8 ON THE ORIGIN OP 



been previously carried on, commencing from a period so far back 

 as the age of the memorable Dutugemini.* It is perfectly reason- 

 able, therefore, to expect in the Sinhalese an admixture of Dravidian 

 words, such as vela (veil) 'field,' kappal 4 ship/ gala (kallu) 4 stone/ 

 neli (nali) 4 a measure/ adangu 4 to contain/ adukku 4 to pile one 

 over the other/ paru to become 4 over-ripe/ etc. But, as very justly 

 observed by the author of the Sidatsangara, this element of local 

 origin and of casual accession (nipan), is but one of three elements, 

 the other two being —the pure, and the adulterated Sanskrit or Pali.f 

 Many words of the first class, though Corresponding with the 

 Dravidian, are yet allied to the Sanskrit, as the following; and it is 

 therefore impossible, in many instances, to determine whether they 

 have been borrowed directly from the Tamil, or from the Sanskrit 

 which has also, it is supposed by some, borrowed^ from the Dra- 

 vidian: e. g. The Sinhalese word amma 4 mother/ which is the 

 same in Tamil, is found in the Sanskrit as well as in some of the 

 Indo-European tongues; katu 4 pungent/ corresponds with the 

 Telagu 'katu,' and the Pali and Sanskrit katu; the Tamil kalei 

 4 arts/ which is kald in the Sinhalese, Pali and Sanskrit, is supposed 

 to be derived from the Tamil kal 4 to learn; ' kuti 4 house ' or 4 hut ' 

 in the Sinhalese has much resemblance to the Tamil kudi or the 

 Canarese gudi, and kuti in the Pali and the Sanskrit; kotuva (kola 

 Sanskrit) 4 fort ' resembles the Tamil kotei; etc. etc. 



* * It is undeniable that immigrations from Ceylon to the southern districts 

 of India have occasionally taken place. The Teers (properly Tivar, 'islanders') 

 and the Ilavars 'Singhalese/ (from Ham 'Ceylon; a word which has been cor- 

 rupted from the Sanskrit Sinhalam, or rather from the Pali Sihalam, by the 

 omission of the initial s), both of them Travancore Castes, are certainly 

 immigrants from Ceylon; but these and similar immigrants are not to be 

 considered as Singhalese, in the proper sense of the term, but as offshoots from 

 the Tamilian population of the northern part of the island. They were the 

 partial reflux of the tide which peopled the northern and western parts of 

 Ceylon with Tamilians.' Caldwell's Comp. Grammar, p. 72. 



■f See Sidatsangara, p. 4. 



J Caldwell's Comp. Grammar, p. 440, et seq. 



