In the writings of some famous early travellers, the Maldives was mentioned, some in detail and others only in the passing. However, these bits of information are the only key to have a glimpse into the life and times of ancient Maldives.
PTOLEMY THE GREEK
"In front of Taprobane lies a group of islands which they say numbers 1378."
SULAIMAN THE MERCHANT
"(In the Indian Ocean :) The third sea is the sea of Harkand (Bay of Bengal). Between this and the sea of Lar (Gujarat), lay numerous islands. They say that their number goes up to 1900. These islands separate two seas. They are governed by a woman. Occasionally, the seas cast upon the shores of these islands large pieces of amber (ambergris); these pieces often look like a plant, at the bottom of the sea. When the sea is very rough, it throws up the amber to the surface, and the pieces of amber look like mushrooms or truffles.
In these islands, where a woman rules, coconut is cultivated. These islands are separated from one another by a distance of two, three or four parasangs. They are all inhabited, and they grow the coconut tree in all of them. The wealth of the people is constituted by cowries; Their Queen amasses large quantities of these cowries in the royal depots. They say that there is not in existence a people more industrious than these islanders, so much so that they weave tunics of a single piece with two sleeves, two facings of the collar and the opening of the chest. They build ships, houses and execute all sorts of work with consummate art.
The cowries are got by them from the surface of the sea. (The head of this mollusc) encloses something living. To fish them up, they take a branch of the coconut tree, and put it in the sea, and the cowries attach themselves in to it. The islanders give the cowries the name of Kabtaj.
The last of these islands is Serendib; it is situated in the sea of Harkand. It is the most important island of this archipelago.
All these islands are called Dibajat. At Serendib is found the pearl fisheries. There are two kinds of conch shells, a big shell used as a trumpet in to which one blows. It is preserved like a precious thing. "
AL MAS'UDI THE ARAB TRAVELLER
"(The 1900 islands) are all very well peopled, and are subject to a Queen: for from the most ancient times the inhabitants have a rule never to allow themselves to be governed by a man. The inhabitants of these islands are all subject to one government. They are very numerous, and can put an innumerable army in the field. There are none whose natives are more skillful in the manufacture of stuffs, instruments etc."
FAH HSIEN OF CHINA
"On every side are small islands, perhaps amounting to one hundred in number. They are distant from one another by ten or twenty li, and as much as two hundred li. All of them depend on the great island. Most of them produce precious stones and pearls."
JOHN OF MONTECORVINO
"(After describing Kerela;) The sea here is the Middle Sea or Ocean. Traversing it toward the south there is no continent found but islands alone, but in that sea the islands are many, more than twelve thousand in number. And many of these are inhabited and many are not .. The shores of the said sea in some places run out in shoals for hundred miles or more, so that ships are in danger of grounding .. You can sail between this islands and Ormes ... The winds from mid May to October blows so hard that ships which by that time have not reached the ports wither they are bound, run a desperate risk, if they escape it is great luck, and thus in the past year perished sixty ships ... Their ships in these parts are mighty frail and uncouth, with no iron in them and no caulking. They are sawn like clothes with twine. And so if the twine breaks anywhere, there is a break indeed! Once every year therefore there is a mending of this, more or less, if they propose to go to sea. And they have a frail and a flimsy rudder, like the top of a table, a cubit in width, in the middle of the stern; and when they have to tack it is done with a vast deal of trouble; and if it is blowing in any way hard, they cannot tack at all. They have but one sail and one mast, and the sails are either of matting or some miserable cloth. The ropes are of husk."
DUARTE BARBOSA
"The men of the Isles have no weapons whatever ;they are feeble folk, but very clever; and above all they are mighty magicians..In these islands of Maldio they build many large ships of palm -wood, held together because they have no other timber there..These ships have keels and are of very considerable capacity...they make very fine and thin kerchiefs which Portuguese crafts men could not make."
FRENCH PARMENTIER BROTHERS
"At length we found one green island, well planted in palms about a league in length .. In this Island was a Temple or Mosque, a very ancient structure composed of massive stone. The captain desired to the inside as well as the outside, whereupon the Chief Priest bade them open it, and entered within. The work pleased him greatly; and chiefly a woodwork screen with a balustrade so neatly turned that our ship's carpenter was surprised to see the fines of the work. We were then at ½ degree South. The Chief Priest said that the name of the island was Moluque." (Moluque is identified as the island of Fua Mulah).
FRANCOISE PYRARD
The Frenchman Francois Pyrard de Laval, who sailed from his home port in France, on the 18th May 1601, onboard the 'Corbin', was shipwrecked in the North of the Maldives, on 2nd July 1602, and subsequently spent nearly five years in the Maldives. During his stay he became a favorite of the Sultan and learnt to speak Dhivehi. His work was first published in 1611. Later however, two more editions were published. Pyrard's work was translated to English by Albert Gray and published by the Royal Asiatic Society.
IBN BATTUTA
The first comprehensive narration on the Maldives and its people was compiled by the Moroccan traveler and historian, Muhammad Ibn Battuta, who visited the Maldives in 1343. During his stay in the Maldives he served as the Fandiyaru or Chief Judge. When Ibn Battuta arrived, in the Country, the Maldives was carrying on a flourishing trade in cowry and other sea shells, tortoise shells, dried fish, coconuts, coir and ambergris to Ceylon, Arabia, India , China and the Persian Gulf. In his publication he gives a detailed of account of the Maldives, its monarch and the people.
H.C.P. BELL
Mr. H.C.P. Bell of the Ceylon Civil Service, an Englishman, was deputed by the Government in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), in February, 1922, to visit the Maldive Islands (Maldives), ' for the purpose of investigating the pre-existence of Buddhism in the group, and of collecting notes for the compilation of an up to date revised edition of his two Maldive reports .' On his return to Ceylon in September, 1922, Mr. Bell, then over seventy years of age, applied himself to the preparation of a monumental report on the physical features, history, archeology and epigraphy of the Maldives, for publication by the Ceylon government. Mr. H.C.P.Bell died in 1937. His treatise on the Maldives, 'The Maldive Islands: Monograph on the History, Archaeology and Epigraphy', is still the most comprehensive source of information on the Maldives. |
