2G6 



Terms of address in use 



^<Q<5 2^3325)<5g^&5q) f* may your life be preserved " ; and it 

 is not unusual amongst us to bid one — Subagaman, which 

 literally means " Fare-well." The usual mode of taking 

 leave amongst the Singhalese, is by asking Aivasara, "Leave" — 

 although amongst equals we frequently say, ©9 ©\(&v&&3 

 6;^se, " I shall go and return" quite different from the Tamil 

 Varum, simply, "I will come," 



With the above my observations on the forms of saluta- 

 tion and modes of address amongst the Singhalese, termi- 

 nate ; but, before I conclude, I cannot forbear making a few 

 remarks on what Mr. Stark considers the connection between 

 ^3(3 "the royal colour," and "the title of the great." 



" Nila was thus perhaps what may be called the royal or government 

 colour, and words of that formation may be so derived. There was a 

 ^(5<^D (nilame) or Nilleme at the head of several of the departments. 

 It was the title usually given to any high official, and it is still the title 

 of the great officer of government in the temples. 



" The term in question may, I conceive, be so rendered accordingly. 

 Thus when the valiant Gaja-bahu Raja, whose city (unlike the banquet 

 house of a great king as his ministers ignorantly represented) had been 

 entered by an enemy, and many captives taken, at length resolved on 

 an expedition for their recovery, he went out from the council with 

 <^C§9ic3^c30 (neela yodaya) the great officer of war. These words, 

 however, have been rendered ' Neela the giant,' and ' the great giant 

 Neela,' as if were a proper name, and not like ^@c3 nileya, 



(nilaya) and <&(3?5)Q (nilatala) an office, place or situation," — p. 79. 



There is no more connection between Nila as a e colour,' 

 and Nila as an c office,' — than there is between nill as 

 the verb, " to be unwilling," and nill as the noun which 

 signifies " the shining spark of brass in trying and melting 

 the ore." Nor is the appellation of Gajabahus giant, who 

 accompanied him on his expedition to the Solian country, 

 derived from Nila (blue colour,) any more than is the Nila 

 Purana of the serpent God,* or the great Nila, that lofty 



* See Asiatic Researches, Vol, xv. 



