Monolayer Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a two-dimensional crystal with a direct bandgap, is a promising candidate for 2D nanoelectronic devices complementing graphene. There have been recent attempts to produce MoS2 layers via chemical and mechanical exfoliation of bulk material. Here we demonstrate the large area growth of MoS2 atomic layers on SiO2 substrates by a scalable chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The as-prepared samples can either be readily utilized for further device fabrication or be easily released from SiO2 and transferred to arbitrary substrates. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy on the as grown films of MoS2 indicate that the number of layers range from single layer to a few layers. Our results on the direct growth of MoS2 layers on dielectric leading to facile device fabrication possibilities show the expanding set of useful 2D atomic layers, on the heels of graphene, which can be controllably synthesized and manipulated for many applications.