CEYLON BRANCH— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 99 



ON THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF 

 THE SINGHALESE, 



BY THE REV. R. S. HARDY. 

 {Read November 6th 1846.) 



On looking at the geographical position of Ceylon we 

 naturally conclude that it was first peopled from the south- 

 ern part of the continent of India, the distance between 

 this Island and the mainland being so short that it is now 

 not unfrequently passed upon kattamarans, the most primi- 

 tive of all modes of water conveyance save that of the sim- 

 ple log. But between the language here spoken, and that 

 of the continental nations whose position is the nearest to 

 Ceylon, there is an essential difference. The languages of 

 India have been divided into two great classes ; the first, or 

 northern family, includes, among others, the Hindustani, 

 Bengali, Gujarathi, and Marathi ; the second, or the sou- 

 thern family, includes the Telugu, Tamul, Karnataka and 

 Malayalim. The dialects of the first class are derived from 

 the Sanscrit; but those of the second class, though also 

 including numerous terms from the Sanskrit, must have had 

 their primitive derivation from some other source. The 

 dialect now spoken upon that part of the continent which 

 is the nearest to Ceylon is the Tamul. But the Singhalese, 

 the vernacular language of the island, is decidedly allied to 

 the northern family, as it is supposed to have nine-tenths 

 of its vocables from the Sanskrit. This predominance of 

 Sanskrit roots has been accounted for upon the supposition 

 that it is owing to the influence of Pali, which is the sacred 

 language of the Budhists, and a derivative from the San- 

 skrit. But this position is not tenable, as from the little 

 knowledge I possess of a few Sanskrit and Pali words, it 

 appears to me to be more nearly allied in its structure to 

 the Sanskrit than the Pali, and there can be little doubt 

 that it was a language long previous to the introduction of 

 Budhism into Ceylon. 



The earliest legends contained in the native chronicles 

 relate to the three visits of Gotama Budha to Ceylon, and 

 the arrival of the Prince Wijaya, with five hundred fol- 

 lowers, who are said to have taken possession of the Island. 

 As their birth-place was in a province of India where a dia- 

 lect of the northern family of languages was spoken, we 

 might thereby account for the anomaly, that the Singhalese, 

 although spoken in the most southern of the Indian regions, is 

 derived from the Sanskrit, if we could receive the assertion 



