The Divehi or Dhivehi writing systems are the different scripts used by Maldivians during their history. The language of the Maldives has had its very own script since very ancient times. It is likely that the first Maldivian script appeared in association with the expansion of Buddhism throughout South Asia. This was over two millennia ago, in the Mauryan period, during emperor Ashoka's time. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language and the official language of the Republic of the Maldives. ... Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language and the official language of the Republic of the Maldives. ... The Mauryan empire (321 to 185 BCE), at its largest extent around 230 BCE. The Mauryan empire was Indias first great unified empire. ... Allegiance: Magadhan Empire Rank: Emperor Succeeded by: Dasaratha Maurya Reign: 273 BC-232 BC Place of birth: Pataliputra, India Battles/Wars Kalinga War Emperor Ashoka the Great (Devanagari: अशोक(:); IAST transliteration: , pronunciation: ) (304 BC–232 BC) (Imperial Title:Devanampiya Piyadassi ie He who is the beloved of the Gods who, in...

Ancient Scripts

See also: Dhivehi language, Dhives Akuru, and History of the Maldives

The most ancient Maldivian script

Divehi Akuru or Dhivehi Akuru (island letters) is a script formerly used to write the Divehi (or Dhivehi) language. Unlike the modern Tāna (Thaana) script, Divehi Akuru has its origins in the Brahmi script and thus was written from left to right. Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 300,000 people in the Republic of Maldives where it is the official language of the country and in the island of Minicoy (Maliku) in neighbouring India where it is known as Mahl. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... // Historical setting Maldives is a nation consisting of 26 natural atolls comprising of 1192 islands. ... BrāhmÄ« refers to the pre-modern members of the Brahmic family of scripts, attested from the 3rd century BC. The best known and earliest dated inscriptions in Brahmi are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka. ...

The Divehi Akuru or Maldivian script was separated into two variants, namely a relatively more recent and an ancient one and christened “Dives Akuru” and "Evēla Akuru" respectively by H.C.P. Bell in the early 20th century. Bell was a British gentleman who studied Maldive epigraphy when he retired from the colonial government service in Colombo. Map of Colombo with its administrative districts Coordinates: District Colombo District Government  - Mayor Uvaiz Mohammad Imitiyaz (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) Area  - City 37. ...

Bell wrote a monograph on the Archaeology, history and epigraphy of the Maldive Islands. He was the first modern scholar to study these ancient writings and he undertook an extensive and serious research on the available epigraphy. The division that Bell made based on the differences he perceived between the two variants of Divehi Scripts is indeed convenient for the study of the old Maldivan documents. Epigraphy (Greek, επιγραφή - written upon) is the study of inscriptions engraved into stone or other permanent materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them as to cultural context and date, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them. ...

The Divehi Akuru developed from the Grantha script. The early form of this script was also called Divehi Akuru by Maldivians, but it was called Evēla Akuru (ancient letters) in a tentative manner by H.C.P. Bell in order to distinguish it from the relatively more recent variants of the same script. This name became established and so the most ancient form of the Maldive script is now known as Evēla Akuru. This is the script that evolved at the time when the Maldives was an independent Buddhist Kingdom and it was still in use one century after the conversion to Islam. Grantha (from Sanskrit ग्रन्थ grantha meaning book or manuscript) is an ancient script that was prevalent in South India. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by...

Standard Indic. This table is provided as a reference for the position of the letters on all the tables.

The ancient form of the Divehi Akuru (Evēla) can be seen in the Lōmāfānu (copper plate grants) of the 12th and 13th centuries and in inscriptions on coral stone (hirigā) dating back from the Maldive Buddhist period. Two of the few copper plate documents that have been preserved are from Haddhunmathi Atoll.

The oldest inscription found in the Maldives to date is an inscription on a coral stone found at an archaeological site on Landhū Island in Southern Miladhunmadulhu Atoll, where there are important Buddhist archaeological remains including a large Stupa. The Landhū inscription is estimated to be from 8th century C.E. This inscription is written in a script resembling the southern Grantha Script of the Pallava and Chola periods in South India. However, this does not mean that the Maldives were dependent from those kingdoms in the Subcontinent, for the Maldive Islands have been an independent nation practically all along their history. There has been very little interference, cultural or otherwise, from other neighboring kingdoms in South India and Sri Lanka. Extant Subclasses and Orders Alcyonaria    Alcyonacea    Helioporacea Zoantharia    Antipatharia    Corallimorpharia    Scleractinia    Zoanthidea [1][2]  See Anthozoa for details For other uses, see Coral (disambiguation). ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... Stupa at Samye Ling Monastery, Scotland A stupa (from the Sanskrit) is a type of Buddhist structure found across the Indian subcontinent, Asia and increasingly in the Western World. ... Grantha (from Sanskrit ग्रन्थ grantha meaning book or manuscript) is an ancient script that was prevalent in South India. ... The Pallava kingdom (Tamil: பல்லவர்) was an ancient South Indian kingdom. ... The Cholas were the most famous of the three dynasties that ruled ancient Tamil Nadu. ...

Even at that time the local script was known as "Divehi Akuru" (our letters) by Maldivians because another non-Maldivian script was used in the country. This was a Devnagari script related to Bengali and it had a kind of ceremonial value. The oldest paleographically datable inscription found in the Maldives is a Prakrit inscription of Vajrayana Buddhism dating back to the 9th or 10th century AD This inscription is written in an early form of the Nagari script. Thus the name "Divehi Akuru" was used historically by Maldivians to distinguish their own writing system from foreign scripts. Foreign scripts were learned and introduced at that time when Maldivian monks visited the Buddhist learning centres of Nalanda and Vikramashila. च् + छ = च्छ Devanagari in Unicode The Unicode range for Devanagari is U+0900 . ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: , original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual, i. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas used in South Asia and Southeast Asia. ... A view of the ruins of Nalanda University In the extreme rear is visible stucco (lime plaster fresco) wall art from the Gupta period. ...

Divehi or "Dives Akuru"

The last version of the Maldivian script used after the Conversion to Islam

Divehi (or Dhivehi) Akuru, the later form of the Maldivian script was the script that evolved from the ancient Maldivian script or Evēla Akuru after the conversion of the Maldives to Islam. It was still used in some atolls in the South Maldives as the main script until around 70 years ago. Since then it is rarely used, not even having a ceremonial role in scrolls of coats-of-arms or badges of government entities and associations, where Arabic is favoured. The Islamic Centre, housing the mosque Masjid-al-Sultan Mohammed Thakurufaanu-al-Azam Islam is the state religion of Maldives, and adherence to it is legally required of citizens. ... Heraldry is the science and art of describing of coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. ... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...

This script can still be found on gravestones, and some monuments, including the stone base of the pillars supporting the main structure of the ancient Friday Mosque in Male’. British researcher H.C.P. Bell obtained an astrology book written in Divehi Akuru in Addu Atoll, in the south of Maldives, during one of his trips. This book is now kept in the National Archives of Sri Lanka in Colombo. Addu or Seenu Atoll is the southernmost atoll of the Republic of Maldives. ...

Apparently, the Divehi or Dhivehi script was abandoned in other parts of the Maldives in favour of the modern Tāna script about 200 years earlier, perhaps at the beginning of the 18th century. Some modern Maldivian historians want to believe that the Tāna script was introduced a few centuries before that. But the claim that the Tāna letters were devised in the 16th century is not supported by historical documents, for the oldest writing specimens in the Tāna script, interspersed with Arabic, are from the 18th century and those are written in a crude early version of this script called Gabulhi Thaana (incipient Thaana), where the Arabic numerals have not yet been slanted 45 degrees and still look like numbers. Since no ancient writings in Tāna written before that date have been found, it is doubtful that this new script could be much older. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...

The Modern Script

Tāna (or Thaana). The contemporary official Maldivian script

The main reason why the Divehi Akuru were abandoned in favour of the Tāna script was owing to the need the learned Maldivians had to include words and sentences in Arabic while writing in the Divehi language. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Dhivehi is an Indo-Aryan language and the official language of the Republic of the Maldives. ...

The most intriguing fact about the Tāna alphabet is its order (hā, shaviyani, nūnu, rā, bā, etc.). Its order doesn’t follow the ancient order of the other Indic Scripts (like Sinhala or Tamil) or the order of the Arabic alphabet. In fact the order of the Tāna alphabet doesn’t follow any logic at all. This fact points to a likely esoteric origin of Tāna, namely to a script that was scrambled on purpose in order to keep it secret from average islanders. At their origin the Tāna characters, which are based on Arabic numerals and other symbols, were used in fandita (local magic or sorcery) to write magical spells. Many of these arcane incantations included Arabic quotations, which were written from right to left. Maldivian learned men, who were all well versed in sorcery, eventually saw the advantages of writing in this simplified hidden script. Hence, with the passing of time, Tāna came out of the shadows and was gradually adopted for everyday use. Sinhala language Sinhala alphabet Sinhala people Sinhala place-names Sinhala Place Names, see Sinhala place-names Category: ... Look up Tamil in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ...

This script is currently in use as the sole Maldivian writing system. While at their origin documents written in Tāna were full of Arabic words and quotations, the tendency is now to include as little Arabic script as possible, especially since special Thaana letters with dots were introduced to replace Arabic letters. The Thaana script is widely used nowadays by Maldivians both in official and unofficial documents, for the literacy rate of the Maldive society is very high by South Asian standards.

The ‘DIVEHI AKURU’ Book

In 1959, during Sultan Mohammed Farid’s reign, former Prime Minister (and later President) Ibrahim Nasir expressed a wish to have a book written about the former Maldivian script which by that time was largely ignored by Maldivians. Thus, he contacted As-Sayyid Bodufenvalhuge Sidi, an eminent Maldivian scholar, who swiftly obliged. Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, NGIV (born 1926) is a Maldivian statesman who served as his countrys Prime Minister under Sultan Muhammad Fareed Didi (from 1957 to 1968 ) and succeeded him to become the first President of the Second Republic from 1968 to 1978. ...

Cover of the "Divehi Akuru" book written by Bodufenvalhuge Sidi

By means of this small book Bodufenvalhuge Sidi (1888-1970) wanted to clearly show the fact that in ancient times Maldivians were writing from left to right in their own script. Hence ‘DIVEHI AKURU’ is perhaps the only book ever written in Tāna that opens from the left side.

As-Sayyid Bodufenvalhuge Sidi was one of the very few Maldivian people of modern times who understood the now-forgotten ancient Divehi letters in which parts of royal grants, warrants and deeds were written. He learnt this ancient script in Addu Atoll. Until early in the twentieth century, all government correspondence to and from Addu Atoll was written using these ancient Divehi letters. Addu or Seenu Atoll is the southernmost atoll of the Republic of Maldives. ...

The last chapter of this book shows a text where the Divehi Akuru are coming along with Arabic script. As the reader acquainted with Maldivian writing can see, this book is Volume 1 (evvana bai). Perhaps Bodufenvalhuge Sidi had the intention of publishing a second, or perhaps even a third volume on the subject. But unfortunately this important Maldivian learned man died before being able to do so. Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ...

Even though H.C.P. Bell did a very careful and thorough research on the Maldivian documents, Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir’s intention was to have a book on the ancient script of the Maldives written by a Maldivian. Prime Minister Nasir's request to Bodufenvalhuge Sidi was done in order to clarify H.C.P. Bell’s misinterpretations, no matter how few. A staunch Maldivian nationalist, Nasir took this issue as a matter of national pride. Ibrahim Nasir Rannabandeyri Kilegefan, NGIV (born 1926) is a Maldivian statesman who served as his countrys Prime Minister under Sultan Muhammad Fareed Didi (from 1957 to 1968 ) and succeeded him to become the first President of the Second Republic from 1968 to 1978. ...

Present day members of Maldivian cultural institutions are aware of the lacunae in Bell's research and of Bodufenvalhuge Sidi's valuable contribution to mend matters, but little has been done to correct those inaccuracies. Still, H.C.P. Bell’s broad and valuable contributions to the study of the Maldivian language and scripts should not be understimated.

References

• Bell , H.C.P. Excerpta Maldiviana. Reprint 1922-1935 edn. New Delhi 1998.
• Bell , H.C.P. The Maldive islands. Monograph on the History, Archaeology and Epigraphy. Reprint 1940 edn. Male' 1986.
• Bodufenvahuge Sidi. Divehi Akuru; Evvana Bai. Male' 1958.
• Divehi Bahuge Qawaaaid. Vols 1 to 5. Ministry of Education. Male' 1978.
• Divehīnge Tarika. Divehīnge Bas. Divehibahāi Tārikhah Khidumaykurā Qaumī Majlis. Male’ 2000.
• Geiger, Wilhelm. Maldivian Linguistic Studies. Reprint 1919 edn. Novelty Press. Male’ 1986.
• Gunasena, Bandusekara. The Evolution of the Sinhalese Script. Godage Poth Mendura. Colombo 1999.
• Romero-Frias, Xavier. The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999.
• Sivaramamurti, C. Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts. Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum. Chennai 1999.