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" The Role of Buddhism in the Development of Urban Centres in Maldives Islands "
Kumar, Smitha S.
Krishnan, K.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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1106894
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| Doc. No
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TLpq2419337044
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| Main Entry
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Krishnan, K.
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Kumar, Smitha S.
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| Title & Author
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The Role of Buddhism in the Development of Urban Centres in Maldives Islands\ Kumar, Smitha S.Krishnan, K.
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| College
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Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (India)
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| Date
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2020
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| student score
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2020
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| Degree
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D.Phil.
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| Page No
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134
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| Abstract
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The research work entitled The Role of Buddhism In The Development of Urban Centres In Maldives Islands is an attempt to investigate the archaeological potentials of Buddhist remains of Maldives islands in time and space and derives a proposition that urbanism developed in Maldives due to the Indian Ocean Trade supported by religious activities. This research also brings out a cultural sequence, relative chronology and assesses the finds and locates Maldives in the Indian Ocean trade. Maldives, a group of islands located towards the south west of India and Sri Lanka, occupies a significant position in the archaeology of South Asia. This group of islands are gifted with the strategic position in the most travelled Ocean and has lots to offer in terms of archaeology, history, language and culture. The position of these islands facilitates early sea going merchants and thus continues to plays crucial role in the socio-cultural scenario of Indian Ocean activities. There is a considerable amount of reference to these islands in ancient literary texts, especially the Pali chronicles (Geiger 1912). In addition to these, these islands are also mentioned by the Indo-Greek and Chinese travellers (Gray 1882), (Stevenson 1932) and (Rolfe 1937).The prominent presence of cowrie shells from several early historic settlements and also their isolated presence during its preceding chalcolithic phase signals a cultural link between Maldives and the mainland India in antiquity. All these suggest that Maldives enjoyed a significant position in the Indian Ocean socio-cultural interaction. A variety of foreign contacts with Maldives is contained in the records that can be summarized under navigation, trading, religion, political and documentary.Recent archaeological investigations carried out in these islands exposed large number of Buddhist Monastic establishments in the form of stupas, monasteries, and other related vestiges prior to the Islamization of the country in 1153 AD. The first attempt to investigate the ancient settlements in these islands was initiated by a British civil servant H.C.P. Bell who recorded many archaeological sites in the outlying atolls and also encountered many large mounds of coral stone and rubble, locally known as ‘Hawittas’(Bell 1940).His account was entirely based on the field explorations he made. For the first time, in the history of the country he clearly and empirically identified the presence of Pre-Islamic occupation in these islands.
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Archaeology
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South Asian studies
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