ASIA FORUM: CHAPTER 11- MALDIVES: A Report by Dr. Bishakha Sarma

“Asia Forum-Chapter 11 MALDIVES” which is an offshoot of Asian Literary Society and Journal of Asian Art, Culture and Literature (JAACL) took place on September 19th, 2021 at 6:30 pm IST and 6:00 pm MVT on the virtual forum of Asian Literary Society Facebook Page.

The event involves a presentation of the Maldivian Literature and Language by the distinguished writers and Lecturer of Linguistics- Ahmed Tholal, Iyaz Naseem, Shafee Shafeeq and Aminath Shareehan Ibrahim.

The session begins with a welcome note by Mr. Manoj Krishnan, the Founder of the Asian Literary Society and Editor-in-Chief of JAACL. Thereafter, the session was moderated by Dr. Bishakha Sarma, Linguist and Administrator of Asian Literary Society.

Mr. Iyaz Naseem, Lecturer of Linguistics provides with a linguistic account of the Dhivehi language. He mentions that Dhivehi has lexical cognates with Hindi and Bangla. He also speaks about the linguistic diversity of Maldives. He also discusses on the contemporary literature of Maldives.

Mr. Ahmed Tholal speaks about the importance of writing screenplays in the Maldives and about the Contemporary literature of Maldives.

Shafee Shafeeq speaks about the art, language and literature of Maldives.

He says “Maldives is the most dispersed country in the world. The Maldivian language (Dhivehi) comes from Sanskrit and is very closely related to languages closest to Maldives i.e. from South India and Sri Lanka. The dispersed nature of islands means that there are differences in dialects, mostly in southern atolls and hence the cultural traditions vary from island to island as well.”

He also speaks at length about the folklore of Maldives which is very ancient and lot of Maldivian myths are originated from ancient South Indian oral myths and stories. He narrates stories about how the national tree of Maldives - coconut and their national animal Tuna (which is also an important source of food) came into being. He narrates “the myths tell that the first coconut trees came from the first settlers who died because of hunger. Here a fanditha veryiyaa or a sorcerer used magic to make these trees grow from the skulls of the dead people. The coconut shell has three holes which is representing a skull as it came from humans.

The story of the first tuna talks about a maalimee (a master navigator or sea captain) who travelled to the end of the world where the magical tree called Dagas to bring tuna to people. Again, here the people were dying due to hunger, and the Maalimee or the captain was the hero saving the people.

The end times are always depicted by the submersion of the islands in a calamitous event. The sea is of the paramount importance of Maldivian lives and so a lot of characters and events are related to the sea.”

Aminath Shareehan Ibrahim discusses on the Maldivian Children's literature and its positive impact on the visual format of kids' literature in the local language (Dhivehi). She adds how younger generations are perceiving written Dhivehi works.

She also mentions the challenges faced by the emerging Dhivehi children literature writers.

Shafee Shafeeq, a freelance digital artist, mentions his contribution to Maldivian Children’s literature. He says in his stories animals appear a lot but are almost always anthropomorphized to depict human behavior. These stories are comical and have a lot of moral values. Some of the stories for children come with accompanying Dhivehi poetry as well. His books are for children who can already read like 6-9-year-old (with approximately 500 words) and includes illustrations of characters.

The writers also voice out the concern of the parents that there are too few Dhivehi books and that children are slowly veering away from Dhivehi language due to foreign cultural influences.

The writers also believe that the Dhivehi language and so also the oral tradition of Maldivian folklores should be preserved well.

The program concludes with an appreciation note by Mr. Manoj Krishnan.

Asian Literary Society and JAACL aim to further continue its pursuits in the promotion and preservation of Asian Art, Culture, and Literature.

The event has been archived on the YouTube channel of the Asian Literary Society and can be viewed through the following link: https://youtu.be/mET9ATraZKY