Maldivian Folklore
Encyclopedia
Maldive Mythology or Maldive Folklore is the body of myths, tales and anecdotes belonging to the oral tradition of Maldivians. Even though some of the Maldivian myths were already mentioned briefly by British commissioner in Ceylon HCP Bell
towards the end of the 19th century, their study and publication were carried out only quite recently by Spanish writer and artist Xavier Romero-Frias
, at a time when that ancestral worldview was quickly disappearing.
The Maldives
lie in the warm equatorial area of the Indian Ocean surrounded by very deep waters. This nation is made up exclusively of coral atolls. There are about 1,200 small flat and sandy islands, but only about 200 of them are inhabited.
The Maldives have been continuously populated for millennia; therefore the folklore of these islands is very ancient.
tree and the tuna
fish.
A legend says that the first inhabitants of the Maldives died in great numbers, but a great sorcerer or fandita man made coconut trees grow out of the skulls of the buried corpses of the first settlers. Therefore the coconut tree is said to have an anthropomorphic origin according to Maldive lore.
The coconut tree occupies a central place in the present-day Maldive national emblem
.
The tuna fish
is said to have been brought to the Maldivian waters by a mythical seafarer (maalimi) called Bodu Niyami Kalēfanu who went close to the Dagas (the mythical tree at the end of the world) to bring this valuable fish.
as well as in the Nicobar Islands
.
people from the nearest coasts, which are in the Indian Subcontinent and coastal Ceylon. The people of Giraavaru
, an island located in Malé Atoll
(now a tourist resort, after its inhabitants were removed) considered the first settlers, claim ancestry from the ancient
Tamil people
.
It is said that Giraavaru fishermen used to go regularly to a certain large sandbank (finolhu) at the southern end of their atoll to clean tuna fish after a good catch. Owing to the large amount of tuna fish offal and blood, the waters around that sandbank looked like a big pool of blood (maa ley gandeh). "Maa" (from the Sanskrit "Maha"), meaning big, and "Lē" meaning blood. Traditionally the first inhabitants of the Maldives, which include the Giraavaru people, didn't have kings. They lived in a simple society and were ruled by local headmen.
One day a prince from the Subcontinent called Koimala arrived to Malé Atoll sailing from the north on a big ship. The people of Giraavaru spotted his vessel from afar and welcomed him. They allowed Prince Koimala to settle on that large sandbank in the midst of the waters tainted with fishblood. Trees were planted on the sandbank and it is said that the first tree that grew on it was the papaya tree. As time went by the local islanders acceped the rule of this Northern Prince. A palace was built and the island was formally named Maa-le Malé
, while the nearest island was named Hulhu-le (Hulhulé).
The Maldivian spirits can take human form, even if it is not known whether they have a human origin or not. While in human shape, the malevolence of those spirits is often masked by beauty and youth. Certain Maldivian evil spirits (handi) have the appearance of charming, beautiful women. These stories about female spirits have their origin in the ancient Dravidian mother-goddess
worship and they point to the ethnic origin of the Maldive people.
Other evil spirits which are the subject of many folk stories in the Maldives (furēta) are crude monsters coming from the ocean waters. The tales about sea monsters are part of the local cultural background, which is characterized by the oceanic environment in which, along the millennia, the Maldivian culture developed.
.
Despite the apparent dissimilarities, the common sequential structure linking the elements of the Maldivian story with the Indian epic (the heroic married couple, the wicked and powerful king, the kidnapping of the beautiful heroine, etc.) is obvious.
This parallelism between Don Hiyalā and Alifulhu and the Rāmāyana is hardly unexpected, for all South and Southeast Asian countries have local Rāmayāna variations and the Maldives is definitely part of the South Asian cultural sphere.
Although most of the stories of this type are original, a few are foreign tales or fables which have been adapted to the island context through local storytellers or by Maldivian learned men, like the late Muhammad Jamil
.
The Maldivian sorcerer or fanḍita man is always portrayed in the folklore of Maldivians as a hero. Only he knew how to appease the spirits that terrified the average island folk on a daily (or better nightly) basis. Some recent stories tend to cast the sorcerer in the role of a villain, but these are totally disconnected from the ancestral Maldive lore.
The Maldivian folklore contains legends about sage Vashishta. Vashishta is known locally as Oditan Kalēge, a mighty sorcerer. Oditan Kalēge's wife is a beautiful woman called Dōgi Aihā who possesses a fiery temperament and who is a powerful sorceress as her husband. Her name is derived from the Sanskrit word yogini
.
, a demon coming from the sea and convinced the King to become a Muslim.
However, the more reliable local historical chronicles, Raadavalhi and Taarikh, mention that this saint was actually a Persian from the city of Tabriz
, called Yusuf Shamsud-din. He is also locally known as Tabrīzugefānu.
The much venerated tomb of this saint now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Miski, in the centre of Malé, the capital.
In recent times some stories have been abridged by contemporary Maldivian writers, like Abdulla Sadiq or Ahumadu Sharīfu (Maradū) because of their extreme length.
Other stories (Karukuru, Telabagudi and the Māmeli tales) have been sanitized, because there was much casual reference to defecation and bodily fluids, particularly in ancient folk-stories from the outer atolls, where local values found this acceptable.
: ކޮއިމަލާ ސިރީ މަހާބަރަނަ މަހާ ރަދުން) or Koimala (Dhivehi
: ކޮއިމަލާ literally "flower lad") or Koimala Kalo (Dhivehi
: ކޮއިމަލާ ކަލޯ, literally "Lord Koimala") is a myth about the first king of all the Maldive Islands.
Some versions of the Koimala myth claim that it refers to the first ruler of the Maldives after the conversion to Islam, also known as Dharumavantha rasgefaanu, who ruled from 1117 to 1141. It is believed that he was also the first king from the House of Theemuge
and the Lunar Dynasty. By other accounts he was the fourth king of the Lunar Dynastry originally founded by King Balaadeettiya as the Soma Vansa Kingdom; although until Koimala the house only ruled over part of the Maldives.
However, ascribing the legend to the first Islamic ruler does not explain who built the large Buddhist monuments that are present in many inhabited islands and that were built in the first millennium AD. It also leaves without explaining the existence of an ancient kingly dinasty in the Maldives already before the conversion, as the 12th century correspondence from the king to the Sangumanun
, or community of Buddhist monks, in Sathudhuvumati (Haddummati Atoll) via copper plates proves.
According to Maldivian Folklore, Koimala was a prince from the Indian subcontinent
who arrived in Malé Atoll
. The people of Giraavaru
spotted his vessel from afar and welcomed him. They allowed Prince Koimala to settle on that large sandbank in the midst of the waters tainted with fishblood. Trees were planted on the sandbank and it is said that the first tree that grew on it was the papaya
tree. As time went by the local islanders acceped the rule of this northern prince. A palace was built and the island was formally named Maa-le (Malé
), while the nearest island was named Hulhu-le (Hulhulé
). Since then Malé has been the seat of the Maldivian crown and now the head of state.
A different account claims Koimala to be a Sinhalese prince of royal birth from Ceylon
. The prince is said to have married the Ceylon king's daughter and made a voyage with her in two vessels from Ceylon. Reaching the Maldives they were becalmed, and rested a while at Rasgetheemu
island (meaning the King's Island) in Northern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll
. The Maldive Islanders who were then Buddhists
, learning that the two chief visitors were of royal descent from the Buddhist kingdom of Ceylon, invited them to remain and ultimately proclaimed Koimala their king at Rasgetheemu. The new king and his spouse migrated to Malé and settled there with the consent of the aborigines
of Giraavaru (See Giraavaru people
) - then the most important community of Malé Atoll. Until then the Maldives is thought to have been ruled by different matriarchies
in different atolls.
After the settlement in Male', two vessels were dispatched to bring more people of his race to populate Male'. It wasn't tradition for the Giraavaru and perhaps other aboriginal people of the Maldives to marry outside their community.
It is not clear, how much of this legend is true. Although he might have been the first king of the whole of Maldives, the story of a prince might actually be a corruption of the stories of King Soorudasaruna-Adeettiya and King Balaadeettiya- both exiled princes from the Kalinga
Kingdom of India who founded the Solar and Lunar Dynastries of the Maldives. According to this source (Kitab fi Athaari Meedoo el-Qadimiyyeh by Allama Ahmed Shihabuddine relating from The Maapanansa copper plates), Koimala or Siri Mahaabarana, the son of King Siri Bovana Aananda was the fourth king of the Lunar Dynastry and uncle to King Dhovemi
(Siri Bavana-adiththa) the first Sultan (Muslim king) of the Maldives.
Koimala is said to have become the King of the 14 atolls and two thousand islands of the Dheeva Mahal. His kingdom was referred to as being Malikaddu dhemedhu- or 'all that lies between the Maliku and Addu
. He fought against the Raja Dada's (or the forces of the Tamil emperor Raja Raja Chola I of the Chola empire) Indians to claim the two northern most atolls for the newly formed Maldivian kingdom.
Koimala was succeeded by his nephew Dhovemi Kalaminja
in 1141.
Harry Charles Purvis Bell
Harry Charles Purvis Bell , more often known as HCP Bell, was a British civil servant, a commissioner in the Ceylon Civil Service. Appointed an official archaeologist, he carried out many excavations in Ceylon , for the Archaeological Survey, during an appointment running from 1890 to 1912After...
towards the end of the 19th century, their study and publication were carried out only quite recently by Spanish writer and artist Xavier Romero-Frias
Xavier Romero-Frias
Xavier Romero-Frias , is a Spanish writer and scholar. He lived in the Maldives over a 13-year period. His present residence is in Bangkok, Thailand.-Works:...
, at a time when that ancestral worldview was quickly disappearing.
The Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
lie in the warm equatorial area of the Indian Ocean surrounded by very deep waters. This nation is made up exclusively of coral atolls. There are about 1,200 small flat and sandy islands, but only about 200 of them are inhabited.
The Maldives have been continuously populated for millennia; therefore the folklore of these islands is very ancient.
Myths of origin
The main myths of origin are reflecting the dependence of the Maldivians on the coconutCoconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
tree and the tuna
Tuna
Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...
fish.
A legend says that the first inhabitants of the Maldives died in great numbers, but a great sorcerer or fandita man made coconut trees grow out of the skulls of the buried corpses of the first settlers. Therefore the coconut tree is said to have an anthropomorphic origin according to Maldive lore.
The coconut tree occupies a central place in the present-day Maldive national emblem
Emblem of Maldives
The Maldivian National Emblem consists of a coconut palm, a crescent, and two criss-crossing National Flags with the traditional Title of the State.-Interpretation:...
.
The tuna fish
Skipjack tuna
The skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, is a medium-sized perciform fish in the tuna family, Scombridae. It is otherwise known as the aku, arctic bonito, mushmouth, oceanic bonito, striped tuna, or victor fish...
is said to have been brought to the Maldivian waters by a mythical seafarer (maalimi) called Bodu Niyami Kalēfanu who went close to the Dagas (the mythical tree at the end of the world) to bring this valuable fish.
Myths of extinction
These myths tell that the end of the Maldives will be a great catastrophe where the islands will be submerged by the surrounding ocean. Similar myths are found in the Andaman IslandsAndaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
as well as in the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
.
The origin of Malé
The first settlers in the Maldive Islands were DravidianDravidian peoples
Dravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...
people from the nearest coasts, which are in the Indian Subcontinent and coastal Ceylon. The people of Giraavaru
Giraavaru (Kaafu Atoll)
Giraavaru is an island of Malé Atoll nowadays hosting a turist resort. It is located on the southwestern fringe of the lagoon of North Malé Atoll...
, an island located in Malé Atoll
Malé Atoll
Malé Atoll is a natural atoll of the Maldives. This atoll consists of two separate atolls: North Malé Atoll and South Malé Atoll.Together with Kaashidhoo Island and Gaafaru, Malé Atoll forms the administrative division known as Kaafu Atoll....
(now a tourist resort, after its inhabitants were removed) considered the first settlers, claim ancestry from the ancient
Ancient Tamil country
The Sangam period is the classical period in the history of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and other parts of South India, spanning about the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE...
Tamil people
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
.
It is said that Giraavaru fishermen used to go regularly to a certain large sandbank (finolhu) at the southern end of their atoll to clean tuna fish after a good catch. Owing to the large amount of tuna fish offal and blood, the waters around that sandbank looked like a big pool of blood (maa ley gandeh). "Maa" (from the Sanskrit "Maha"), meaning big, and "Lē" meaning blood. Traditionally the first inhabitants of the Maldives, which include the Giraavaru people, didn't have kings. They lived in a simple society and were ruled by local headmen.
One day a prince from the Subcontinent called Koimala arrived to Malé Atoll sailing from the north on a big ship. The people of Giraavaru spotted his vessel from afar and welcomed him. They allowed Prince Koimala to settle on that large sandbank in the midst of the waters tainted with fishblood. Trees were planted on the sandbank and it is said that the first tree that grew on it was the papaya tree. As time went by the local islanders acceped the rule of this Northern Prince. A palace was built and the island was formally named Maa-le Malé
Malé
Malé , is the capital and most populous city in the Republic of Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll . It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island, from where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties ruled and where...
, while the nearest island was named Hulhu-le (Hulhulé).
Evil spirits
Most of the popular tales in Maldives are about evil spirits and their interaction with the islanders. These stories contain always a lesson in some form or the other. Certain actions became necessary in order to avoid trouble with the spirit world. These patterns of behaviour, like the importance of keeping a secret, as well as the avoidance of certain areas of the island and of inauspicious times, were an essential component of the ancient popular spirituality.The Maldivian spirits can take human form, even if it is not known whether they have a human origin or not. While in human shape, the malevolence of those spirits is often masked by beauty and youth. Certain Maldivian evil spirits (handi) have the appearance of charming, beautiful women. These stories about female spirits have their origin in the ancient Dravidian mother-goddess
Sitala
Sitala is a genus of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the family Helicarionidae. Sitala is the type genus of Sitalinae, that is a synonym of Durgellini.-Species:Species within the genus Sitala include:...
worship and they point to the ethnic origin of the Maldive people.
Other evil spirits which are the subject of many folk stories in the Maldives (furēta) are crude monsters coming from the ocean waters. The tales about sea monsters are part of the local cultural background, which is characterized by the oceanic environment in which, along the millennia, the Maldivian culture developed.
Don Hiyala and Alifulhu
Among the stories in which the spirit and sorcery theme are not essential, the most significant is perhaps Don Hiyalā and Alifulhu. This story about two good-looking lovers is a much distorted Maldivian version of the RāmāyanaRamayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
.
Despite the apparent dissimilarities, the common sequential structure linking the elements of the Maldivian story with the Indian epic (the heroic married couple, the wicked and powerful king, the kidnapping of the beautiful heroine, etc.) is obvious.
This parallelism between Don Hiyalā and Alifulhu and the Rāmāyana is hardly unexpected, for all South and Southeast Asian countries have local Rāmayāna variations and the Maldives is definitely part of the South Asian cultural sphere.
Local fauna
Folktales where fishes, crabs and seabirds are the heroes, like the tales about Mākana, Findana, Kalhubondage Diye, Fandiyaaru Kakuni, or Don Mohonaai Miyaru, introduce us to the world of the local fauna of the Maldive Atolls, where land animals are very few. Many of these are tales for children and some are still quite popular.Although most of the stories of this type are original, a few are foreign tales or fables which have been adapted to the island context through local storytellers or by Maldivian learned men, like the late Muhammad Jamil
Muhammad Jameel Didi
Al Sheikh Muhammad Jameel Didi popularly known as Jameel Didi was a Maldivian political figure and poet who was famous for his writings and speeches. He was born on 1 May 1915 to Abdullah Kamaaludhin the Attorney General and Fenfoa'gan'duvaru Aminaa Didi...
.
Mighty sorcerers
In the ancestral oral literature of Maldivians, the sorcerer, or learned man of the island who knew the magic arts. Magic or sorcery is known in Maldives as fanḍita.The Maldivian sorcerer or fanḍita man is always portrayed in the folklore of Maldivians as a hero. Only he knew how to appease the spirits that terrified the average island folk on a daily (or better nightly) basis. Some recent stories tend to cast the sorcerer in the role of a villain, but these are totally disconnected from the ancestral Maldive lore.
The Maldivian folklore contains legends about sage Vashishta. Vashishta is known locally as Oditan Kalēge, a mighty sorcerer. Oditan Kalēge's wife is a beautiful woman called Dōgi Aihā who possesses a fiery temperament and who is a powerful sorceress as her husband. Her name is derived from the Sanskrit word yogini
Yogini
Yogini is the complete form source word of the masculine yogi- and neutral/plural "yogin." Far from being merely a gender tag to the all things yogi, "Yogini" represents both a female master practitioner of Yoga, and a formal term of respect for a category of modern female spiritual teachers in...
.
The conversion to Islam
According to the well-known Moroccan traveler Ibn Batuta, the person responsible for converting the Maldivians to Islam was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat ul Barbari. He subdued Ranna MaariMariamman
Māri ,Tulu, also known as Mariamman , both meaning "Mother Mari", spelt also Maariamma , or simply Amman or Aatha is the South Indian Hindu goddess of disease and rain. She is the main South Indian mother goddess, predominant in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and...
, a demon coming from the sea and convinced the King to become a Muslim.
However, the more reliable local historical chronicles, Raadavalhi and Taarikh, mention that this saint was actually a Persian from the city of Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, called Yusuf Shamsud-din. He is also locally known as Tabrīzugefānu.
The much venerated tomb of this saint now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Miski, in the centre of Malé, the capital.
Local characters
Stories about local characters, like Rōnu Eduru, Kuda Tuttu Didi, Kalhukuru or Naalaafushi Fagīru (the poor man of Naalaafushi) give us a glimpse on the way of life in the Maldives when the archipelago was a kingdom, and Malé, the capital, was a quaint, laid back place. In those stories we learn much about the life in the court in Malé and about the mutual interaction between the Radun (the king of Maldives) and his subjects.Modern variants
Since there are a great number of islands in the Maldives, many folkstories have different versions according to the particular island and the storyteller in question.In recent times some stories have been abridged by contemporary Maldivian writers, like Abdulla Sadiq or Ahumadu Sharīfu (Maradū) because of their extreme length.
Other stories (Karukuru, Telabagudi and the Māmeli tales) have been sanitized, because there was much casual reference to defecation and bodily fluids, particularly in ancient folk-stories from the outer atolls, where local values found this acceptable.
The Koimala myth
Koimala Siri Mahaabarana Mahaa Radun (DhivehiDhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...
: ކޮއިމަލާ ސިރީ މަހާބަރަނަ މަހާ ރަދުން) or Koimala (Dhivehi
Dhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...
: ކޮއިމަލާ literally "flower lad") or Koimala Kalo (Dhivehi
Dhivehi language
Maldivian is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by about 350,000 people in the Maldives where it is the national language. It is also the first language of nearly 10,000 people in the island of Minicoy in the Union territory of Lakshadweep, India where the Mahl dialect of the Maldivian...
: ކޮއިމަލާ ކަލޯ, literally "Lord Koimala") is a myth about the first king of all the Maldive Islands.
Some versions of the Koimala myth claim that it refers to the first ruler of the Maldives after the conversion to Islam, also known as Dharumavantha rasgefaanu, who ruled from 1117 to 1141. It is believed that he was also the first king from the House of Theemuge
Lunar Dynasty
In Hindu mythology, the Lunar Dynasty is one of the three principal houses of the Kshatriya varna, or warrior–ruling caste...
and the Lunar Dynasty. By other accounts he was the fourth king of the Lunar Dynastry originally founded by King Balaadeettiya as the Soma Vansa Kingdom; although until Koimala the house only ruled over part of the Maldives.
However, ascribing the legend to the first Islamic ruler does not explain who built the large Buddhist monuments that are present in many inhabited islands and that were built in the first millennium AD. It also leaves without explaining the existence of an ancient kingly dinasty in the Maldives already before the conversion, as the 12th century correspondence from the king to the Sangumanun
Sangha
Sangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
, or community of Buddhist monks, in Sathudhuvumati (Haddummati Atoll) via copper plates proves.
According to Maldivian Folklore, Koimala was a prince from the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
who arrived in Malé Atoll
Malé Atoll
Malé Atoll is a natural atoll of the Maldives. This atoll consists of two separate atolls: North Malé Atoll and South Malé Atoll.Together with Kaashidhoo Island and Gaafaru, Malé Atoll forms the administrative division known as Kaafu Atoll....
. The people of Giraavaru
Giraavaru
Giraavaru may refer to:* The Giraavaru people* Giraavaru * Giraavaru...
spotted his vessel from afar and welcomed him. They allowed Prince Koimala to settle on that large sandbank in the midst of the waters tainted with fishblood. Trees were planted on the sandbank and it is said that the first tree that grew on it was the papaya
Papaya
The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
tree. As time went by the local islanders acceped the rule of this northern prince. A palace was built and the island was formally named Maa-le (Malé
Malé
Malé , is the capital and most populous city in the Republic of Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll . It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island, from where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties ruled and where...
), while the nearest island was named Hulhu-le (Hulhulé
Hulhulé Island
Hulhulé , located at Latitude 4° 10' 60 N Longitude 73° 31' 60 E, is an island in the North Malé Atoll of the Maldives. It is one of the islands closest to the capital island Malé. The Malé International Airport is located on this island along with some official premises, e.g. Maldivian Bureau of...
). Since then Malé has been the seat of the Maldivian crown and now the head of state.
A different account claims Koimala to be a Sinhalese prince of royal birth from Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. The prince is said to have married the Ceylon king's daughter and made a voyage with her in two vessels from Ceylon. Reaching the Maldives they were becalmed, and rested a while at Rasgetheemu
Rasgetheemu (Raa Atoll)
Rasgetheemu the first capital island in the Republic of Maldives located in the north province in the north edge of Maalhosmadhulu Uthuruburi Raa Atoll....
island (meaning the King's Island) in Northern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll
Northern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll
Northern Maalhosmadulu Atoll is an atoll from the Maldives. It includes Northern Maalhosmadulu Atoll proper and the island of Alifushi....
. The Maldive Islanders who were then Buddhists
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, learning that the two chief visitors were of royal descent from the Buddhist kingdom of Ceylon, invited them to remain and ultimately proclaimed Koimala their king at Rasgetheemu. The new king and his spouse migrated to Malé and settled there with the consent of the aborigines
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
of Giraavaru (See Giraavaru people
Giraavaru people
The Giraavaru people are the indigenous people of Giraavaru Island, part of the Maldives. Of Dravidian origin, and the earliest island community of the Maldives, their presence predates Buddhism and the arrival of a Northern kingly dynasty in the archipelago.Their ancestors were ancient Tamil...
) - then the most important community of Malé Atoll. Until then the Maldives is thought to have been ruled by different matriarchies
Matriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
in different atolls.
After the settlement in Male', two vessels were dispatched to bring more people of his race to populate Male'. It wasn't tradition for the Giraavaru and perhaps other aboriginal people of the Maldives to marry outside their community.
It is not clear, how much of this legend is true. Although he might have been the first king of the whole of Maldives, the story of a prince might actually be a corruption of the stories of King Soorudasaruna-Adeettiya and King Balaadeettiya- both exiled princes from the Kalinga
Kalinga (India)
Kalinga was an early state in central-eastern India, which comprised most of the modern state of Orissa/Utkal , as well as the Andhra region of the bordering state of Andhra Pradesh. It was a rich and fertile land that extended from the river Damodar/Ganges to Godavari and from Bay of Bengal to...
Kingdom of India who founded the Solar and Lunar Dynastries of the Maldives. According to this source (Kitab fi Athaari Meedoo el-Qadimiyyeh by Allama Ahmed Shihabuddine relating from The Maapanansa copper plates), Koimala or Siri Mahaabarana, the son of King Siri Bovana Aananda was the fourth king of the Lunar Dynastry and uncle to King Dhovemi
Dhovemi of the Maldives
Dhovemi Kalaminja Siri Thiribuvana-aadiththa Maha Radun or Donei Kalaminjaa was the second king of the Maldives from 1141 to 1166 or 1176 according to the Raadhavalhi and the Loamaafaanu copper plate writings...
(Siri Bavana-adiththa) the first Sultan (Muslim king) of the Maldives.
Koimala is said to have become the King of the 14 atolls and two thousand islands of the Dheeva Mahal. His kingdom was referred to as being Malikaddu dhemedhu- or 'all that lies between the Maliku and Addu
Seenu Atoll
Addu Atoll, previously also known as Seenu Atoll , is the southernmost atoll of the Maldives. Addu Atoll, together with Fuvahmulah, located 30 km north of Addu Atoll, extend the Maldives into the Southern Hemisphere. Addu Atoll is located approximately 478 km south of Malé....
. He fought against the Raja Dada's (or the forces of the Tamil emperor Raja Raja Chola I of the Chola empire) Indians to claim the two northern most atolls for the newly formed Maldivian kingdom.
Koimala was succeeded by his nephew Dhovemi Kalaminja
Dhovemi of the Maldives
Dhovemi Kalaminja Siri Thiribuvana-aadiththa Maha Radun or Donei Kalaminjaa was the second king of the Maldives from 1141 to 1166 or 1176 according to the Raadhavalhi and the Loamaafaanu copper plate writings...
in 1141.
Further reading
- Xavier Romero-FriasXavier Romero-FriasXavier Romero-Frias , is a Spanish writer and scholar. He lived in the Maldives over a 13-year period. His present residence is in Bangkok, Thailand.-Works:...
, The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999, ISBN 84 7254 801 5 - Doń Hiyala āi Alifulu. Abdullah Sādigu, Mulī. Novelty Press. Malé 1996.
- Asian Variations in Ramayana. Edited by K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar. Sahitya Akademi. Delhi 1983
- Furatama Satēka Raivaru. Divehi Bahāi Tārikhah Khidmaiykurā Qaumī Markazu. Malé 1996.
- Vladimir ProppVladimir ProppVladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.- Biography :...
, Morphology of the Folktale, Austin, Texas 1 984, ISBN 0 292 78376 0 - Divehi Ādakāda. Bābāgē Donmaniku. Divehi Bahāi Tārikhah Khidmaiykurā Qaumī Markazu. Malé 1993
- Dońkamanā. Ābāru. Malé 1974.