THE ARABIAN ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOL OF NATIONAL PEOPLE’S POWER – THE MAALIMAAWA (COMPASS)

The National People’s Power has chosen a most interesting symbol as their party symbol. It is the Compass which is known in the Sinhala language as Maalimaawa.

That the party should have chosen as their symbol a device meant to show the proper direction one should take says a lot about about their worldview.

However did you know that the Sinhala word for compass, and possibly the item itself as used by the Sinhalese of Old has an Arabian origin?

The word ‘Maalimaawa’ or ‘Maalima-Yantraya’ by which terms the compass is known in the Sinhala language is actually of Arabic origin and ultimately derives from the Arabic Muallim meaning ‘a master or ship pilot or captain’.

In the Sinhala language of the olden days, ‘Maalimaya’ meant ‘navigator,’ as we gather from Benjamin Clough’s Sinhalese-English Dictionary (1892). The word derives from the Arabic muallim (master). It is the same word that gave rise to the Tamil maalumi (captain of a vessel, pilot). It is also the same word that figures in the name of Malema Cana, the Muslim sailor who helped Vasco Da Gama sail to Calicut, thus paving the way for Western influence on the Eastern world.

The word also figures in old Sri Lankan Moor names found in the Dutch Tombos. We find Old Moor names such as Malimige Aijdroes Lebbe occurring in a Dutch Tombo ( SLNA 1/3764) and the name of Mahamado Naina Markair Pakier Malimiar borne by a head Moorman of Galle in the 1840s (Ceylon Almanac for 1844). The name Maalimiar and the ge-name Maalimige all ultimately have their origins in the Arabic word muallim ‘master’, ‘captain or pilot of a ship’.

The MAALIMAAWA has sure come a long way ever since the Arab navigators of Old sailed to the land they called Saylaan (which later evolved into our Ceylon).

Courtesy: Asiff Hussein