Most animals are builders for the birds build nests and the bees build hives. What probably differentiates humans from other animals is that humans go beyond the functional requirements of shelters to create works of art. But architecture as art is bounded by both environmental conditions and the resources and technology available in a given space and time. In this manner, architecture in the Maldives takes account of the islands’ climate, the meager resources available and the islands’  close relationship to the sea (virtually no point in the Maldives is more than 500 metres away from the sea or two metres above the water table). Buildings, therefore, made extensive use of indigenous material. Architectural principles and practices were green and sustainable. In fact, until about 1800, almost all the buildings were made from what is available, coral stone and plant material.

In this, the first of five short articles on Maldivian architecture, I intend to present the observations of visitors to the Maldives. There are few, if any, surviving documents on architecture in the Maldives from the medieval period. In fact, most of what we know about the architecture of the period is from accounts of visitors to the Maldives. This is due to a number of reasons, one of which is the lack of need to write this information on paper for preservation; the need does not exist due to the small size of population. Large populations lead to specialization and greater learning in all spheres of life. Except for ecclesiastic documents, the writing material was a type of palm leaf which tends to disintegrate in the humid climate of the Maldives in about a life time.

The earliest reference to the architecture of the Maldives is in Edrisi [1099 – 1186 CE] who had compiled from previous authorities and from others an account of the Maldives. The account appears in Geographie d’ Edrisi [par PA Joubert, 2 vols., Paris, 1836; a translation of the relevant text by Albert Gray is in Volume 2 Part 2 of The Voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval published by the Haklyut Society in 1890 (page 432)].

Eldrisi

From the above we understand that dwellings were then built from stones. However, Edrisi is not known to have visited the Maldives. The earliest reference to the architecture of the Maldives by a visitor is by the well-known Muslim traveller, Ibn Battuta who lived in the Maldives for one and a half years from early 1343 until 24th August 1344. In his travelogue, there are two references to the Maldives’ architecture which were brief, but nevertheless descriptive. The first occurrence is on page 199.

page199ibn(Source: Hussain, M. (1976). The Rehla of Ibn Battuta (India, Maldive Islands and Ceylon) Translation and Commentary. Baroda: Oriental Institute.)

From the above single statement one may make three points: the mosques are relatively beautiful and that dwellings are made mostly of wood. The statement also indicates that other materials were used to make buildings. Certainly, coral stone, found in abundance in the lagoons are used as a building material. Whether any metal was used is not known. The other reference to architecture by Ibn Battuta is on page 200. He notes:

battutaarchHowever, the translation above seems to be slightly different from Albert Gray’s translation of the relevant passage of Ibn Battuta. His translation (op. cit, page 411–412) is as follows:

ibnbattuta2p2ibnbat

The above passage from Ibn Battuta gives us more information about the nature of buildings in the fourteenth century:

  • The houses were built on rows of low coral stone walls three to four and half feet long above the ground for protection from damp.
  • Coconut palm beams (joists of vakaru) span the rows of coral stone foundation walls to which flooring boards must have been fixed. The walls above the floor were built out of wood.
  • In terms of layout of homes, there is a maalam (nowadays translated as hall). The front portico or vestibule was a covered space leading to the main house. There are two entry ways to the portico, one at front possibly facing the street and the other on the side.

foundation

By 1900, the practice of raising floors had all but disappeared except in a few dwellings. The photograph below was taken in 1901. The house has a raised floor. Dr Abdulla Waheed who lived in Bodufenvalhuge (a residence in Male’, the capital island, where he lives in late 1960s) informed me that the namaadhuge (prayer hut) in this house and in his family home in Meedhoo in Addu Atoll had raised floors, about one and half feet above the ground.

evidenceofraisedfloors

The environment of the Maldives provides only coral stone as the hardest material for building. Coral stone tends to crumble in time and is less durable than igneous rocks and is softer than even sandstone. This weak building material together with the climate and the salty environment make for buildings that do not survive the ravages of time. This issue is further compounded by the fact that the Maldives have very little land, 298 square kilometres being the total land area; old buildings had been and continue to be demolished to make space for new buildings. Thus there are almost no extant buildings from the medieval period.

An important architectural feature of Fuvahmulah, an island in the South of the Maldives, was described by two French brothers, Jean and Raoul Parmentier who travelled by way of the the Maldives in 1529. Some men from one of the ships landed in Fuvahmulah on 24th September 1529. The chronicler of the voyage described an architectural feature of Fuvahmulah in the following manner (The account of the travel is from an edition of Bulletin of the Society Normane de Geographie for 1883 edited by M. Schefer, Paris, 1883 translated by Albert Gray in the volume previously cited, page 488).

twobros

The chronicler notes, immediately after the above that the “the dwellings are small and miserably built.”

On 16th February 1922, a team of archaeologists headed by HCP Bell visited Fuahmulah, and took photographs architectural and archaeological sites. There was an old Hukuru Miskiiy (Friday Mosque) but he did not report seeing any temple structure with a round roof with a wainscoted ceiling covered in painting. It was most likely that what was reported above was a stupa which has by then had taken its toll of time. Bell was able to identify many features of a Havittha or stupa among the ruins. The mound of ruins was about 25 feet high (Bell, H.C.P. (1940). The Maldives Islands. Colombo: Ceylon Government Press).

The next external account of the Maldivian architecture was given by the Frenchman Francois Pyrard who got shipwrecked in July 1602 in the Maldives. He was able to leave only in February 1607 (after about four years). After returning to France he wrote a comprehensive description of the Maldives and her customs. A translation from the French into English was made by Albert Gray, assisted by HCP Bell who had visited the Maldives thrice. Both  translators worked in the Ceylon Civil Service. Pyrard makes the following points about architecture (The Voyage of Francois Pyrard of Laval, Volume 1, London: The Haklyut Society, 1887, p. 118 —119)

The houses and buildings of the common folk are of coco-wood, cut from the trunks of the trees; they are thatched with the leaves for the same tree, plaited together double. The nobles and the rich build houses of stone, raised from the shallows of the sea, where they get as much as they want, both as to length and thickness1. It is polished, and of good grain, very white, but a little hard in some cases for cutting and working; in time it loses its natural hardness and whiteness, and at length becomes quite black, after being beaten with rain or soaked in fresh water. The manner of drawing up this stone from the sea is remarkable.

In a footnote to the above passage (referenced as 1 above), the writer adds what he had read from earlier publications, most notably:

The general use of stone has not been maintained. Mr. Bell, in 1879, found only one house built of it at Male, besides the Sultan’s. The dwellings of the well-to-do natives are now of wood; those of the poor of coco-thatch, or wattle and daub, with thatched roofs, resembling the ‘lines’ of Tamil coolies (Report, 56). Pyrard may be going too far in saying that the houses of the nobles were built of stone; if this were so, some of them would probably be standing still. Ibn Batuta states that stone was used in his time for the foundations, and the Indian surveyors of 1835 found only the ruins of a few houses built of madrepore. The following account is still true: ‘Their houses are ill-built and dark, having at most only one small window, and frequently none at all; in fact, they are but large-sized huts with a peaked roof, in general about 28 feet long by 12 broad, and 15 feet high to the top of the roof. They are made of a substantial frame-work of wood, thatched all over with coco-nut leaves; the floor is plastered, and the sides are sometimes boarded ; a partition near the middle divides the house into two rooms, one of which is private and the other open to visitors. In this public room there are two ranges of seats ; the one on the right side on entering is considered the most honourable, and the other on the left (carried across the house) is appropriated for the common people” (Chr., in T. B. G. S., i, 59). Mr. Bell supplies the Maldive names for this description. The inner or private room is the eteri-ge or maval-ge ; the outer, or public room, is beru-ge; the range of seats on the right is kuda-arhi; the other is bodu-arhi (Report, 56). [T.B.G.S: Transactions of Bombay Geographical Society]

A commentary on the above is necessary. There is no living record of anyone using wattle and daub for covering the sides of a house. In fact, the loose sandy soil mostly found in the Maldives is certainly unsuitable for the task. However, sandy soil mixed with slaked lime forms a reasonably strong mortar (lime mortar—a building material dating back to 4th century BC) . In living memory, composite walls are build with crushed coral stone or madrepore held together with lime mortar. In rare instances hard wood  may be buried in the wall for strength. An admixture of sugary syrup from the coconut palm is used when additional strength was required. The Indian surveyors’ descriptions beg comment as well.  Generally, three types of houses may be noted, characterized by the standing of the owner: the working class, the professional or skilled class and the aristocrats. The large huts noted above probably referred to the first homes of new couples, immigrants from other islands or the very poor. Houses are described in a latter part of this series of articles.

In the next part, traditional measures are described. Measures regulate and constrain form, space and order in buildings.