By Clarence Maloney
The Maldives people are a clear ethnic category, having a unique language derived from Sinhala but grafted on to an earlier Tamil base, and they have a homogeneous cultural tradition. In early medieval times they followed the Sri Lanka type of Buddhism, but in 1153 were converted to Islam by order of their ruler. There is another island located to the north of Maldives territory that belongs culturally to the Maldives, Minicoy (properly, Maliku), which because of events during the colonial period is now held by India as part of its Laksh- advip Island group. Most of the Maldives islands are tiny, less than a mile long, but Minicoy is the largest island populated by Divehi people. The Indian government does not allow foreigners to visit this island.
The Maldives is known in Europe mainly because of its resort hotels and beaches. More than thirty otherwise uninhabited small islands have these hotels. Government policy is to keep Maldivians off these islands, and tourists out of the rest of the country, except for Male the little capital. Male is only 1.5 km long, though there is a slightly larger nearby island, Hulule, which serves as the airport. A few years ago Male was characterized by bright, sunny, sandy, sleepy streets lined with white compound walls and mosques, but now is has some 45,000 people, a severe water problem, and a number of motorcars, although the place is not large enough to get them into fourth gear.
Historical Records
Early references to the Maldives are found in the Commentary on the Bharu
Jataka and the Khuddapatha, early Buddhist texts, and the
Dipavamsa, the earliest Sinhala epic (4th century BC), and the
Mahavamsa (3rd century BC). The country was probably overrun from Kerala
in the Sangam Period of South India (1-3 century AD). It is mentioned in the Greek text
Periplus (1st century AD), by Pappas of Alexandria (4th century), and several
fifth century Greek authors. The islands are mentioned by the Chinese travellers Fa Hsien
(5th century) and Hsuan-Tsang (7th century), and in a document of the Tang Dynasty (8th
century). The country was conquered by Tamil Pallavas from neighbouring Madras (late 7th
century).
Islamic records start with an account by Sulaiman the merchant (c. 900 AD), and Al-Mas'udi
(916), Abul Hassan the Persian (1026), Al Biruni (1039), and Al-Idrisi (c. 1100). In the
meantime, the country was reconquered by the Tamils, namely by Rajaraja Cola (1017).
Europeans are on a more familiar territory when they read the account of Marco Polo (1279-
92). Ibn Battuta made two visits and spent a year and a half in the Maldives as an Islamic
legal advisor (1343-46).
Portuguese accounts begin from about 1500. In the brutal competition for control of ocean
routes they invaded the Maldives in 1588, killed the sultan, and established Portuguese rule,
but that only lasted for fifteen years. Most interesting is a lengthy three-volume account by
François Pyrard of Laval, who was held captive in the Maldives (1602-07) and
learned Divehi. It is a gold-mine of original Divehi history, customs, and language.
British interest dates from the early 1600s. The Divehis had always managed to remain
essentially independent, except for the brief Portuguese occupation, but in 1887 the sultan
formally accepted British suzerainty. The only sustained historical work of the Maldives done
in the British period was that by H.C.P. Bell, a British antiquarian who studied the Buddhist
remains, texts, and coins. The British did not leave an administrative or cultural stamp as
they did in India, except for their base in Gan in the south. The Maldives became
independent in 1965 and joined the United Nations.
Tamils, Sinhalas, and Arabs
Where did the Divehis come from? Generally, ordinary Divehis mostly know only that their
islands were settled from Sri Lanka, that before Islam they were Buddhist, and that their
language suggests the same origin. Because of the long dominance of Islamic tradition, they
tend to stress Arabic and Muslim cultural influences and overemphasize Arab ancestors.
Scholars came from the Islamic centres of learning in Egypt, and the Divehis accepted the
Shafi school of Islamic law. They rationalize Divehi culture and behaviour in terms of traits
in Arab culture mentioned earlier in old Islamic texts. But for all that, and despite eight
centuries of official status, the Islamic tradition is something of a cultural overlay.
The influence of medieval Sinhalas is the dominant cultural stream. From roughly the 8th to
the 10th century, unwanted kings and their retinues were apparently banished from Sri Lanka
to the Maldives, and they brought their culture, language, and religion with them. There are
several remains of Buddhist stupas (excavated by Bell), with coins, inscriptions, and various
artefacts.
What was not known previous to my research in the early 1970s, is that there is a strong
underlying layer of Tamil population and culture. So far, most Divehis have not shown
themselves interested in accepting this finding, as it does not suit their sense of their presti-
gious origins. Be that as it may, the evidence is overwhelming. There is a clear Tamil
substratum in the language, which also appears in place names, kin terms, poetry, dance, and
religious beliefs. This is actually Tamil-Malayalam, as up to about the 10th century when the
Malayalam language acquired a separate identity, what is now Kerala was considered to be
part of the Tamil area. There are numerous references in the Tamil Sangam (1-3 century)
and medieval literature to kings of Kerala having ships, conducting invasions by sea, and
ruling the northern part of Sri Lanka. People of Kerala settled the Lakshadvip Islands, and
evidently viewed the Maldives as an extension of them. There is a Maldivian epic about
Koimala, who is said to have come from India, bringing with him his royal lineage, landed
on a northern atol, and then made Male his capital. The name koi is from
Malayalam koya, son of the prince, which is also the name of a high caste group
in the Lakshadvip Islands. Koimala has now become a generalized eponymous ancestor of
the pre-Muslim Divehis.
The medieval settlements from Sri Lanka were strongest in the southern islands, and this
gave rise to the Divehi language, Buddhism, and the ideals of kinship. The chronic wars
between the Sinhalas and the Tamils which have characterized 2500 years of history in Sri
Lanka, probably spilled over to the Maldives, so these settlers from Sri lanka ultimately
absorbed all the earlier population into their Divehi culture.
By the 1970s there was only one identifiable separate caste, the Giravaru, who then lived on
Hulule Island near Male. They were virtually endogamous, and unlike the other Divehis they
cherished marriage as a permanent state. These people said that they were from "Tamilas"
though they did not know what that meant. Their former status was rather like the palm-tree
tapping lower castes of Kerala, and other Divehis regarded them as impure. They themselves
averred that their customs and morals were purer then those of other Divehis. Now the
Giravaru have been evicted from Hulule to make room for the expanded airport, and this
remnant of Indian caste has nearly disappeared.
The Divehi kinship system is partly of Dravidian origin, and bears evidence of some
matriliny, like the Nayar and other matrilineal groups of Kerala. Some of the kinship terms
are clearly derived from Malayalam. On to this was grafted the royal lineage system of
medieval Sinhala immigrants, but the matrilineal background remained evident in the royal
lineage. This is an anomaly for an Islamic society, and can only be explained in terms of the
cultural history.
In religion we find a vibrant underlying system, called fandita, co-existing with
the formal politically-linked theological Islamic system which provides the rationale for
behavioral and political control. The word fandita comes from the Indic word pandit, and
refers to special powers possessed by certain men and women. This belief system
encompasses ideas about spirits, ghosts, winds, and lights on the sea, and it allows people
to control their health, their enemies, their boats, their fishing catch, and their destiny. The
rituals contain a lot of what in India might be called puja and mantravadi (reciting of
mantras), besides South Indian ideas about health and healing. This is marvellously
islamicized by the institutionalized belief in jinns. The fandita experts engrave charms to be
tied around the neck as is done in South India and Sri Lanka, and this is islamicized because
they scratch on them marks resembling Arabic script.
It is said that the Maldives was converted to Islam because a visiting saint in the 12th century
showed the king that his faith had the power to control the most terrible ocean
jinn then afflicting the people. The king ordered his subjects to be converted, and
the saint rewarded him with the title sultan. But in fact, conversion to Islam was probably
motivated more by the strength of Islamic trade and civilization which dominated the Indian
Ocean at that time.
The Earliest Settlers?
There are hints of two other early layers of immigration. One is from Southeast Asia,
particularly Indonesia from where people found their way to settle Madagascar roughly about
the time of Christ. Did some of them stop in the Maldives on the way? Probably. There are
a number of Southeast Asian traits and artefacts present in the Maldives: crops such as sweet
potatoes and taro, dark-coloured fish of Southeast Asia, and "bed-roasting" a custom which
compels the mother to rest on a bed with fire under it for ten days after delivery to purify
her, which is of Southeast Asian origin.
Very early visitors to or settlers in the Maldives were probably Gujaratis. Seafaring from
Gujarat began during the Indus civilization. The Jatakas and Puranas
show abundant evidence of this maritime trade. The Gujaratis reached and settled Sri Lanka
about 500 BC. Some evidence of direct cultural influence from North India can be deduced
from the methods of boat-building and silver punch-marked coins (of the Mauryan period)
have likewise been found. It is quite possible that intrepid Gujarati seafarers were
shipwrecked on these islands, or that Gujarati exiles settled on them as they did on Sri
Lanka, before the rise of Tamil-Malayalam sea power in the early Christian era.
Language and Script
Devehi is derived basically from an old form of Sinhala called Elu, which was spoken in Sri
Lanka before many Pali and Sanskrit words were added. This dialect must have come
ultimately from the Panjab. This supports the interpretation of the Sinhala chronicles that
the ancestors of the Sinhalas, and therefore of the Divehis, came from western India, from
Gujarat by sea, and not from Bengal. Many Sinhalas prefer the myth that they came from
Bengal because of the historical importance of Buddhism, and indeed from the time of the
Mauryas (3rd century BC) the sea traffic on the east side increased, and Buddhism came to
Sri Lanka via Bengal. Before that, the core of Sinhala settlers came from western India, a
claim which is supported by linguistic and cultural features and the specific descriptions in
the epics themselves, for instance that Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhalas, visited
Bharukaccha (Broach, in Gujarat) in his ship on the voyage down.
Dihevi though built up from a Sinhala dialect was grafted on to earlier Tamil speech and has
incorporated words from every cultural wind that buffeted the Maldives: Bengali, Malay,
Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, and English.
The Brahmi script dating from Mauryan times, used in the edict inscriptions of King Asoka,
gave rise to all indigenous scripts in India. It came by sea to the far southern coasts and gave
rise to both the Sinhala and Tamil scripts. Brahmi was an angular script, but it evolved into
the rounded medieval Sinhala script. The original Maldives script, called Evala Akuru, was
roundish and resembled medieval Sinhala script. A more evolved form, Dives Akuru, is
known from the copper-plate grants and tombstones especially from the 14th century, studied
by Bell, and it bears the influence of the old Tulu and Grantha scripts of South India and the
original script of Lakshadvip. It was used in the southern atols of the Maldives as late as
1835.
The modern Divehi script, called Tana, was invented by a unknown person after the
Portuguese interlude. He must have been an educated Muslim who also had a knowledge of
classical Indian phonetics, as the script combines features of both Arabic and Indian scripts.
The basic symbols are Arabic numerals and other letters to which Divehi phonetic values are
given, and the script runs right to left. There is a full set of long and short vowels whose
marks surround the consonants, the consonants have the inherent vowel 'a' but are marked
with a little circle above when mute, and the script lacks aspirated consonants. These are the
features derived from South India, probably along with scientific understanding of phonetics.
The result is a simple script, suitable to the language and easy to learn. Most Divehis are
literate, as they learn to read Islamic texts in little religious schools, and type fonts are
available for printing in the script. In the 70s there was a move to replace the Tana script
with "English" (Roman) script, but because of its obvious deficiencies for South Asian langu-
ages, the official tendency is again to support wider use of the Tana script.
The Society
The Devehi pattern of family organization, marriage, divorce, and kinship grew out of the
confluence of historical streams in the Maldives. There have been three conflicting kinship
systems: the Dravidian, the North Indian, and the Arab. Most fundamental is the Dravidian:
kinship terms classify kin into those marriable and unmarriable with self; cross-cousin
marriage is preferred; girls have a puberty ceremony; and matriliny is possible. There are
several indications of a former preferential cross-cousin marriage in the Maldives, but in the
Arab system now superimposed, any cousin marriage is acceptable. The North Indian system
with its patriarchal authority and wider rules of exogamy, was brought by the original
Sinhalas to Sri Lanka, but there it was greatly modified by the underlying Dravidian element
until it also accepted preferential cross-cousin marriage while it still retained strong lineages
for political reasons, and this was brought to the Maldives.
The present rules of marriage and family are thought by the Divehis to follow Islamic rules
strictly, but these rules are interpreted in unique ways. Most striking is the frequency of
divorce. The Maldives has the highest divorce rate (of registered marriages) of any country
in the world, according to United Nations statistics. In the 1970s the rate was eighty-five
divorces for every 100 marriages. By Islamic law as interpreted in the Maldives, the same
man and woman can marry three times, after which they must marry other partners, and then
they are free to marry each other another three times. An official notification limited the
number maximum to three such cycles, or nine marriages for the same couple. But by giving
a gift to charity even this could be relaxed, so some couples have remarried many more
times than that. Traditionally there was an element of pride, even piety, in a man having had
many marriages. Some individuals claim to have had forty to eighty marriages.
Divorce is not so traumatic as in Western societies for either the partner or for their children.
Most people live on tiny islands, and all the households know each other well. A man can
divorce and remarry and move to a nearby household. His children are still close. They
know that he is likely to remarry their mother anyway. This game of marriage is often the
most important entertainment in these isolated communities with their somewhat stultifying
atmosphere.
Social control is exercised through religion. Every island has an Island Chief who is head of
the mosque and also represents the government. The Island Chiefs fall under an Atol Chief,
who is assisted by gazis who perform ceremonies and uphold Islamic law. Any
misbehaviour is reported by the Island Chief to the Atol Chief and to the Department of
Justice in Male. This includes theft, drinking liquor, not attending mosque, adultery (though
this seldom arises), and even masturbation (by law but not in practice). There are practically
no murders.
The political system is also special to the Maldives, though there is not enough room to
summarize it here. There are a few families who control most assets such as the shipping
company, tourist hotels, and real estate in Male. These families tend to control the
government. There is a majlis (national assembly) but democratic practices are
only slowly gaining ground. A president who identifies an opponent is likely to exile him to
an uninhabited island for some years - the commonest form of punishment, which is of
ancient origin in the Maldives.
The Future
Maldives is an active and equal member of SAARC (South Indian Association for Regional
Co-operation), which is recognition of its fundamental cultural similarity with India and Sri
Lanka, although as a practical matter the financial aid proffered from the Arab countries is
also accepted.
The Maldives government is increasingly worried about crowding on the small islands and
the lack of fresh water. On Male the water lens (floating on salt water) has long been
polluted with human waste and human burials, and the rainwater catchment is not enough.
The Maldives has only 300 sq km of land (and the ocean between), and the population has
long outgrown the local produce, mainly fish supplemented by a little agriculture.
Traditionally tuna was the main export, in exchange for which rice was imported. The main
income now is from the tourist islands, shipping, international aid, and trade as Maldives has
declared itself as a free port. Education has expanded very rapidly, and the Divehis, who
were so long isolated from the wider world, are quickly adapting to their expanded
opportunities. These changes have brought population growth through a decline in infant
mortality, and a population shift to Male. The main long-term worry however is the rising
level of the ocean, which threatens to obliterate the country within one or two centu-
ries.
The Maldives is an exceedingly interesting country, and merits more attention from
specialists on South Asia and the Indian Ocean area.
Clarence Maloney is a South Asian specialist and former professor of Anthropology. He has worked for the past 25 years in donor-funded rural development projects in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. He is now the Team Leader of the Kerala Community Irrigation Project, funded by the Netherlands Foreign Ministry through Euroconsult.
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