Jost Gippert: A Glimpse into the Buddhist Past of the Maldives I. An Early Prakrit Inscription

"For the inhabitants of the Maldivian archipelago, the beginning of literacy has for long been identical with the conversion of the country to Islam in the middle of the 12th century of our era. As a matter of fact, the Maldives have borne witness to a continuous production of written texts since about 1192 A.D. when the  oldest copper plate grants that have come down to us were issued by Maldivian kings. Both by their outer appearance and by their linguistic content, however, these documents clearly suggest that the tradition of literacy must have been much older, dating back to times when Buddhism was still prevalent in the islands. This assumption is confirmed off-hand by a very small set of inscriptions engraved in coral-stone artefacts which were unearthed in excavations in the capital, Māle, and on Māḷos (Maalhos) Island (Ari Atoll) and which bear clear indications of pertaining to a Vajrayāna environment.

Even though these inscriptions have not been deciphered so far, it is generally assumed that they date back to the tenth-eleventh centuries, thus representing the only remnants of Buddhist literacy which was otherwise deliberately destroyed by the Islamic convertors"

Read more: http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/personal/jg/pdf/jg2003d.pdf