150 



AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF THE 



settlements prior even to the Christian era, and from whence they 

 have gradually thrust out the Sinhalese.'* 



These are, however, points of inquiry which may be dispensed 

 with, in view of the fact, that, after the arrival of Vijaya both the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of Lanka and their language had been so 

 merged in the Arya invaders and their dialect, the Sinhalese, that 

 little or nothing physically, historically, or philologically can now 

 be traced to a Dravidian origin ;f whilst all such considerations lead 

 to the inevitable result of the Sinhalese language being an off-shoot 

 of the speech of the Aryas, or the Pali, or a Prakrit dialect. 



4 It is vain' says Mr. Caldwell, and he says it truly, — 'to expect 

 from considerations of colour and complexion any real help towards 

 determining the race to which the Dravidian belongs', p. 512. For, 

 to state a fact mentioned by himself, and known to us in Ceylon. 

 " the descendants of the Portuguese who settled in India several 

 centuries ago, are now blacker than the Hindus themselves," p. 

 513. Eegarding, therefore, "colour as a most deceptive evidence 

 of relationship and race," [p. 515.] we may next direct attention 

 to it in connection with a less fallible testimony, viz., " the shape 

 of the head and the more permanent peculiarities of feature;" (ib). 

 and here I need not labour to prove that the Sinhalese present 

 a wide difference from all the races of the Dekkan. For instance, 

 the features of the Tamils of the Southern Peninsula are peculiar,, 

 and though the complexion of the Sinhalese presents different 

 shapes, the 'copper colour' is that which prevails over the rest:, 

 and this again it would seem is the colour of the Arya race, so 

 much honored by Manu (cap. iv. § 130) when he declared it an 



* Caldwell's Drav. Grammar, p. 4. 



f Caldwell says " It is undeniable that emigrations from Ceylon to the 

 southern districts of India have occasionally taken place. The Teers (pro- 

 perly Tivar islanders) and the Ilavars, 'Sinhalese/ (from 'Ham', Ceylon, a 

 word which has been from the Sanscrit 'Simhalam' or rather from the Pali 

 6 Sihalam' by the omission of the initial 's') both of them Travancore castes, 

 are certainly immigrants from Ceylon" — Caldwell's Com. Gr, p. 72. 



