Earliest Possible Roots of Education and Literacy in Maldives

Maldives had been a Buddhist country before being converted to Islam for about 1400 years as history of the Maldives states and it is certain that along with Buddhism the people would have accepted all the educational links which Budhism had.

According to books of history of the Maldives published, Maldives had accepted Buddhism during 3rd century BC, most probably with the spread of great Mauryan Empire of India.HCP Bell who was a Commissioner of the Ceylon Civil Service had contributed for the history of Maldives to a great extent.According to his writings Buddhism came to Maldives from Sri Lanka.Since then, new archaeological discoveries point to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist influences, which are likely to have come to the islands straight from the Subcontinent. An urn discovered in Maalhos (Ari Atoll,Maldives) in the 1980s has a Vishvavajra inscribed with Protobengali script. This text was in the same script used in the ancient Buddhist centres of learning in Nalanda and Vikramashila.There are several archaeological findings displayed in the Maldives even in the new museum opened in the Maldives which reveal the use of scripts by ancient Maldivians.

The script used by the ancient Maldivians were called "Eveyla Akuru" which means ancient script by historians.The earliest copper plates "Loamafaanu" of king's decrees were written in this script.The copper plates date back to 12th century AD. These are all evidences of the earliest literacy of Maldives.

Since the conversion of Maldives to Islam in 1153 AD, as known from most writings, Arabic text and learning of Arabic to recite at least a few verses of Quran would have become necessary for those who led prayers.Since then Islam remained the religion of Maldivians until Portuguese conquered Maldives in 1558 AD and Maldivians in all the islands must have used Arabic to some extent though the ancient scripts such as "Eveyla akuru" and "Dhives akuru" may not have been familiar with most Maldivians as literacy of people was not a concern at that time.

Approximately 17 years ruled by the Portuguese were referred to as the dark period of Maldives.During this period the needs of Maldivians were of no major concern to the rulers. As soon as Mohamed Thakurufaanu son of Hussein Katheeb Thakurufaanu saved Maldives from Portuguese and became sultan he tried to spread basic Islamic education to islands of Maldives inorder to help Maldivians to learn the basics of Islam.

However, the writings found from remains of ancient Buddhist monasteries in Maldives,old mosques and tomb stones reveal the use of these scripts in Maldives.Hence litearcy and education would have existed in Maldives to some extent even during the days of rule by the ancient Buddhist and Muslim kings.