328 THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. [Part ill. 



nations were not Hindu ; and in numerous localities *, 

 in the forests and mountains of the peninsula, there are 

 still to be found the remnants of tribes who undoubtedly 

 represent the aboriginal race. 



The early inhabitants of India before their compa- 

 rative civilisation under the influence of the Aryan 

 invaders, hke the aborigines of Ceylon before the arrival 

 of their Bengal conquerors, are described as moun- 

 taineers and foresters who were " rakshas " or demon 

 worshippers ; a rehgion, the traces of Avhich are to be 

 found to the present day amongst the hill tribes in the 

 Concan and Canara, as well as in Guzerat and Cutch, 

 In addition to other evidences of the community of 

 origin of these continental tribes and the first in- 

 habitants of Ceylon, there is a manifest identity, 

 not alone in their popular superstitions at a very 

 early period, but in the structure of the national 

 dialects, which are still prevalent both in Ceylon and 

 Southern India, Singhalese, as it is spoken at the 

 present day, and, still more strikingly, as it exists as 

 a written language in the literatm^e of the island, 

 presents unequivocal proofs of an affinity with the 

 group of languages still in use in the Dekkan ; Tamil, 

 Telingu, and Malayahm. But with these its iden- 

 tification is dependent on analogy rather than on 

 structure, and all existing evidence goes to show that 

 the period at which a vernacular chalect could have been 

 common to the two countries must have been extremely 

 remote.^ 



et ensuite Chingalais." — Eir^EYEO, 

 Hist, de Ceylan, pref. dii trad. 



It is only necessaiy to observe in 

 reference to this hypothesis that it 

 is at variance vrith the structure of 

 the Singhalese alphabet, in which n 

 and g form but one letter. De 

 Bakeos and De Cotjto likewise 

 adhere to the theory of a mixed race, 



queut to the seizure of the Singha- 

 lese king and his deportation to 

 China in the fifteenth century. De 

 Baekos, Dec, iii. ch. i. ; De Cotjto, 

 Dec. V. ch. 5. 



1 L.\ ss'e:^, IndischeAltei-thnmskunde, 

 vol. i. p. 199, 362. 



^ The 3Iahmvanso (ch. xiv.) attests 

 that at the period of A^^ijayo's con- 



originating in the settlement of Chi- I quest of Ceylon, B.C. 543, the lan- 

 nese in the south of Ceylon, but thej^ guage of the natives was different 

 refer the event to a j)eriod subse- ' from that spoken by himself and his 



