The Republic of Maldives or Dhivehi Rajje’, (the state of the Islanders) is a group of 1192 small low-lying coral islands in the Indian Ocean spread across the equator approximately 130 km wide and 820 km long, covering an area of 90,000 sq km. Its closest neighbours are India and Sri Lanka. The Laccadives lie to the North and the Chagos Group to the South.

The islands of the Maldivian archipelago are grouped into twenty-six natural rings or atolls. The islands are grouped into twenty atolls for administrative purposes. Only 199 islands are inhabited. The islands are very small, the largest being only a few kilometres in length. All the islands (except the island of Fuvahmulah) are very flat and covered with coconut trees. The climate of the Maldives is tropical; hot and humid.

The present population of the Maldives is 298,991 with a sex ratio of 103 males per 100 females . Approximately one-fourth of the total population live on the capital, Male` which is an island of about one and a half square miles, situated approximately in the centre of the archipelago.

Archaeological evidence as well as early references to the Maldives suggests that the Maldives has been inhabited for at least four thousand years. The people of the Maldives are predominantly of Aryan (Arya Vanha) stock.

Albert Gray says “As to its origin, the race which now inhabits the Maldivian archipelago (as well as Maliku or Minicoy islands) and which has occupied it from the earliest time of which we have any record is unquestionably of the same Aryan stock as the Sinhalese. This conclusion is borne out by evidence of language, physical traits, tradition, folklore, manners and customs.”

However, the first settlers of the Maldives were from the North Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and the eastern state of Orissa.

According to Professor Stanley Gardiner who visited the Maldives in 1899, to study the physical characteristics of the Maldivian people, Maldivians showed Aryan, African, Arab as well as Indonesian features. Even today, one can still see the same physical features. Some Maldivians have South Indian features while others have distinctly African features. Some have Arab features while others look Malay or Indonesian. Some have North Indian features while others have European features. So Maldivians can be said to be predominantly Indo-Aryan with an admixture of African, European, Arab, Malay and Indonesian blood.

Written sources of Maldivian history which gives a light on the period before its conversion to Islam in 1153 C.E. are very few, and give only a very few information about pre-Islamic history of Maldives. However, various archaeological sites, many of which are ruins of Buddhist temples, bear vivid testimony to the Buddhist past of the Maldives. Proper archaeological excavation, however, has been done only on one site in the Maldives namely the Kuruhinna Tharaagan’du of Kaarhidhoo. A clam shell found this site has been dated to 40 B.C. – C.E. 1157.

It is probable that the Maldives were already known to the Phoenicians. The ancient geographer, Claudius Ptolemaeus, who lived in the 2nd Century C.E., mentions 1378 islands nearby the island of Taprobane (Sri Lanka) which most probably refers to the Maldives and the Laccadives. In his report on the year 362 C.E., Ammanius Marcellinus informs his emperor Julian about “Divae et Serendivae, nationes Indicae…” which are located in the Indian Ocean. He is most certainly referring to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. This reference to the Maldives shows that as early as the year 362 C.E., the Maldives was known as a separate nation.

Although the country managed to preserve her independence for the most part of her long history, lying at the crossroads of the ancient sea trade routes, the Maldives was influenced by sailors and travellers from countries on the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Mopla pirates from the Malabar Coast incessantly harassed the country. In the 16th century, the Portuguese subjugated and ruled the islands for 15 years (1558-73), before being forced to flee by Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-A’zam.

The Maldives was a British protectorate from 1887 to 1965. Following independence from Britain in 1965, the sultanate continued till November 11, 1968, when it was abolished and replaced by a republic.

Divehi (or Dhivehi) language, Dhivehi bas or “islanders' language” is the national language of the Maldive islands where it is spoken by a population of two hundred and seventy thousand people. It is also spoken in Minicoy (India) where it is known as Mahal.

Linguists agree that Divehi is an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Sinhalese of Sri Lanka. Divehi represents the southern most Indo-Aryan language and even the southernmost Indo-European language. Together with the closely related Sinhalese, Divehi establishes a special subgroup within the Modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Mr. De Silva proposes that Divehi and Sinhalese must have branched off from a common mother language. He says that “the earliest Indic element in Maldivian (Divehi) is not so much a result of branching off from Sinhalese as a result of a simultaneous separation with Sinhalese from the Indic languages of the mainland of India”.

De Silva is referring to the Dravidian influences seen in the Divehi language such as in the old place names.

De Silva’s theory is supported by the legend of Prince Vijaya as told in the Mahavamsa because if this legend is to be believed, the migration of Indo-Aryan colonists to the Maldives and Sri Lanka from the mainland (India) must have taken place simultaneously. This means that Divehi and Sinhalese must be sister languages that developed from a common Prakrit.

The oldest inscription found in the Maldives to date is an inscription on a coral stone found at an archaeological site on the island of Landhoo in Noonu Atoll. This inscription is estimated to be from 8th century C.E. This inscription is written in a script close to the southern Grantha Script.

The oldest paleographically datable inscription found in the Maldives is a Sanskrit inscription of Vajrayana Buddhism dating back to the 9th or 10th century C.E. This inscription is written in an early form of the Nagari script.

Until the late 17th century C.E., Divehi was written in a script called Dhives Akuru (islanders’ letters). In the early 18th century, a new script called Thaana Akuru (Young letters) was introduced into formal writing and eventually replaced the old Dhives script. The earliest writing in Thaana Akuru found so far, dates back to 1703 C.E.