treasures sailed in several seas called –mala. (Maloney 1980:40)

In spite of the above suggestion that the islands were first peopled by political exiles, it is likely that before any political exiles arrived, there already existed small fishing communities in many of the islands, consisting mainly of Dravidian speakers.

Beliefs

Buddhism was probably brought to the Maldives some time during the third century B.C., at about the same time as to the other countries of the South Asian region, when there were people already living in the country. Most of the present theories about the first people who settled in the Maldives, have been formed after research into the Dhivehi language, archeological finds, and the study of various old records from Maldives and foreign sources.

The prevalence of Buddhism can be dated from the early centuries of the Christian era. Early examples of footprints, railings, images and stupas with sockets on the top to keep umbrellas are comparable with the Sanchi, Amaravathi and Sri Lankan schools of Buddhist architecture and sculpture. (Ragupathy 1993:3).

Several images, caskets and miniature stupas belonging to the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism were found especially in Male' and Ari Atoll. This sect was a combination of Buddhism and Tantric-Hinduism that was popular in Bengal and Orissa in the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.(Ragupathy 1993:3). Some of the events in the legends narrated in the islands are connected to this branch of Buddhism.

A few Hindu artefacts included in the archaeological finds, suggest that Hinduism existed in the islands' early history, perhaps before the advent of Buddhism, or even at a later period.

Information collected from various sources also indicates that ancient Maldives had "a matriarchal system, with myths and magico-religious beliefs, a system of class distinctions", a ruler whose power was supreme, and "a ruling system which was guided by time honoured customs and traditions." (Maniku 1993:39).

Language and Customs

Research into the Maldivian language, Dhivehi, has established the fact that it is an Indic language, developed from a Prakrit, tentatively named Proto-Dhivehi-Sinhala by linguists researching Dhivehi. The theory that both Dhivehi and Sinhala developed from a common idiom carried into Maldives and Sri Lanka at approximately the same period (circa 500 B.C.), and that Dhivehi then developed in its island home, can explain the similarity and the differences in the two languages. According to some linguists, Dhivehi also shows a substratum of another language, akin to Dravidian, which could represent early migration from the western and north-western coasts of India. There are many words of Dravidian origin in Dhivehi; many terms relating to the sea and sailing are among these, as are the names of a number of islands. Some of the old customs of the Maldives, especially the matrilineal system of inheritance prevalent in Maldives during the pre-Islamic era, were similar to those that existed in Kerala. Visitors to Maldives during ancient times, were surprised to find that sometimes the country had women rulers.

Research Studies

In 1899, Professor John Stanley Gardiner visited Maldives, during which time; he collected anthropometrical data of a number of Maldivians from many islands. Analysis of this data by Dr. Wynfrid Duckworth, suggested that there were three major sources of immigration into the country. These are:

           "1. The peninsula of Hindustan with Ceylon,
            2. The coast of Arabia and possibly of Africa,
            3. The western shores of the Malay Peninsula, and the islands of the Malaya Archipelago." (Duckworth 1912: 8-30).

In 1997, a Maldivian NGO, Society for Health Education, conducted a study on the mutations of thalassaemia found in Maldives. The results of this study showed one mutation that probably originated in the Middle East, another which could have been derived from Portuguese or Algerians, and another which probably originated from Asian Indians and Malays. The observations are consistent with the historical records of Maldives, showing that early travellers from India, Indonesia, North Africa, the Red Sea and Persian Gulf areas, settled in the Maldives. (Firdous et al 1998:148,149). Thalassaemia is the commonest genetically transmitted blood disease found in Maldives, and the results of this study suggest that many of the people now living in Maldives had ancestors who came from the above mentioned countries.

References

Maloney, Clarence: People of the Maldive Islands (1980), Orient Longman, New Delhi, India.
Maniku, H.A.: Fifth South Asian Archaeological Congress, Male', Maldives (1993), national Centre for Linguistic and Historical Research, Male', Republic of Maldives.
Ragupathy, P: The South Asian Heritage of Early Maldives.(1993), Science Education Centre, Male', Republic of Maldives.
Duckworth, Wynfrid L.H.: On the Anthropometric Data collected by Professor John Stanley Gardiner,F.R.S., in the Maldive Islands and Minicoy (Oct. 28, 1912-May 18, 1914), printed in: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Vol. XVII. Cambridge 1914.
Furumi, H., Firdous, N., Inoue, T., Ohta, H., Winichagoon, P., Fucharoen, S., and Fukumaki, Y. : Molecular Basis of B-Thalassemia in the Maldives (1998), in Hemoglobin, 22(2), 141 – 151, 1998. Marcel Dekker, Inc.

*About the Author - Naseema Mohamed holds the position of Special Advisor in the National Centre for Linguists and Historical Research, Male', Republic of Maldives. Published on DO with permission from the author.