18 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



in both is the same; for the Dravidians, who had made great 

 strides in civilization* at the period of our colonization of this 

 island, were doubtless acquainted with the Astronomical causes 

 which led to the names of ' days/ The principle upon which the 

 assignment of the days to their respective guardians was made, is 

 indeed well known. The Sinhalese assign the days to the same 

 planets as the Hindus and the Tamils, and if there be any 

 difference in the names adopted, the reader will find that whilst 

 one nation uses one word> for instance ravi, another uses a synonym 

 for the same, as iru, and another, nair. The only peculiarity which 

 exists in the formation of the Sinhalese and the Tamil names is, that 

 whilst the former, like the Indo-European, adopt day after th6 

 particular name of a deity, the latter me another expression, kilo- 

 mci, ' that which belongs to' The deities or planets named are 

 Bun, Moon, Mars (red- deity), Mercury, Jupiter,, Venus, and Saturn, t 



Months, 







Pali. 



Sinhala. 



Tamil'. 



Mar. 



13 



chitta 



bak 



chittare 



April 



12 



vesakha 



vesak; 



vaikasi 



May 



13 



je^ha 



poson 



ani 



June 



14 



asalha 



sesala 



adi 



July 



15 



t nikkhamaniya 



nikini 







avanni 





\savana 







Aug. 



16 



r bhadraj 

 \ phoMhapada 



binara 



pere^asi 



Sept. 



16 



assayuja 



vap 



atpasi 



Oct. 



16 



kattika 



il 



kartige 



Nov, 



15 



magasira 



undu-vap « 



markali 



* See Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, p. 54 et seg. 



f There is another peculiarity which distinguishes the mode in which the 

 Tamils calculate the day from that in which the Sinhalese compute it; for the 

 former reckon from mid-day to mid-day, and the latter from sun-rise to sun- 

 rise, which is also the mode of computation in the Pali books. 



t I have here, as elsewhere, introduced the Sanskrit form to show its 

 relation to the Sinhalese. 



