MALDIVE ISLANDS, an archipelago of coral islets in the Indian Ocean, forming a chain between 7° 6' N. and o° 42' S. It consists of seventeen atolls with an immense number of islands, of which some three hundred are inhabited. In the extreme south are the isolated atolls of Addu and Fua-Mulaku, separated from Suvadiva by the Equatorial Channel, which is itself separated from the main chain of atolls by One-and-a-half-degree Channel. Thence the chain continues northward to the Eight-degree Chan nel, beyond which lies Minikoi, 71 m. from the nearest point of the Maldives, and 110 m. from that of the Laccadives to the north. The main part of the archipelago, north of One-and-a-half degree Channel, consists of a series of banks either surrounded or studded all over with reefs.
After the Portuguese, from about 1518 onwards, had attempted many times to establish themselves on the islands by force, and after the Maldivians had endured frequent raids by the Mopla pirates of the Malabar coast, they began to send tokens of homage and claims of protection (the first recorded being in 1645) to the rulers of Ceylon, and their association with this island has con tinued practically ever since. The hereditary sultan of the archi pelago is tributary to the British government of Ceylon. The population of the Maldives in 1921 was 70,413. All are Moham medans. By Messrs. Gardiner and Cooper they are classed in four ethnological divisions. (I) Those of the atolls north of the Kar diva Channel. Here the people are hardier and more vigorous than their less warlike southern neighbours. They annually visited the coasts of India or Ceylon, and often married Indian wives, thus acquiring distinct racial characters of an approximately Dravidian type. (2) Those of the central division, under the direct rule of the sultan, and more exposed to Arab influences.
They formerly traded with Arabia and Malaysia, and many Arabs settled amongst them, so that they betray a strong strain of Semitic blood in their features. (3 and 4) The natives of the southern clusters, who have had little communication with the Central Male people, and probably preserve more of the primitive type, approximating in appearance to the Sinhalese villagers of Ceylon. They are an intelligent and industrious people, growing their own crops, manufacturing their own cloth and mats, and building their own boats, while many read Arabic more or less fluently, although still believers in magic and witchcraft. The language is a dialect of Sinhalese, but indicating a separation of ancient date and more or less Mohammedanized.
The sultan's residence and the capital of the archipelago is the island of Male. The chief exports of the islands besides coir and cowries (a decreasing trade) are coconuts, copra, tortoise-shell and dried bonito-fish.
Minikoi atoll, with the numerous wrecks on its reefs, its light house, and its position on the track of all eastward-bound vessels, is a familiar sight to seafarers in these waters. The atoll is grow ing outwards on every side, and at one place rises 19 ft. above sea-level. The population, which numbers about 3,000, is sharply divided into five castes, of which the three highest are pure Mal divians, the lower two the same as in the Laccadives. All are centred in a small village opposite Mou Rambu Point on the west or lagoon side; but most of the men are generally absent, many being employed with the Lascar crews on board the large liners plying in the eastern seas.