Ancient Flags of Maldives
Xavier Romero-FriasIn 1987 Mr. Ahmed Shafeeg told me that there was the need to issue a publication on
all the flags of Maldives. He said that in the past the flags had been very important in
the country. The Maldives had been formerly very poor and during royal visits or on
important state occasions flags provided a decoration that was not expensive and anumber of flags planted in specific locations could make a place look quite impressive.
The flags and their poles also could be easily set up, then taken down and stored ortransported somewhere else.
Mr. Shafeeg gave me all the assistance he could and I immediately set to task. But
finding information about the old flags of the Maldives was difficult. Except a framed
drawing at the Male’ Museum there were not many documents available. I found someflags in a few old issues of Khabaru, a government newspaper, as well as in Divehi
Tārikhah Au Alikameh, a book on Maldivian culture. The intellectuals and historians I
asked remembered different flags or had heard old people talk about them but did notknow about precise dates.

What could quickly be established is that old flags were red and that many used theblack and white daṇḍimati, a characteristic Maldivian feature that would be also found in
the former national flag. Intrigued by this pattern I was explained that it had originatedsometime in the mid nineteenth century, although neither the king nor the exact year
were known.
According to a tradition heard by Mr. Shafeeg, one day the king of Maldives saw his red
royal flag flying from a white mast that had been decorated with a black ribbon wrappedaround it at a descending angle (daṇḍiemburi). It is said that the king very much liked
the effect of the little diagonal black and white lines at the hoist of the flag and issued adecree by which the daṇḍimati, a vertical band of cloth made of small black and whiteparallelograms, should be henceforth added to the hoist of all Maldivian flags. Thatparticular decree, which would have furnished details about the date, has unfortunately
been lost.

The colour of the Maldivian Royal House was red since very old times, a dye that
allegedly had been selected because of its visibility when contrasted with the blue
backdrop of the sea. According to Mr. Kolige Hassan A. Maniku, this was a perfectly
normal choice, a signal colour, red had also been chosen for the symbols of otherseafaring countries such as Oman and Bahrain.

The flags that were used exclusively by the Royal house consisted in triangular flags orcombinations of pennons. Often these standards had added fringes made of very small
triangular pieces of cloth stitched along the edge. The colour of these triangular pieces
could be either red or also alternate black and white in the latter versions of the same
flags with 'daṇḍimati'.
The special royal flags or standards that were hoisted on ships signalled theCommodore or Mīrubahuru (‘Commander of the sea’) whether there was an importantpassenger in a ship approaching Male harbour, or the ship with the most importantpassenger in a group of vessels. Members of the Royal family and certain nobles werepermitted to fly a distinctive flag on ships on which they were passengers so that uponlanding they could be given the particular welcome ceremonies they were entitled to. Oncertain formal days these same flags were also flown on special masts inside the palace
compound until in the 1930’s when a new rectangular standard with a crescent and star
was designed for the king replacing the former pennons.
According to two images appearing in the book ‘Divehi Tārīkhah Au Alikameh’ printed in
1958 in Male’, the king’s flag was a combination of three pennons, while the queen’s
flag was a combination of two. These two flags are said to have been copied from abook that had been written by Kullhavah Dhahara Takkan, a man who lived in Male’ inthe late 18th century.

Ancient Royal Flags. Illustration by Kullhavah Dhahara Takkan

Mr. Shafeeg disagreed with the information in the book, claiming that the last flag usedin the 19th century as the flag of the king of Maldives was a two-triangle red flag. Other
Maldivian historians claimed that it is difficult to know with certainty which flag was theking’s and which flag the queen’s for flags and their use had not been standardized at
the time that Kullhavah Dhahara Takkan lived. Thus the images in the book may not beaccurate and the information in it should be taken with caution.
According to Mr. M. Loutfy, perhaps the queen had had a three-tailed red flag instead of
the king. He specifically remembered that old people had told him that they had seen
the two-triangle red flag flown as the flag of the king in the palace in Male’ as the lastsuch royal standard. In that case the queen's flag would have been specifically that of
the queen consort (rani kambalun) as opposed to a queen in her own right (rehendi).

Mr. Hasan A. Maniku pointed out that the two flags illustrated by Kullhavah Dhahara
Takkan might have been used indistinctly by the royals. This view was supported by Mr.
Shafeeg who said that these would have been naval flags, to be flown on ships and thatthe three pointed flag was perhaps a combination of pennons indicating that both theking and the queen were on a royal vessel. Maldivian scholars I consulted granted
though that perhaps the three-triangle red flag was a much older one since there wasno memory of its use in their time.

Illustrations of Ancient Royal Flags in astrology books

Flags portrayed in Maldivian astrology books are usually two-pointed. These books had
been copied by hand from books that had fallen apart. The first one is from Addu Atoll,
the second one from Fua Mulaku. Another royal flag with two points that was flown inMale’ until mid 20th century was the ‘Maravaru’, a long swallow-tailed red streamer.

Formerly in Male' there were two tall masts on the fort, known locally as Koṭṭe. From
one of those masts a very long two-tailed streamer in the royal red colour was flown.
This mast stood on top of the Aa-koṭṭe inside the Eterekoilu, the King’s residence within
the palace compound, and the large flag flown on it was known as Maravaru. Note how
it was attached to the mast.

The Koṭṭe and Buruzu fortifications around Male', which gave a picturesque air to theisland, were destroyed during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Flying of the Maravaru wasprobably discontinued much earlier, but the date in which this large red streamer wasflown for the last time is not known.

The Amarāli was a long pennon in the Maldive royal colour. It could be flown alongsideother flags, usually at the top of the masts of the royal 'naakolhu' brigs or schooners. Itis worth noting that this plain red pennant never had had the black-and-white daṇḍimatifeature close to its hoist, even in its latest version.

First National Flag of Maldives
Before the beginning of the 20th century there was no such thing as a national flag of theMaldives. Flags used in the royal ships of Maldives and in certain locations in Male, theKing’s island, were either personal flags of the king or royal standards used in particular
ceremonies.
Plain red rectangular flags had historically been used either as decorations or as thecolours identifying a ship as Maldivian in the yearly trade with the closest coasts. Rulenumber two of the 'Rules for Maldivian Trading Ships' issued by the Maldivian Royal
Government in 1925 states that every foreign bound Maldivian vessel should beequipped with the red Maldivian flag (divehirājjēge zātuge raiy dida), as well as theyellow flag to be displayed as a signal of quarantine.

Towards the year 1903, when the Maldivian rulers decided that a national flag wasneeded, a rectangular flag with the red colour of the Maldivian royal house andthe black-white daṇḍimati at the hoist was designed and approved. This became thefirst national flag of the Maldives.

The national flag was often flown with the Amarāli on top, mainly on festive occasions.
This particular combination of flags was said to have been chosen by the king. Whenthe royal ships were decorated for some celebration the national flag was flown in thismanner on the mast tops (fēskali).
The royal three-tailed flags that existed according to historians were white. These were
the Amān Dida and the flags flown on the ziyaray funerary buildings.

Amān Dida

In certain royal processions in Male a notable preceding the king carried a ceremonial
three-tailed flag which was all white. It was known as Amān Dida, the flag of surrender,
as a signal from the king to his subjects that his intentions were peaceful.

The Amān Dida was carried by an official whose designation was jādibu. This flag wascompletely white and had no daṇḍimati, but it used to have a fringe of small white
triangular pieces of cloth. Photographs of this flag being carried in royal processions areavailable in the archives of the Maldivian government.

Ziyāraiy Flag

A giant white flag, the last with a daṇḍimati, was flown from a tall pole at the Medu
Ziyāraiy, the tomb said to contain the buried remains of the saint who converted theMaldivians to Islam. It used to have a fringe of small triangular pieces of cloth like theancient Maldive flags. The use of this flag was discontinued in the late 1980’s without
any public explanation but the tall pole is still there.
Similar white flags were flown as well at Ali Rasgefānu’s ziyaray and other importantgraves of holy men. All those tombs were formerly important landmarks in Male’ thatwere valued as national symbols.

Bibliography
Bābage Donmaniku. Divehi Ādakāda. (Maldivian customs) Divehi Bahāi Tārikhah Khidmaiykurā
Qaumī Markazu. Male’ 1993
Divehi Tārikhah Au Alikameh. (New light on Maldivian history) Divehi Bahāi Tārikhah
Khidmaiykurā Qaumī Markazu. Reprint 1958 edn. Male’ 1990
Xavier Romero-Frias, Rules for Maldivian Trading Ships Travelling Abroad (1925). “BetweenUniqueness and Universality. Modern South Asia: a Space of Intercultural Dialogue”. The
Journal of the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University.
Krakow 2014