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MALE' The Capital
Story
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.
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Male' Capital
of Maldives |
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.
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.
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Male' Capital
of Maldives from Air |
Hence, the king's daughter was married
off to the koi. But the young man and
the princess lived separately in two orchards.
The priests were concerned about this
and told the king that he did not have
any rights over the treasure because of
the existing circumstances. The king brought
the koi and asked him how he could make
the precious collection his own. The young
man asked the king to build two ships
from the riches of the collection and
fill the ships with the treasure and assign
slaves to the ships. The koi said that
if the king do so then the rest of the
collection could belong to the king.
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
the royal 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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