By B. A. Ariyatilaka
BNC, Colombo - Imagine yourself voyaging in a sailing ship from the Equator coming due north, some seven hundreds of kilometres longitudinally west of Sri Lanka. For hundreds of miles you pass islands both on the left and on the right as you travel, all set in a sparkling blue ocean. From the palm fringed shores of these islands, both large and small, arise dazzling white stupas each with a towering spire pointing high into the sky. That is the picture of the Maldivian islands in pre-Islamic times some eight hundred years ago.
At the Paranavitana Gallery of the Colombo Museum there is a display of Buddhist artifacts brought from the Maldivian Gan island by Sri Lanka’s pioneering archeologist H.C.P. Bell. Among the display is a fragment of a Buddha head exquisitely carved out of lithic material. This type of stone is only available in Sri Lanka. It is a reasonable assumption that monks and lay Buddhists would have gone over there from Sri Lanka a very long time ago. They established close
links with the existing Maldivians who subsequently, had a religion and a culture almost indistinguishable from our own.
Our ancient links with the Maldives
The story of Buddhism in the Maldives is unravelled to us by Professor Vinie Vitararana in his book, “Sri Lankan-Maldivian Cultural Affinities” who assembled the data from the work of many previous scholars in the subject.
The year 1153 C.E. proved to be a great turning point for the religion of those islands. According to a legend related in the chronicle Tarikh, Sheik Yusuf Shams-ud-din arrived in the Islands and exorcised the spirits said to have possessed the King Theemugy Maha Kalaminja, a Buddhist.
He promptly converted to Islam and ordered his courtiers to do likewise. In a short time all the inhabitants of the islands had changed their religion. In this way the Maldives lost its ancient culture built up over more than a thousand years and with it, Buddhism.
Consequently Arabic culture soon engulfed the Maldivian way of life. Travellers returning from Arab lands pressed for the full Islamisation of the country to ensure the security of Islam and to expunge Buddhism from public memory. The people began to add on or even adopt completely new Arabic names. The old script, evele akuru, which closely resembled sinhala akuru, was replaced by the Arabic script.
Paucity of literary records
There are no literary records left except for a few inscriptions engraved on statues and coral slabs to give us a guide to the nature of pre-Islamic Maldives.
But the extensive archeological discoveries found in almost all of the inhabited islands afford us
considerable insights into the nature of the Maldivian past which is mainly Buddhist culture and which closely paralleled the state of Buddhism that prevailed in this country in those times. The
discovery of a figure of Tara shows us that elements of Mahayana Buddhism had also found a niche in Maldivian Buddhism just as it had in Sri Lanka during the late Anuradhapura period.
Buddhism in the face of Semitic intolerance Semitic monotheistic religions insist on the
destruction and sweeping away of the past wherever it triumphs or has become a majority in the host population. The message of the Old Testament of the Bible is clear on this subject. Speaking of rival religions it says, “destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves”. (Exodus: 34: 13).
This is confirmed in the Holy Qur’an which says, “Slay the polytheists wherever you find them” (Qur’an 9:5). These culture-obliterating Biblical Quranic clauses has caused Buddhism to suffer greatly or be exterminated entirely in Asia, where, before it had flourished and made huge contributions to raising levels of culture and happiness in Asian civilisation. The absence of absolute rules, giving freedom in so many areas, allowed great cultural statement in Buddhist societies.
In stark contrast, the new absolutism, newly installed in the Maldives and as elsewhere, resulted, as the Professor’s book relates, in the harmless but free-thinking Buddhist monks and all those who resisted the change, to be beheaded all to the gleeful shouts of ‘Allah hu Akbar’
All these Asian countries with a Buddhist past would have experienced a great and wilful destruction of their own Buddhist art, archi tecture and monuments. These would be either modified or replaced entirely as a means of obliterating the memory of a tolerant religion. An additional reason for the loss in the Maldives is that many Buddhist monuments were made of
softer rocks or coral, which deteriorated in time.
The Museum at Male houses sufficient artefacts to give us a good idea of the state of Buddhism in the Maldives at that time. Of these, the Buddha head with wide-open eyes, a characteristic different from those of Anuradhapura, shows that its style is distinctly Maldivian. If it originally was a part of a standing statue, it would have conformed to the dasa riyan (10 cubits) measurements of Buddhist iconography. A second head in the museum is from a Buddha statue and is very
similar to those in Anuradhapura and Medirigiriya.
Another item in the museum is the limestone fragments of a Sri-Pada (Holy Footprint) which is shown bordered by beautifully designed lotus buds. The feet are shown incised with auspicious signs including the svastika.
Another precious item in the museum is the carved figure of Tara, mentioned above, with her hand in “varada” (boon-granting) gesture. Other sculptures include slabs, panels and carved friezes all of which are familiar to us from similar items in Anuradhapura and elsewhere. These works of art, mercifully preserved for us in the Colombo Museum, indicate emphatically that Sri Lanka and the Maldives shared a common religion, a similar culture and a common history prior to the Islamic period.
Demonology
The demon figures exhibited at the Male Museum must be described here, too. Buddhism, strictly speaking, requires one to work towards one’s own salvation the Noble Path. But in this world of pratagjanas (worldlings), the daily struggle for health, immediate wealth and material gain is also a pragmatic fact of life. To cater for both these aspects of human existence in the Maldives, demon worship existed side by side with the lofty spiritual ideals of Buddhism as is illustrated by the presence of these demon figures.
Stupas, ponds and reservoirs
The Buddhist stupa or dagoba occupies a central place in any temple complex. It is the centre of religious worship. Practically all the inhabited islands had stupas of varying sizes. The National Centre for Historical and Linguistic Research has mapped out these sites. In the islands of Gan and Fua Mulaku, archaeologist Bell documented the existence of stupas, finials, capitals, pillars, carved stones, images, beads and jars and a vatadage (circular relic house) - all of which serve to indicate just how deep rooted Buddhist culture was in the Maldives in those far off times. Ponds and reservoirs are also necessary adjuncts to Buddhist temples. Some were still in existence as the discoveries of Bell reveal.
Place names such as Lankafuri (‘City of Lanka’) and Viha Mana Furi (Vihara Mana Pura) ‘Delightful City of Buddhist Monasteries’ are easily recognisable to those conversant with the Sinhala Language.
It is a theme of this writing to reveal the similarities between the Maldivians and the Sinhala
cultures that existed a thousand years ago. Peaceful monks who went there from Sri Lanka had planted the Buddhist culture there. They were not military adventurers or invaders directed to uproot existing cultures and replace them with new ideas of religion. Nor did they disorientate the inhabitants by requiring worship of revered items unseen and in far distant lands.
The Maldives being a series of flat coral islands, were on the main sea routes to the East and, without strong and determined defence were easy prey for pirates, buccaneers and adventurers. They were very vulnerable to attacks and invasions from seafarers or overseas cultures. Finally this actually happened and they submitted to their fate. Today not even a small Buddha statue can be introduced to these islands without attracting a criminal penalty.
Sri Lanka is indeed, very fortunate to still practice Buddhism despite the various changes in its fortunes over t he centuries of 2500 years. The fate of Buddhist Maldives is an object lesson for the Sinhalese.
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VERY SAD
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