Maldivian People - Myths and Legends

Myths and Legends

There is no historical evidence about the origin of Maldivians; there is also no indication that there was any negrito or other primitive aboriginal population, such as the Andamanese. No archaeology has been conducted to investigate the prehistory of the islands. There is, however, a Dravidian substratum, in addition to other later cultural influences in the islands. Bengali, Oriya and Sinhalese people have had trading connections to Dhivehi people in the past.

Conjectures have been made by scholars who argue that the ancestors of Maldivian people arrived to the Maldives from North West and West India, from Kalibangan between 2500 and 1700 BC and that they formed a distinct ethnic group around the 6th century BC.

Read more about this topic:  Maldivian People

Famous quotes containing the words myths and, myths and/or legends:

    Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of “the rat race” is not yet final.
    Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)

    What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.
    James Baldwin (1924–1987)

    a child’s
    Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
    Through the parables
    Of sunlight
    And the legends of the green chapels

    And the twice-told fields of infancy
    Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)