Social:Dhives Akuru

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Short description: Script for Maldivian language, used from 12th to 20th century
Dhives Akuru
š‘¤š‘¤±š‘¤©š‘¤“š‘¤¬š‘¤½ š‘¤„š‘¤Œš‘¤³š‘¤§š‘¤³(Dives Akuru), š‘¤š‘¤±š‘¤©š‘¤“š‘¤­š‘¤± š‘¤„š‘¤Œš‘¤³š‘¤§š‘¤³(Divehi Akuru)
Shukla Dhivehi Akuru.svg
'Divehi Akuru' in modern Noto Serif Dives Akuru font
Type
Abugida
LanguagesMaldivian
Time period
6th-8th centuries CE (earliest attestation) to late 19th century
Parent systems
Egyptian
Sister systems
Malayalam, Tigalari, Saurashtra
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Diak, 342
Unicode alias
Dives Akuru
The theorised Semitic origins of the Brahmi script are not universally agreed upon.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Main page: Social:Maldivian writing systems
The last version of the Maldivian script used after the conversion of people to Islam around the 1700s.
Standard Indic order. This table is provided as a reference for the position of the letters on the table.

Dhives Akuru, later called Dhivehi Akuru (meaning Maldivian letters) is a script formerly used for the Maldivian language. The name can be alternatively spelled Dives Akuru or Divehi Akuru using the ISO 15919 Romanization scheme, as the "d" is unaspirated.

History

Dhives Akuru developed from Brahmi. The oldest attested inscription bears a clear resemblance to South Indian epigraphical records of the sixth-eighth centuries, written in local subtypes of the Brahmi script.[1] The letters on later inscriptions are clearly of the cursive type, strongly reminding of the medieval scripts used in Sri Lanka and South India such as Sinhala, Grantha and Vatteluttu. There are also some elements from the Kannada-Telugu scripts visible.[2][1] The form of this script attested in loamaafaanu (copper plates) of the 12th and 13th centuries and in inscriptions on coral stone dating back to the Buddhist period (~200 BC to 12th century AD) was called by Bell Evēla Akuru (meaning "script of yore"[1]:82-83; footnote 5 to distinguish it from the more recent form of the same script. The most recent form (starting from around the 14th century) was more calligraphic and the letter forms changed a little. Like other Brahmic scripts, Dhives Akuru descended ultimately from the Brahmi script and thus was written from left to right.

'Dhivehi Akuru' in recent Dives Akuru script. Notice how the ancient calligraphy is quite different from the modern typeface

Dhives Akuru was still used in some southern atolls along with Thaana until the end of the 19th century. The last known official document from the southern atolls (in Dhives Akuru and Thaana) was written by Haajee Muhammad Kaleygefaanu in 1927.[3] Since then its use has been limited to scholars and hobbyists. It can still be found on gravestones and some monuments, including the stone base of the pillars supporting the main structure of the ancient Friday mosque in MalƩ. Bell obtained an astrology book written in Dhives Akuru in Addu Atoll, in the south of the Maldives, during one of his trips. This book is now kept in the National Archives of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Bodufenvalhuge Sidi, an eminent Maldivian scholar, wrote a book called Divehi Akuru in 1959, prompted by then Prime Minister Ibrahim Nasir.[4]

Unicode

Main page: Dives Akuru (Unicode block)

The Dhives Akuru script was added to Unicode version 13.0 in March 2020, with 72 characters located in the Dives Akuru block (U+11900ā€“U+1195F):[5]

References

  • Bell, H.C.P. Excerpta Maldiviana. Reprint 1922-1935 edn. New Delhi 1998.
  • Bell, H.C.P. The Maldive islands. Monograph on the History, Archaeology and Epigraphy. Reprint 1940 edn. Male' 1986.
  • Divehi Bahuge Qawaaaid. Vols 1 to 5. Ministry of Education. Male' 1978.
  • DivehÄ«nge Tarika. DivehÄ«nge Bas. Divehibahāi Tārikhah Khidumaiykurā QaumÄ« Majlis. Male' 2000.
  • Geiger, Wilhelm. Maldivian Linguistic Studies. Reprint 1919 edn. Novelty Press. Male' 1986.
  • Gunasena, Bandusekara. The Evolution of the Sinhalese Script. Godage Poth Mendura. Colombo 1999.
  • Romero-Frias, Xavier. The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom. Barcelona 1999.
  • Sivaramamurti, C. Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts. Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum. Chennai 1999.

Citations

  1. ā†‘ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Gippert, Jost (2005). "A Glimpse into the Buddhist Past of the Maldives: I. An Early Prakrit Inscription". Wiener Zeitschrift fĆ¼r die Kunde SĆ¼dasiens 1 (18): 82ā€“83. doi:10.1553/wzksxlviiis81. ISSN 0084-0084. https://maritimeasiaheritage.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Gippert-Jost.-2004.-A-Glimpse-into-the-Buddhist-Past-of-the-Maldives-I.-Wiener-Zeitschrift-Fur-Die-Kunde-Sudasiens.pdf. 
  2. ā†‘ Mohamed, Naseema (2005). "Note on the Early History of the Maldives". Archipel 70 (1): 7ā€“14. doi:10.3406/arch.2005.3970. ISSN 0044-8613. 
  3. ā†‘ Pandey, Anshuman (2018-01-23). Proposal to encode Dives Akuru in Unicode. Unicode. pp. 4, 70. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18016r-dives-akuru.pdf. 
  4. ā†‘ Sidi, Bodufenvalhuge (1959). "Divehi Akuru" (in dv, en). https://www.academia.edu/4643911. 
  5. ā†‘ "Unicode 13.0.0". http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/. 

See also

  • Maldivian language
  • Sinhala script
  • Thaana script
  • History of the Maldives



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