146 



AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE 



Yet, it may be truly said that no one applied his energies to glean 

 the information, which our historical works afforded to investiga- 

 tions connected with the language of the Sinhalese. Dr. Stevenson 

 of Bombay has written several papers in the pages of the Bombay 

 Asiatic Society's Journal ; but they are by no means calculated to 

 assist Philological investigations.* Even the Rev. Spence Hardy, 

 with a very intimate acquaintance with the Sinhalese, could not 

 trace the origin of that language.")" Indeed in times later still (1853) 

 when the Sidatsangara appeared, I confess, I was not able, with 

 all the assistance of European and Asiatic researches then at my 

 command, definitely to state the origin of the Sinhalese.^ 



It was upon the publication of that Sinhalese Grammar, how- 

 ever, that people, in later times, began to pay greater attention to 

 a critical study of the Sinhala. Since then has appeared an invalu- 

 able auxiliary to the investigation in hand — 'The comparative 

 Grammar of the Dravidian language by the Revd. R. Caldwell 

 (1856). " Since then too has arisen a greater thirst for a knowledge 

 of the archaeology of Buddhism ; and, what is inseparably connec- 

 ted with it, the Pali language. These helps combined with the 

 light which History has shed upon the subject, and the knowledge 

 already possessed by them of the Sanskrit, have enabled the native 

 pandits in our own island to investigate with success the origin of 

 the Sinhala language : and those investigations establish, as I pur- 

 pose to show in a paper which I shall hereafter present to this 

 Society in continuation of these introductory remarks, a result, 

 the very opposite of that which Sir Emerson Tennent states as being 

 founded upon "unequivocal testimony," or which Prof : Spiegel 

 considers, is supported by certissimis testimoniis.\ 



Professor Lassen in his Indische allisthumus hunde, a work 

 designed to be a critical digest of ail the researches of the last 



* 'In many instances Dr. Stevenson's lexical analogies are illusory and dis- 

 appear altogether on a little investigation.' Caldwell's D. G. p. 4.0. 

 f Ceylon A. S. Journal. 

 % See Introduction, p. xxiv. 

 § Kammavacha Introd: p. vii. 



