Mound in Isdhoo island, Laamu Atoll, Maldives; Photo: SA

Due to the strategic location of the island, and the ‘mound’ which is covering the remnant of a Buddhist temple (or Havitha), Isdhoo in Laamu Atoll has long been established by Maldivian and international historians, archaeologists and scholars as one the earliest inhabited islands in the Maldives.

Illustrations; © Soft Atoll, 2024

A recent study by Mirani Litster; Cowry Shell Money and Monsoon Trade: The Maldives in Past Globalizations, has further shed light on the history of the Maldives and its first inhabitants. On  the ‘Initial Colonization of the Maldives; Litster writes;

 “Competing ideas surrounding early colonization exist and these have not been reconciled largely owing to a lack of detailed investigations. However, most models suggest either an Indian or Sri Lankan origin. The close proximity to neighboring South Asian regions and the intersection of the Maldives with several trade routes would also suggest that many individual contacts potentially occurred during the early occupation of the islands. The earliest references to the Maldives in historical documents are too vague to support one particular colonization model. The islands have been suggested to be known at least at the writing of the Buddhist Jatakas c. 400 BCE (Vitharana 1997:140). Additionally, further reference to the Maldives has also been made in the Pali chronicles the Dipavamsa and Mahavmsa, which were composed between the end of the fourth century CE and the fifth century in Sri Lanka (Coningham 1995; Vitharana 1997). The Mahavamsa documents a simultaneous Indo-Aryan migratory event from India to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the Mahavamsa, although the date is not known (Vitharana 1997).”                   

(to be continued.)