Dhivehi Writing Systems - Later Dhivehi or Dives Akuru

Later Dhivehi or Dives Akuru

Among the Divehi Akuru scripts, the later form of the Dhivehi script was the script that evolved from the ancient Dhivehi script or Evēla Akuru after the conversion of the Maldives to Islam. It was still used in some atolls in the South Maldives as the main script until around 70 years ago. Since then it is rarely used, not even having a ceremonial role in scrolls of coats-of-arms or badges of government entities and associations, where Arabic is favoured.

This script can be found on gravestones, old grants in paper and wood, and in some monuments, including the stone base of the pillars supporting the main structure of the ancient Friday Mosque in Malé. British researcher H.C.P. Bell obtained an astrology book written in Divehi Akuru in Addu Atoll, in the south of Maldives, during one of his trips. This book is now kept in the National Archives of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Apparently, the Dhivehi script was abandoned in other parts of the Maldives in favour of the modern Thaana script about 200 years earlier, perhaps at the beginning of the 18th century. Some modern Dhivehi historians want to believe that the Thaana script was introduced a few centuries before that. But the claim that the Thaana letters were devised in the 16th century is not supported by historical documents, for the oldest writing specimens in the Thaana script, interspersed with Arabic, are from the 18th century.