Showing posts with label heritage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heritage. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Dhives Akuru - a free font
Dhives – A free Dhives Akuru font
We originally made this font as part of a April Fool’s gag we were going to publish this year. The font is a very rough first draft, so please excuse the inconsistent stroke widths and jagged edges. We intended on cleaning it up and improving it but have not managed to get around to it so far. We do not still have a firm grasp of the script but the font we are presenting here should be a great start. As far as we are aware, this is the first publicly available Dhives font.
Dhives Akuru is the script used in the Maldives until it was replaced officially by Thaana as the official script for Dhivehi. It is reported that Dhives Akuru continued to be used in some atolls until 70 years ago despite Thaana being made the official script in the 18th century. Dhives is derived from Brahmi script and, unlike Thaana, is written left-to-right. Details on how the use and functioning of the script is hard to find. Luckily we found a gold mine on Dhives Akuru in the paper “Preliminary Proposal to Encode Dhives Akuru in ISO/IEC 10646” authored by Anshuman Pandey in 2010. It is not entirely possible to write Dhives without changes to the font engine(s) to handle the various forms, conjuncts and combinations of vowels and consonants that the script requires. We would definitely say it is a more complicated script than Thaana. For a thorough introduction to Dhives, we would highly recommend reading paper by Pandey.
Use:
Using Dhives with the font is pretty straightforward. We have mapped the characters phonetically like the popular Thaana keyboard mapping. Except for the several scenarios involving conjuncts and combinations, it is just like writing Thaana (or so we believe!).
Preview:
Dhives font overview
The font is being released under the very liberal MIT license, so feel free to use, modify and distribute.
Download:
Dhives.ttf (23.2 KB)
Kaashidhoo Kuruhinna Tharaagandu
Kaashidhoo Kuruhinna Tharaagandu is an
archaeological site 2–4 hours from Malé, in the island of Kaashidhoo
(Kaafu Atoll), Maldives. The site is a Buddhist Monastery and is
believed to have been used by pre-Islamic Maldivians dating back to
7th-8th century AD. The excavation work was done in various periods from
February 1996 through 1998.During this period, an area of 1,880m2 was
excavated, revea
ling 64 coral stone structures.For the vast majority, only the lower most parts have been preserved.
Kaashidhoo Kuruhinna Tharaagandu is situated just outside the houses of the village at Kaashidhoo in a plantation of coconut, papaya and banana trees. During the three excavation campaigns, an area of 1,880 square meters with 64 ruins was investigated. This is only a part of the original monastery where its total size is not known. Except for one. the structures uncovered were coarse coral stone with sand and stones. Square, rectangular, circular and semi-circular extensions arc different variations of shapes of the structures found. The sizes varied between one metre and 11.5 meters. The lowermost parts of the structures (30-40 Cm) had normally been preserved; the rest had been used as building material over the years. Numerous stones were collected during the excavations which were worked and profiled.
In a corner of a ruin, by the steps leading to it was a pit consisting of cowrie shells amounting to 62,000. These shells have been dated to AD 165-345 . Cowrie shells played an important role in the Buddhist culture and religion, Representatively as well as economically. Around AD 500, when cowrie shells spread to northern and central Europe, they were also mentioned as trading products from the Maldives, as shown in the archaeological finds in the region.
In another ruin, it is a 16-sided structure with a height of 1.3m and a diameter of 6m, with a platform at the top and a flight of stairs on the south side. This is one or the biggest and best preserved structures at the site.
In conclusion, this excavation proved that Buddhist culture was recognized in the Maldives in the first part of the first Millennium. Archaeological evidence proves that the ancient people who lived here, built large monuments, monasteries temples and dagobas, which were eventually destroyed in later centuries.
http://www.saarcculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=205
Kaashidhoo Kuruhinna Tharaagandu is situated just outside the houses of the village at Kaashidhoo in a plantation of coconut, papaya and banana trees. During the three excavation campaigns, an area of 1,880 square meters with 64 ruins was investigated. This is only a part of the original monastery where its total size is not known. Except for one. the structures uncovered were coarse coral stone with sand and stones. Square, rectangular, circular and semi-circular extensions arc different variations of shapes of the structures found. The sizes varied between one metre and 11.5 meters. The lowermost parts of the structures (30-40 Cm) had normally been preserved; the rest had been used as building material over the years. Numerous stones were collected during the excavations which were worked and profiled.
In a corner of a ruin, by the steps leading to it was a pit consisting of cowrie shells amounting to 62,000. These shells have been dated to AD 165-345 . Cowrie shells played an important role in the Buddhist culture and religion, Representatively as well as economically. Around AD 500, when cowrie shells spread to northern and central Europe, they were also mentioned as trading products from the Maldives, as shown in the archaeological finds in the region.
In another ruin, it is a 16-sided structure with a height of 1.3m and a diameter of 6m, with a platform at the top and a flight of stairs on the south side. This is one or the biggest and best preserved structures at the site.
In conclusion, this excavation proved that Buddhist culture was recognized in the Maldives in the first part of the first Millennium. Archaeological evidence proves that the ancient people who lived here, built large monuments, monasteries temples and dagobas, which were eventually destroyed in later centuries.
http://www.saarcculture.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=205
Maldivian Buddhist heritage in Sri Lanka.
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| Historic Buddhist statue from Maldives, in display in Sri Lanka National Museum in Colombo 2011 |
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