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143

0n the ' Ori,gi'n

of the Si'n'halese languo'ge'. Read' belore the Ceylon R. A.,\oc'iety on tk,e SIst October, L863.-By
J,rlms Ar-rvls, Esq., lr.n.a.s.

\Vherr ir';'elve ycars ago I publishcd the Sicl,ulsct'ngard, and enlered into an inr.estiga.tion of the quesl,ion as to the origin of ihe li,rr'h,ala language, I inl,iinated ru)r belief,ik that it' belonged {,o the Ari:Lri or Northerr famiiy, as contr:rdistinguished frcnr t}re

Drauiiltan, or the Southeln class of languages. Mv sentiments on rnany a collateral subject have sinc'e undergone change. 1 ha,ve discovered errors uporr several points on which I then v'rote. I find I have assumed facts r,vhich have no foundation. I have drarvn inferences rvhich are unt,enable. But the main tluestion, the bolief of l'hich I then expressed, has only received confirmat,ory proof in the course of my later researches ; ancl they enable me, moreover, rvith due deference, but grea,t confidenr:e to disprove the statement in Sir Emerson Tennent's History c',f Ceyltn,-that ' the Sinhalese, as it' is spoken at the present day, r,nd stiLl more stril;ingly rc il erists as a written l,,tnguatte in the lileraiure of the Tslan<l, presenbs unequiuot',:tl proo.f of an affrlity rvith t'he group of languages still in use in the Dakken ;--Tamil, 'Ielingu and Malayalim'.t Sir Emersorr Ter'nent rvas, probably, indebtecl for this information to Professor Lassen.t and he to Prcfessor Rask cf Copenhagen- all of whom rvere not conver.sant with the Sinhalcse. q
*See

Introd. tc

Lhe SirJatnn,qa,rd,

p. xlvi.

tSir Emerson Tennent's Ceylon, p. 328. fSee his S. Ind. Alterthumsk, p. 363. $Professor Bachtlingk, iays down as a philological axiom that 'it is dangorous to write of languages of which rve do not possess the most a,ccurate knorvledge'.

t+1

AN ESSAY ON THE OR,IGIN OX' TIIE

SINHALESE LANGUAG]'

t45

When more than foltyyears ago Rask wrote, the greatest misapprehension prevailed amongst Europeans on all Oriental subjects. Easbern Languages \\rere not extensively criltivated. A gloom enveloped t,he scierce of comparative philology. Tnaccessilrle rvas the path to eastern history. Even the 'Sa,nskri,t, the language in the highest state of crrltivation nolr-a-days, 'tras then but irnperfectly known to the European world. Sonre consideretl it a clerir.atirre of the Zencl, alld others treatecl it as a creature of

'ine Sinltala rvrrg detir,ed from the Satrskrit'. Ile rrioreover petceived rrot the irlcrrtitV of the ltllu wil,h S'inltala; nor col1d he rlistirrgrrish the l?d,li forms in the ancient SirLhalese fi'om the Sanskritforn's rvirich predominated in our rnoilcrn dia"lect. One rvoulcl havc supposecl that the sha,re he harl had in tlic publication of the
Bdla.uutd,ra could not

fail to errlightcir liint on the subject. But

the PAli. Little,


the

if any thing, was definitely

investigated of

Tire relat,ion r'i'hich t,he Sanskrit bore to lhe Prdltrit, $ras Yer.V imperfectll. investigated : ancl was, at, the time \4/ilson translaterl Vilcrartr:t, r:oil Iiraa,st,, 'far {ronr being understood' I and, rviren the labours of Lassen :rucl Burnouf brought to light the Nepa,l books of Buclclhism, erren the names of their Pdli versions u.cre unknorvn in Eutope. lllhe distinction het'g'een the, Aria,tt, anC l;he Delckanese groups of languages \rr-as rrot' well ascertained. The 'farnil \r'as sripposecl to have been an off-shoti1, of the Sarrskrit. ilhe A|d,li,ra merely existe(l as a book name. Betrveen it ancl Lhe l)ra,ui,da no relationship ri'as establishecl ; nruch less was the identity cf Drrsuickt: an Durtila recognized. 'fire Siirlialese \yas nob lrnou'n in Eur:upe. Nor rvas it cultivated by t'he Errglishin Ceylon Lrntil after the annexation of the Kandian Kingdom (in 1815) to the posscssions of the British Government. El-en then little u-a,s ascertainecl of the Sinlutk-, by :i, careful inter-

latter.

such, unfortunately, 'lvas not the case. lTe recognizecl '1,he elernents of two rlistinct dialects, in the nationai langnaue of Ceylcn. One lre pr:ononnced the IXlu,, and the other thc *c,ittltal,u,. The forrner hc regarclecl as 'the reinains of the language originally spoken, i.e. llv the aboriginal inhabitants; and the latter, as the language introduced after the Vijayan conquest.* The subsequent labours of the Rev. S. Lambrick (1834), as ll'ell
as those of an anterior date (f 82i) of the Rev. John Callawav rvere of little avail. The l)ictionary of the latter 1\,as intended for elernentary schoois. 'l'he Grammar of tl.re former, by his adoption of the forms of language cunent amorrgst the vulgar, rendered

comparison of South-Irrdian rlialects;-less las tnoln of the various moclifications which thc former had undergone ;-and leasi of ail regartling its history for upl.arrls of trvo thousancl years. 1'rue it is incleed that Mr. Chater published a Sinhalese grammar in l8l5; yet this led to no inrport:r,nt results in point of philologicn.l researches. The languae,e adopterl in it was the trastard Sinhalese of the fourteeuth centrrry. It 'lvas the langu:uge of tlre parapltrases--the Siurskrit, if I ma}. so cali it, Sinhalicisetl. \Ilhen, therefore , Clough pu-biished his Dictionary fifteen years afterlards, he rvas lerl awav with tfre beliel that
*Speigei's KammavAohA.-Introd., p. i.

but little assistance to the Philologer. His denial, mor.eovrr, of the existence of the pa,ssi,De roi,ce, which he must ha,ve da,ily found in the Sinhalese Yersion of the Lord's.prayer, only gar.e those l.ho placed the Sinhalese in the South fndian.class an tr,rlditional harrdle in support of their incorrect theory. History, too, 'lyas then in its infanc5r. Upham's "lvorks published in 1833 teurled rather to mislead than to clirect the European mind. I{o effort r-v:as rrarle to set Sinhalese history in its true lighb until Turnour entered the ficld of Oriental literature.
The commenceme: rt of tri"re historic knorvledge may be rega,rdecl (183"i ), when he puhlished tlne Maltauansa, a\d. exhibiled the value of thePAii, not olly in regarcl to chronological ir,nd historical lesearchcs, but a,lso in point of philologica'l investigations.f Yet. it may he trulv sairl that no one appliecl his

from the rlate

;f."
el
seq.

o*pi"notion of tlre ter"t"

l'L r.d

Sit,l,ala

*" s;,tJ*orrora'. p. xxvii

fThe learned author of tbe Drat:id,ian Comparat'iue Grammar in fixing the date of Dravidian Civilization preparatory to an investigation into the origin of the Dravidian language, says : 'I am inclined to Iook to Ceylon for the best means of arriving at an approximate date', p. 81.

146

AN ESSAY ON T}I]X OTiIGIN O1T. THE


rvorlis
larrg uages
o

SINIIALESE I,ANEUAGE

117

energies

to glean thi: inforruation, lvhich orrr historical affonled to investigations connecterl rvith the lalrguage of

the

f the Dekhan,vi z.

Lhe

T'

u,lua, Nhe

II ala.ha r,

Llrc T ct m i L,

Sinhalese. T)r. stevenson of Ronibav has rT.ritten ser.erai l):rpers in the irages of the Bomba1' Asintic Societv's Jout:ni'l ; l.rut they

Lhe Teluo'n, the Karnd.ta, ancl

the

Si,nfu,rlese, sums

up their rela-

are by no -"un. ctrltrulated to assist Philologica'l inveitigntions.'r' Even tire Rev' Spence IIa'r"'l.v' r'vith a verf intirnate ilcquaintanci: with the Sinhalese. r:or.rld trot trace the otigin r-ri t'liat langriage't Iirrleercliu tirnes later still (1853) rvhenthe sid(t,tsa,it,:tr1,'t d allpt':rrecl, I cont'ess. I r,r'as not al,le. '.1'ith ::l]l the assistatlce of llurroirer'n trtrd

are t1u,ilr independent of it as to their origin. Their phonetic syst'em is clistinct,, ancl so is the fundamental part of their voca-

tions to the Sanskrit zrs follorvs :-' A more critical investigation of the Ianguages of the Dehl<an has shown that they ha\ve been enriched from the Sanskrit, but,

r\siai,ic resea,ruhes then at m.t' comrlland, d'e'ftroitel'y t'o sta"te t'he origin rf the Sinhalest:.f

bularies, embracirrg thc r,vords in most common use ; and farther, rvhat, is decisive, their grammat,ical structure is peculiar. With

this philobgicalfacb accordthe traclitions of the Dekkan, indicat-

It, rvas upi>n the publication of that Sirrhalese Grammar' horr tt' ever, that people' inlater times' beganto paygreater attentiou thon has appeared an invahra critical stucly of the sinhctla,. since able auxiliary t,o bhe investigation in hancl-'The comparativc Gr:ammar of the Draviclian language by the Revd' R' Cald'n'ell
(1g56

ing, as they do, th:r,t the l)ekkanese r,vere originally in a rude state. ancl that settlers {ronr the }dorth broug}it to them t}reir civilization. The traditions of the continent agree here ri.ith
those of the islarid of Ceylon, and the phenomena of the religious and political state of the Dekkan, at the present time, establish

). since then too has arisen a greater thirst for a knorvledgtr of the archeology of Budclhism; and, what' is inseparably connectecl wibh it, th; PAli language. These helps combined u'ith thc lightlvhich llistory has shetl upon the subject, and the knorvledg't:
origin o1 the S i,nhala language : ancl those investig ations establish. ** I porpo*u to shorv itr a paper rvhich I shall hereafter present to this Srciet,y in contin'ation of t,hese introductorv rentatks, n 'Dtnerson Tennent result, the vety opposite of t,hat' rvhich Sir rvhiclt sbates as being founded upon' unequivocal testimony', or
Professor spiegel consiclers, is support edby cert'iss'imi,s Lesti,moniis.\ Professor L:rssen in his Ind,isch'e alli'sthurnus ktutd'e, a rvorh <lesigned t,o be a cribical digest of all the researches of the last

'rvith native panclits in our otvn islancl to invesiigate

ulr"u,ly

possessecl

bv them of the Sanshrit, have e^abled

t'hcr

the fact of its hat'ing received its civilir,ation frcm that sotu'ce. il,s alpirabets, also, came from the Norbh. Yet, certain peculiarities are lil<eu'ise found, rvhicir, not being referable to Atva teachers,mrrst, be consirlerecl as remains of usages properl;' bekrnging to the South-Connt,ry. Nor has the civilization brought

success thcr

sixty

relative to the antiquities of India, iri speakilg of thc T'r.r rl* stlr'".."ottt r""i*i"""r"gi* "* mt*"[ *"tr ^rrniin*t-t"t* Cakl'well's D' G" p' t'0' disappear altogether on a little invest'igat'ion
ve:r,rs,

tCeylon A. S. Jorrrnal.

"

fsee lnlruduction P. xxir'. $Katnmau.ichd, Introd , P. r'ii.

from the North penetrated everyu'here : illany tribes are tlet rvit,h in the l)ekkari, rvhich have adopted only a part, sometimes more, arrd sometimes iess, of the imported culture ; cne incleerl, fhat, of the l\ida on the Nilgiri, had, until x'ithin a short timer, receivecl no such civilizing influence'.* \4rith all the respect due to so distinquishecl an orientalist as Frof. Lasserr,I cannot liut regard hisrenrarlis. so far as thcy r.el:ite to the Siritu,lese, as inappiicable, and therefore inconsiderate. It is quite true that the Sansl<rit clement, bv rvhich I mean t,he use of sibil:uits, aspirates, double letters. etc. in the moder,n Sinhalese, cannot be traced to onr ancient dialcct: and that these ha,r'e been enqra,fterl orr the Sirrl.ralese in cornparatively moder.n times.-f In vieri. of the particr-rlar: a,lIinity rvhich the FAli and *S. Inil . AltcntJt, p. 363. f Sce the histoly of the Sinlrale,*e language in my Intlod. to the Szdr.rt-"antqari, p.

clxxxvii et

seq.

148

AN ESSAY ON TH!] OIiIGIN OX' TIII'

SINTIAI,ESE LANGUAGE

149

the PrAkrit tlialects bear to the sinhalese, antl the liistoricial .conjeci,ures a,s to the formation of the latter, it niay also bo
allirmerl tha,t the sinlia,lese is .rrotr a clirect off-shoot of tlre 'Sa,ilskrit. }lel,, a,ll t,his may Jte assentecl to l'ithorit in the lc:r,st affecting t,he proposition. that t'Lte Sitrhalese belongs to the Northern ' rlivision of la,nguages, :rncl ca,nnot be classecl iurlongst the langu,rges of the Dekkan', rvhich, in accordance u'ith the la'nguagc of Mr" {lald.r'eli, I shall in lutur:e designate the 'Draviclia'n"

cntering upon the 1:th,ilologica,l qlreslions' that relatc to tho sub,iect. I believe it is a uniYersally admit'ted fact, that l'refore the Ar.y:ls or Sanskrit-speaking people of Hinrlustan first' emergecl from obsculit)., and settlecl thcmseh'es iti upper Irlcli:r,, thc u,hole of the Peninsula flom Cape Corncirin to Hjmalayi), :rncl :r'iso the Lankl. of the Ri-mayana,, had been peopled iu eYery clire''rtion by jIi cllffe|cnt stages of r;ivilizaticn, :r,n entirely distinctrace of people
rvlrorn they dtsignzr,t,ecl Dai,ltyt, Da,nrt,r:d, (\'akkhas or'1 Rdl:sliu's, and. ){lich,ln's.*' These u'eLe thc Yii,kli}ras or barba'rians rv}iotn Vijayri{onncl on his at:li,"irl jn I 'etnkd., Lr,nd of n'ltom the e:r'th- Sanskrit and Bhndclhist $'riters irpeak rvith llxich aversion. 'l'his taken in connection ir'ith t,he fact tha,t Demonolatry, or the rvorship of rlevils in Ce1.lep, is ident,ical rvith 'the system l'hich Lu:evaiis in the forests :r,ncl mountain fastltesses throughout, the Drt-ividian territ,or:ies and also in the extrente south o{ the Peninsultr, ',,f leads to the inference, that the early settlers of Ceylon r''ele a poltion of the aboriginal inliabitants tif Intlia befbte its occupat'ion by the Arya race. But it is also a fact, as I shall shor" hereafter, that

lt rnav be here conveniellt tO consiclcr the ltistoricrtl

before

identified rvith 1.he an.cicnt barbarity of thc r,aklrhas, ir,re the Vuid,us; lund these. bo it, rcmembered, are as di.qtiitct fronr the Sinhalese as:r,re tho Tantils of the Nor:th.'Ilhere isalso a distinciive class callecl the liodiyas, arrd jb is remarkable that their ranks were replenishecl from tinie to time rvith Sinhalese convicts of nll castes from the lioyal to the plebeinn. ITr. Cnsic Chetty, the autlror of lhe Ceylon (]az.ettcer in givirg :L uuntber oi vi.orcls in current, lrse i-r-rnorrgst the Ilodil'as explesses a coujectur:e '1,hat, 'bhey lvere either a colorty of some of the u'anrlcrlng hot'des frorn lndia, or a fragmerrt, of tire aborigincs of Ceylori itsclf partially blencled l'i1,h the Sinh:rlcsc '.* This is r.ery probable ; arid rr,lthough r.r'c have not srifficient, materials fol cornparison, r.et bhe ferv r.vords r.l-liich have been collected of this diaject, corrtaining the narres fol the c()mmon rvants of mankirrd are, .,vith six t.'xceptions, riifferent from ' the Sirihalese as it is spohen at tlie present dav, an,l still rriore strikingly as it cxist-q as a n'ritten .language in the literatule of'the island '.t The merrtion of ldA"gas or: Nd,garvorshippers, with i.,'hom tlro yakkhas had shared the kingdom of LankA., cloes noi, lead to any certain results. For the NA.ga, rvorship hail bcerr cliffused from a r,'ery early age throughout 1,he rvl,ole of Iridia{ as .n'eli as in the rrorth-rvest frontiers of the Arya-cl,eshct,, as fcr iustance,
Cashmir.$ Thc worsliip of tlie N)gasJ mo(eover) v.as confinerl to tiiat porbion of this island, once called the Ndga d,tpa,'the northern ancl

north-r'estern parts of Oeylon, u.hele Tamilians cotrmencecl to


*C.8., A.S.J., Vol. vi, p. 171. fFrom amongst, 128 words gir.en by Mr. Casie Chetty, of the Rodiya diaiect we can only identify six Sinhalese words, e.g. bintaldua ,earth ,, a,1tho'strictly speaking it is a 'plane' ; kalluwellafot kaluwata,darkness'; bora,Iowa fot boralu 'gravel ' ; biti,nd,a ' boy ' ; ,nurutan for mul.utan tinat which is cooked ; pi,lt;anawa fot penenawa'porceive ,. C.8., A.S.J., f gb0_g,

have neither retainerl their natiorral character nol their national ianguage' The only tribes, holvet'er, t'hat have not intermingled v'it'h the Sinhalese, and rvhose savage conditiorr t" *o9:t" t*:1-g_E

they

*Dr. Stevensot's Kalpta Sfitra, p. 133' was introduced tcaldwetl in his Dravirlian Grammar says, ' This systom within the historical period from t'he Tamil Country into Ceylon' u'hero .it is now mixed up with lluddhism', p' 519.

p.

177 et seq. {Asiatic liesoarches xx, p.

g5.

lSee Rajdtarangani.

l5(

AN ]'SS,\Y ON 1'I{]T OI-iIC+IN OF. THI'

STNHAI,NSU I,ANG IIAC';E

151

fbrm settlements prior even t'o the Christian era' and lrom ''* rvhence t,hey have gliatlu:-,11y thrust' out the Sinhalese be clispcnsed' These are, horvevt-r:, point's of inrluiry rvhich rnay

shaclorv of a c,opper coloured rnan '. The colour as l-ell as the fcatures of the irrhabitants of thc Deklcru, are certainlv distinguisha,ble lrom those of the Sinhalcse el'en b.y a casual observer. An utter stranger to the varions raccs cannot be three u.eeks in this Isianrl before he perceit'es the striking differcncre bctu-cen the rlrannels ancl haltits of the Sinhalese on the one hanrl, and those of the different other: races on the other. European Teachers ha,ve frequently observerl the iacility rvith l.hich the Sinhalese pronounce Europenn tonques, prcsr:nting in this r.espect a quality rlistinguishable froin e\rery lace of South-Incliarr people. It may, hou'ever:, be urged by those lr,'ho advocate a contrary opinion that the use of long hair by the Sinhales..:, a pla,ctice to rvhich Agathemerus, a Greek Geogra,pher of the thirrl centuly bcre testirnony,* is u'orthv of notice in an inquirv into the relations of the Sinhalese r,r'ith the e:r,rly Dravidians. It is true enough that t,he usage referred to is equally charactcristic of the Dravidian race.T But I submit that rve have no uncloubted tcstimorry of the same usage not having existerl in the Northern tcrritories front u,hence Cevlon lvas peopled. On the coutrary, the fact of Si"gara's havirrg imposed ' shaving the hair ' a,s a punishment on the Yavanas implies that it had been previouslv customary to use the hair long : and it is also not a little remarkable that Gotama Bucldha a North-Inc'lian is represented, like Sir.i Sanghabodhi, one cif our kings,{ to have v'orn tresses a,nd a top-knot. But even supposing that such u'as not the case, and that the practice of t'w'isting the hair into a, knot at the back of the head is identical rvith that of the Dravidian race ; and that, a-s stated bv Mt. Caldrvell, ' it was from Dravidian settlers in Cevlon that the

ja'ya both the with, in viert- oi'the fact, that, afl,er the arrival of \ri so aboriginal inhabitants of I'anlr) and theii lartgriage hatl been that' ,tr"rgJ,lirt the ArSra invaclers ancl their dialect' the Sinhalese' little or nothing piiysically, historically, or philologicallY can norv be tracecl to a Draviclian origin; t whilst all such cotrsicleratiorrs being an lead to tlie inevitable result of the sinhalese language a Prdkri't off-shoot of the speech of the Aryas, or the Piili, ot dialect. 'It is vain' savs l{r. Caldwell, anrl he s:lys it truly' ' to expect from consirleratitxrs of colour ancl complexion any real help belongs t,or,r'ards clet,ermining the race to which t'he Dravidian " :r, fact ment'ioned by hiniself' artcl known p. 512. I'or, to state

tlescen4ants of t1e Portuguese rvho sett'led in Inrlia several centuries ago, are now blacker t'han the Hindffs p. 513. Regarding, therefore, ' colour as a most

io

.rs it.,. Ceylon

'the

tilernselves',

rleceptive eviclence of relat'ionship and

a lcss failible testi' the shape of t,he head and the more perman'ent pecumony, r-i2., prove liarities of fcature' ; (ib) antl here I need not labour to present, a wide difference from all the taces that the Sinhalese of the Dekkan. For instance, the features of the Tarnils of the Southern Peninsula are peculiar, ancl though the complexion of the Sinhalese prescnts different shapes, tlie ' copper colour' is that rvhich prevails over the rest : and this again it u,ould seem

race', [p' 515] u'e may

nert direct attention to it in connection r.vith

iv, is the colourof the Arva race, so much honore<l by Manu (cap'

$ 130) t'hen hc declaretl


l)ril\. fCalclut,ll sa\.s " *Qllrlntll's (:lirlrlrrtrl.

it

an insult' to pass over 'even tlie

It, is uncleniallle t'hat' ernigrations from Ceylon to tlie soutlrorn rlistricts of llrdia har-e occasionally taken placc' lllhe Teers
f'r,om the

p' ['

*'The natives cherish their' hair their heads'.

as women among us antl

twist it, rounrl

Pali , sihalam ' bv thc olnission of the initial ' s') both of thern 'llavarrcotc castcs, a'lo celtainly imrnigrants frorn Ceylcn "' C'altlu:eIL's
(.|onr. Gr.,

(prcpcrl3"l'ir-ilrlslaldcrs)andt'heIlavars,'Sinbalese"(froni'ILtrn" lat'her Cutt-rtr, o l,ortl rvhich has been frrrrn the Sanscrii'simhalan'or
p.72.

into a knot at the back of the hearl is oharacteristic of all the inferior cnstes in the Sotrthern Provinces of the Tarnil Countrv,. Caklq,ell's (,lrammar, p. Ti. {See Attanagalwansa, Cap. i, I ii.

f'

Up to the Jr:sent day the custom ofrvearing tbe hair long, and twistecl

I52

AN ESSAY ON THD OITIGIN OF

SINHALESE I.,ANGIj'AGE

r53

sinhalese atlolttecl, tlte sante u,sage' (p. ?5) ; it may still be affrrmecl that, there is nothing in this circumstance which militates against our position. Historically Professor Lassen himself furnishes us with an item of proof v'hjch T shall here notice. He says ' rvhenever an oriKangin-ul lung.toge has been rctained, a,s among the Gondas, the

iu*

un,l the Padarias, thcre is nothing of the civilization of the Arv:ls, or merely a sprinkling of it : but lvherever, on the other hand, Arya civilization has penetrated and prevailecl, as among the I(olas of Guzerat and others, the language of the Arya h:r,s also
come

into use '" Applying this test to Ceylon ancl its language, perceive the result to he in direct opposition to the opinion of I Mr. Lassen to rvhich I first attracted attention' For, to suppose that Cevlon retainerl its aboriginal larrguage even aft'er the Vijayan conquest is to aflirm that the sinhalese received not even a : sprinkhng ' of tlie Arya civilization; which is not the case, the that far lrom it,s being ' a melre sprinkling ' Ceylon ta.t t "i.tg, has enjoyecl frorn the very settlement o{
fa,qtnesses of

Vijaya a greatei: share of civiiization thari anv other Country in the Dekka'n, or in tho
th'r VjndhYa. Nor is sir }lrtrerson Ter,nent of a different opinion, for he clistinctiy says 'To the great dyn:r,st;' (of \rijaya) and more eryre-rhe inhabitants of ceylon n'ere cially to its earliest members lncleitecl for the first rudiments of civilization, for the alts ot agricultural life, for an organizecl Governmerrl , NIId fo]r a system of national r'r'orship '. (Vol. T, p. 360 ). This being est,ablisherl, the converse of the proposition laid <lorr;n by Professor Lassen holds good, r'iz.*-that 'with the civilization of the Arya inva,ders the aborigincs adoptecl their dialect '. History also shows that the nelv colonists retained a distirict and separate character: and ihat although intermarriages might ha,ve t,nkcn place betlveen the Yakhhas and the new settiers ;* .-*rhe only;ntJn Vijaya ; und tlt" facts there st'ated clearly show t'hat he was rzof 'married ' to liuueni' as suppose<l by Mr' Caldweli, p' 81, but t'hat having been captivated by her charns Vijaya had hor {'or his mi's|ress, and thai

yet that the former renrained, for: a time, a tlistinct tribe : and that they r'vhollr,' disappeared after 275 a.D., at u'hich period thev are for the last time spoken of in History as a servile class engt-r,ged in opening Tanks, etc. But r.l'hatever inferences rnay be drau.n fronr the mention of the Yakkhas in the earjv part, of our history ; it is quite clear ' from a,ll existing evidence ', ' that the period at rvhich a vernacdlar <lialect was commorl to the Yakkhas and \rijayan Colonists must have been extremely rcmote'* antl that the former soon tlisappearecl either: by amalgamation rvith or rlisintegration from 'the conqueror"s. The last supposition is hor.vever the more reasonable : since we find until very recent times a distinct tribe of people in Ceylon, called the Veikl,us or lle.tlrJzs, ansrvering to the uncouth ' Yakkhas ' or ' Monkevs ' of an.crient rvrr'ters. The language of our first monarch Vijava rvas probably the Prili or the Prdkrit" I{e came to Ceylon shortl;r after Gotama, u'ho spoke the Pd.li or the M)"gadhi. He r.vas clescenclecl through the female branch of the Royal fainily of l{a,lingu,, ancl his birth pl:uce u'as I/(ilo, a subdivision of Magadha. ' And the position', says llr. James Prinsep (Bengal A.S. Journal, vol. ii, p. 280) ' assumed by Mr. Lassen that' the Pdli of Ceylon rvad immecliately derived from the shores ol l{a.I'ingyt, independently of lits being
mal,ter of history, is supported by the eviclence of the recortLs norv discorrered in that country' : and although Frofessor Lassen

regards this as a qucstion involvecl in obscurity, ;ret, the very name girren to the Island by Yijaya, and which v-e find rvas shortlv afterrvards used bv the Indian Monarch ,lsol:a, in his rock inscriptions, would lead to the inference that the P61i was the Ianguage of the conquerors. We are not told what was the
when he had founcl he could not according to tho usages of tho east be crou;nerlwithout a queen consort, whom a Yakkinni or 'non-human being' would ill ropresent, although the mothor of two children, ho discarded them aII for the daughter of King Pandiya of tho nearest civilized. state. *Sir J. E. Tennent's Ceylon, p. 328, with whom I entirely concur in the matter, having long abandoned a cont'rary opinionwhich I oxpressed in my ".5 idatsangard, p. xxiv

I5,t

AN lrssAY oN THIi ollIGiN ol- 1'1{It

SINHALNJSE LANG TIAGE

155

language of tht lettors rvhich accompanie':l the embasslr sent by Vijal'a, tl King Pancluua for: a R,oyal Princeris : but it is probable th at tlrc letttrr of invitation, to his brother (see l'I ahawnnsa, p' 53), Statr,iltr.t. rvas in lhe Fdti or the PrAlrrit, a language of the North, rvhich, ri,e leat'n from hist,ory. \rras grc:rtly cultir-ated throughout thc greatcst part of Centra'l Inclia, r'r'hich rvas at this time subject

being melted 'n'ith the preexisting language, i.e. by a process of shortening the rvords of that language, anrl moclifyiug it so as to
suit it to the tongue of men, u'hose organs of speech r.ere incapable of enunciating s,everal of its elements, such as the aspirates ancl combinecl collsonilnts. I shall hereafter aclduce 'unequivoca,l proof ' of the fact, that the Si,nlr,ctla, as it is knou.n even at the present clav, exhibits the treatest affinitv to the Pdli ancl the most, distant connection rvith the Draviclian-- a fact which is farther borne crut by the facility with v'hich Bucldhagosa of Patali,Ttutta, translatecl the Sinhalese Attha,ka,tha into the P6li. It is also a fact to which I malr b1isflt allude here, that the only Sinhalese

to XIa,gadht. It is a'lso ascertained from our historical Annals that our Kirrgs hacl frequent intercourse $,ith Arian and lJraviclian Princes, ancl in sonre places the l{istorian descri}res the
corresporrclence as having been carried on in ' the Pd'li |anguage''

'There is anclthcr circumstance r'vhich lnal' be here noticed' The birthplace of the first, settlers of ce.vlon was .['Q,lu,. It is iclentical \vith tdla and Ldd,u', and. Dancli. tire :r,uthor of Kduyad'arsa, savs that erren in comp:i,ratively a rilodern age, thaf' of.the Dranlas, the language of I'dtu, as r.'r-ell as of Brtnga (rvhich latter is only a

clifferent pronunciation of Yanga, :r,nd nrerelv another name for

Caur|,a) is usually fiht: .Prd'l;rit. [Tis authority goes further, for (]uwhe places the language of Ltt'ln' in ths 5a,me cla'ss as tbat of tlne et ceterrt, rla, Sura,setza, et,c. ancl his Comrnentator explains to nrearr tlle )'tagad'hr (or P6ii) and' Pancltr:r'la (the Zend)' Hence all circumstances corrsidered it is verv clear that' the Prili rvas the langnage of the band from Lrt'k:t, lvho colonized Oeylon, or rather a nrodificatioir of it lr,hich bole the nearest relation to such larrguages as tlie Suraseni, and lTte Zend at all events a so-called Pro,lcri,ta clialect ; therefore a l anguage of the Arian and not of the

Gramrnar nov. extant in this Island, follorvs Sanskrit and P6U, and not Dravidian u,riters. It is certainlv true, as stated in the r9iclalsan,qard,* that there are threer elements in the Sinhalese, one in connection with the Sanskrit-another wjth the Pali- ancl the third u'ith the iocal ; but it must be remembered t,hat the pure Sinhalese so formed upon t,Iie establishment of the \/iiayan clynasty appears to have been rlrarvnt cliieflyfrom the Sanshrit in the l5t,h centurv nfter Chrjst, and from th,: l{alabar and Telingu after the clorninntion o{ the Dekkan princes, of rvhom the last, tleposed Sinhalesc King, SriWekrama RAja Sinha, spoke the Telingu'well, and the Sinhalese

but indilTerently.
was perhaps this iatter phenomenon in th"e Sinhalese that, lerl the Rev. Dr. Stevenson to consicler the Si,nltale,sealso n,s a branch of the Southern farniJ.y.{ His orvn obselvations, horvever, rrriiitate against this opinion, for he says : ' The HinrJi, which contains the most (i.e. Rrahminical lr.-orcls) is estin:rated by Mr. Colebrook to ha,ve m,ne-tenths of its vocables of Sanskrit origin,
*See lntrorlucti' n. f. .i,rlathe conparat-ir.e specimen cf the ancient and r.otlern Sinhalesir in trIrc Sid,atsan(Jct0., p. xxxvi, r.her ein, if one thing is clearer than another it is that neally every s-orrl in the first is directly traceable to the Pali, an<l in the second to the Sanscrit. JSee lJombay Asiatic.[ourna] fbr 1842, p. 195; he also places thc Muld,.i.ozaz under tht: liead of the southern family ; but I may here rernark tlitr,t it is clearly tlaceable to tbe Sinhalese.
-l-See

It

South Inclian class.


The last inferenco receives confirlllator'.y proof froru anothel historical {act, viz., that on the arrivai of llahindu in the Island he

the people, but rvithout ' loss of time to preach to t,hem in ' the Sinhalesc ' language, or thd language of the land'. This sho$.s the intimate relationship which originallv existed betlveen the Sinhala and the dialect of Pataliputta ; arrd aithough in course of several centuries as statetl in the sr_,abas alanka,ra,,the sinhalese has undergone a Yast change, yet it mav lle readily believecl tha,t this change consisterl in t'he
v.as not only able to converse reaclilv

I'ith

dialect of the conquerors (rvhich rt'as probably the Pr6krit)

156

at

ItssAY oN it'Hft oRrclrN

ol rlru

srNrrAr'rlsE LANGTIAGT

:rnd the l[ctra,tht u-hich contains the fe$'cst ha,s at least fou,r-f,fths. of its 'wortls rlerivccl from the sarne sourcc' In the Southern' :rnd enter less f amily agairr Sanskrit l'ords i.lre of rare occulrl:ence' ex.ept irt lhe Si,nhalesp' into ilre Loi-,rmon la.guage of tire people,
nea,rly as s:r,nskrit arrrl the language of the Ruclclhist l iterature has rts the Hi'ndi' i't'scl'f ' nt,u,n11 ttxt'rtils originallll tltti'retl frorrt, the Sa'n'sl;ri't estabBefore hol'ever I proceed to aclcluce t'he promised proof to rvhich T purlish the non-Drar.'idian origin of thc Sinhalese, :lncl upon pose to lay befoi:c this Societ-v at' :-'i future opporluuity

x.hich frorn the influence of the Pdli chieflv rlerived front the

seYeral <listinct heacls,

mv ir;trocluctorv rema"rks by quoting the expressed opinion of tu'o of the most eminent v-hic6' tingulsts oith" ,trrti viz', Cali5vcll a'rl l{ax Nl*ller'' nan)es to those rvho ,l*'uoo krtn..', -lr.t bc cleemecl to impii'lt coniirlence tliey have hai-e the holo'r to labour in the beaten path in rvJrich I)ra,vitlitrn (irammar 1,i:avellcr1. The aul"hor: of the invnluahle
ma--v conclucle

'

savs.

Rudrlliists and Colonjsts {rom J"lc'.r't'rl'hu' or Bt"hur--ancl tlie languagc of thc Tamilians, nor is there :l'nlr rcason for supposing rirainland to th:r,t the natural course of migration (rriz', from tile a clegree as to just'ify the the Islancl) lvas ever inr-erted to such India supposition that, tlie u'hole mass of the J)rnviclians eriterecl from Cel.lon', p. 73. Ancl a'ltliough there is a slight rlifference o{ opinion betrveen which I'rofessor Max Muller and mvself as to the relationship yet it will be exists betu,eetr the saDskri"i and bhe singlralese; the main obsen'ed that that clifference is one rvhich cloes not affect now lives onlv in question in hancl. He savs:-'The Sanskrit iis offspring, the numerous spoken clialects of India-Hindustani' in the Uutr*rutti, gengAli, Guzerdi6, Sinha'Iese, etc' all preserving traces of t'heir common systern of theii: gtammarJ the living parent '. Sttruey of La,ngu'ages, p' 3f .

, .llrere js no relation, ho\l.erret. betu'een t,he sinhtllese l:r,ngurvho were &ge- the langu:r,ge of the Sinh:-r'lese proper'lv so-callecl'

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