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 Maldives
Islands
Folklore
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Once
upon a time in Serendip (Sri Lanka) there lived a king whose favourite
pastime was to bring cows from the jungle when there was a decline
in their population in town. He sent strong people to the jungle who
brought the cows under their control and took the animals back to
town.
Meanwhile, in the countryside of Serendip, there lived a poor couple.
The husband died while his wife was into the third month of her pregnancy.
Six months later, she gave birth to a boy. The child was barely able
to crawl when his mother passed away. The poor orphan got lost and
ended up in jungle while crawling. He found himself amid a herd of
cows. He was fortunate enough to encounter nursing cow from which
he suckled milk. Quite soon, the boy adopted cow's gait and started
moving about on his four limbs. |
One day
the elderly cows instructed the herd to pace forward. The child also
ran as fast as could along with the cows. He heard a loud noise and
saw a huge serpent moving from one part of the jungle to another.
While the boy was growing among the cows, the king of Serendip sent
some people to the jungle as the number of cows in the town decreased.
The people were amazed to see the boy living with the cows and took
the boy back with them. It took a year for the doctors to straighten
his limbs. The king then ordered to teach the boy to converse in the
language that the people used. After another year, the boy was taken
to the court of the king.
The king asked him whether the boy's parents were alive or not. The
boy replied that the king had brought him while he was living with
his parents. The king then asked if the boy saw any surprises while
in jungle. The boy told the king about the serpent he had seen. The
king, after listening to the story, said that the boy was like a flower
in the jungle. The king then asked the boy to guide them to the cave
into which the serpent had gone.
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Male' - the small
capital |
| The
king of Serendip went with many of his subjects to the mountain that
the boy showed him. However, no one dared to enter the cave, as they
feared the serpent. The boy instructed to fill the cave with wood
and to burn it. Even after setting fire to the wood, no one dared
to go into the cave. The boy went inside the cow and returned with
the sand and stones inside the cave. To everyone's surprise, the boy
had returned with precious gems and stones. When he told that the
cave was filled with them, there was no one who felt reluctant to
venture into the cave. |
Soon the whole town was full of those gems and they stopped to bring
the stones into the town. The king ordered his ministers and priests
to the court and asked whether the treasure belonged to him. They
replied that the gems were the property of the young adolescent Jangayyah
Male'h Fadha Koi (the boy like a flower in the jungle). The king sought
their advice on the possibilities of making the treasure his own.
Some people advised that if there were no inheritor the state would
receive the property when one died. Hence, they advised to kill the
young man. Others suggested that if the king offer his daughter's
hand for marriage to the koi (young man) then the goods would be the
kings own.
The king of Serendip agreed to the idea and built two ships. The ships
sailed away with the koi and the princess. They sighted two little
islands and after mooring at one island a tent was put up and the
royal |
Male' - Islamic
Centre |
couple
stayed in the tent. The koi ordered the slaves to go to the next island.
The koi named the island he and his wife stayed as Rasgetheemu. He
dubbed the next island where the crew of the ships and the slaves
lived as Alhugetheemu.
When the koi had arrived to the island, people lived scarcely in the
neighbouring islands. He invited them to a feast and killed them all.
Thereafter, the ruler of the area was the Jangayyah Male'h Fadha Koi.
Sometime later, the koi started digging the earth to make a pool in
Rasgetheemu. The slaves who lived in Alhugetheemu did the work following
the instructions of the koi. Oneday while the work was going on, the
koi saw seven black-naped terns. The birds cried while flying over
the island and then disappeared. The koi asked to stop the work immediately
and told the slaves to go back to Alhugetheemu. After some days, the
work of making the pool was resumed. This time five black-naped terns
cried while flying over the island and then went away. When the birds
disappeared, the work was halted again. After a brief interval of
a few days the digging started again. Soon one tern appeared over
the island, cried and then went away. The bird returned, circled the
island, and cried.
The koi took this as an omen and ordered to stop the work and to prepare
the small batheli (a smaller vessel) of the ship for sail. Hurriedly,
the royal couple and their slaves left the island following the tern.
After several days and nights, the bird landed on the island of Dhoonidhoo
in Malé Atoll. When the batheliWent near the island, the tern
set off again and landed in the sandbank of Malé. At that time,
Malé was a small island, which could be more appropriately
called a sandbank. There were some people in this island who were
about to go fishing. The koi asked for their permission to settle
in the sandbank. They were surprised that he wished to live in the
small island, which they believed was not suitable for settlement.
The fishermen, who were also from another island, told that they used
to dump the waste of fish to this island. They said that there were
more suitable islands in the vicinity that could be ideal for settling.
However, the koi did not agree to settle in any island accept Malé.
He and his companions set foot on the island with the permission of
the fishermen. He then sent the crew to fetch the two ships in Rasgetheemu.
Then he sent a letter to the king of Serendip requesting to send some
people and goods to start a kingdom. The king of Serendip sent few
people who were of the lion race.
The koi had seen the king of Serendip practicing Buddhism. Hence,
he and his subjects also adopted Buddhism as their religion and set
up idol temples.
Jangayyah male'h Fadha Koi, after proclaiming this Kingdom,
declared that he was King Koimala. |
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