Asis at 16:20, 1 August 2025

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{{Short description|Ethnic group in India}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2019}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Mahls
| population = 10,260
| region1 = {{flag|India}}<br>[[Lakshadweep]] ([[Minicoy Island]])
| pop1 = 10,260
| related = [[Maldivians]], [[Malayalis]]
| langs = [[Dhivehi language|Dhivehi]]
| religions = [[Sunni Islam]]
}}

'''Mahl people''' refers to an ethnic group of [[India]] (i.e., people of [[Minicoy]] and migrant communities from Minicoy islands). They speak the [[Mahl dialect]] of [[Maldivian language|Divehi]] which is a member of the southern group of [[Indo-Aryan languages]].<ref name="Cain">{{cite book |last= Cain|first= B.D. |title= Dhivehi (Maldivian): A Synchronic and Diachronic Study (Ph.D. dissertation)|publisher= Cornell University |year= 2000 }}</ref> All Mahls are native to [[Minicoy|Minicoy Island]] in the [[Lakshadweep|Union territory of Lakshadweep]].

==History==
According to local oral tradition, Kamborani and Kohoratukamana, two princesses from the [[Maldives]], came to Minicoy. When they arrived, the [[Tivaru]], who had been living there before, left the island for [[Sri Lanka]]. The Kamborani's descendants are the {{Transliteration|dv|italic=no|bodun}} (land- and shipowners) and the descendants of Kohoratukamana are the {{Transliteration|dv|italic=no|niamin}} (captains). The other status-groups are made up of the descendants of their crew.<ref>Ellen Kattner, ''The Social Structure of Maliku (Minicoy)''</ref> Traditions like this and linguistic affinities with the [[Mahl dialect]] of [[Maldivian language|Divehi]] spoken in Minicoy and the standard Maldivian dialect, compared with the southern Maldivian dialects in which archaic features are more well-preserved suggest that Minicoy was principally settled by settlers from [[Malé]] or the northern [[Maldives]].

==Demographics and geographic distribution==
Most Mahls live in their native land of [[Minicoy|Maliku (Minicoy)]] in the union territory of [[Lakshadweep]], [[India]]. In Lakshadweep the Mahls emerged as a separate ethnic group and are 15.67% of the total population of Lakshadweep.

There are migrant communities of Mahls in other parts of India too. The origin of all the Mahl communities in India and elsewhere lies in the island of [[Minicoy]]. A number of Mahls have settled in the districts of [[Kozhikode district|Kozhikode]], [[Malappuram]], [[Ernakulam]] and [[Thiruvananthapuram|Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)]] in the southern state of [[Kerala]]. There is a community of Mahls in Kerala who came and settled there in the 17th century, when the islands of [[Lakshadweep]] came under the rule of [[Ali Raja]]hs/Arakkal Bheevi of [[Kannur]].

==Social groups==
===Thakru===
According to the ethno-history of the Thakru, a person named Thakru came to Minicoy from [[Addu Atoll]] in Maldives and married thrice, and the present Thakru are his descendants.<ref name="POI">{{cite book |last= Singh|first= K.S. |title= People of India: Lakshadweep|publisher= Anthropological Survey of India |year= 1993 |isbn= 81-85336-98-9}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Maldivians in India]], citizens of the Maldives in India

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130116051343/http://www.maldives-ethnography.com/ Ethnography of Dhivehis]
* [http://www.mahlkot.com/ Fortress of Mahls] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110207105738/http://mahlkot.com/ |date=7 February 2011 }}

[[Category:Mahls| ]]
[[Category:Subgroups of the Dhivehi people]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in India]]
[[Category:People from Lakshadweep]]
[[Category:Dhivehi people]]
[[Category:History of Lakshadweep]]
[[Category:Indian people of Maldivian descent|*]]

Mahl people - Revision history

Asis at 16:20, 1 August 2025