SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



149 



The only tribes, however, that have not intermingled with the 

 Sinhalese, and whose savage condition in modern times may be 

 identified with the ancient barbarity of the yakkhas, are the Veddas; 

 and these, be it remembered, are as distinct from the Sinhalese as 

 are the Tamils of the North. There is also a distinctive class 

 called the Rodiyas, and it is remarkable that their ranks were re- 

 plenished from time to time with Sinhalese convicts of all castes 

 from the Royal to the plebeian. Mr. Casie Chetty, the author of 

 the Ceylon Gazetteer in giving a number of words in current use 

 amongst the Rodiyas expresses a conjecture 'that they were either 

 a colony of some of the wandering hordes from India, or a fragment 

 of the aborigines of Ceylon itself partially blended with the Sin- 

 halese.'* This is very probable ; and although we have not sufficient 

 materials for comparison, yet the few words which have been col- 

 lected of this dialect, containing the names for the common wants 

 of mankind are, with six exceptions, different from 'the Sinhalese 

 as it is spoken at the present day, and still more strikingly as it 

 exists as a written language in the literature of the island.'^ 



The mention of Nagas or Nagaworshippers, with whom the yak- 

 khas had shared the kingdom of Lanka, does not lead to any certain 

 results. For the Naga worship had been diffused from a very 

 early age throughout the whole of India J as well as in the north- 

 west frontiers of the Arya-desha, as for instance, Cashmir.§ 



The woship of the Nagas, moreover, was confined to that portion 

 of this island, once called the Naga dipa, 'the northern and north- 

 western parts of Ceylon, where Tamilians commenced to form 



* C. B.. A. S. J. Vol. vi. p. 171. 



f From amongst 128 words given by Mr. Casie Chetty, of the Rodiya dialect 

 we can only identify 6 Sinhalese words e. g. bintalawa ' earth, ' altho' strictly 

 speaking it is a 'plane;' kalluwella for kaluwara 'darkness;' boralowa for 

 boralu 1 gravel; ' bilinda ' boy ;' murutan for mulutan that which is cooked; 

 pikanawa for penenawa ' perceive ' C. B., A. S. J, 1850—3. p. 177 et seq. 



I Asiatic Researches xx p. 95, 



§ See Iiajatarangani. 



