148 



AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE 



In view of the particular affinity which the Pali and the Prakrit 

 dialects bear to the Sinhalese, and the historical conjectures as to 

 the formation of the, latter, it may also be affirmed that the Sin- 

 halese is not a direct off-shoot of the Sanskrit. Yet, all this may 

 be assented to without in the least affecting the proposition, that 

 the Sinhalese belongs to the Northern division of languages, and 

 cannot be classed amongst 'the languages of the Dekkan/ which, 

 in accordance with the language of Mr. Caldwell, I shall in future 

 designate the 'Dravidian.' 



It may be here convenient to consider the historical before 

 entering upon the philological questions, that relate to the sub- 

 ject. I believe it is a universally admitted fact, that before the 

 Aryas or Sanskrit speaking people of Hindustan first emerged from 

 obscurity, and settled themselves in upper India, the whole of the 

 Peninsula from Cape Comorin to Himalaya, and also the Lanka 

 of the Ramayana, had been peopled in every direction by an en- 

 tirely distinct race of people in different stages of civilization, 

 whom they designated Daitya, Danava, (Yakkhas or) Rakshas, 

 and Mlichhas*. These were the Yakkhas or barbarians whom 

 Vijaya found on his arrival in Lanka, and of whom the early Sans- 

 krit and Bhuddhist writers speak with much aversion. This taken 

 in connection with the fact that Demonolatry, or the worship of 

 devils in Ceylon, is identical with 'the system which prevails in 

 the forests and mountain fastnesses throughout the Dravidian ter- 

 ritories and also in the extreme South of the Peninsula,'f leads to 

 the inference, that the early settlers of Ceylon were a portion of 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of India before its occupation by the 

 Arya race. But it is also a fact, as I shall show hereafter, that 

 they have neither retained their national character nor their na- 

 tional language. 



* Dr. Stevenson's Kalpa Sutra. — p. 133. 



| Caldwell in his Dravidian Grammar says, 'This system was introduced 

 within the historical period from the Tamil Country into Ceylon, where it i» 

 now mixed up with Buddhism.— p. 519. 



