38 



ON THE ORIGIN OF 



the latter as having a Scythian basis with a large and almost over- 

 whelming Sanskrit addition, than as having a Sanskrit basis with 

 a small admixture of a Scythian element. The reverse however of 

 this proposition seems to be correct. For, though Grammar is the 

 best test that may be applied in philological investigations, yet the 

 existence of a stray Dravidian Grammatical form here and there can, 

 no more than a few Dravidian words, be regarded as decisive of 

 the question. ' In general, it appears,' says Bopp,* 4 that in warm 

 regions languages, when they have once burst the old grammatical 

 chain, hasten to their downfall with a far more rapid step than 

 tinder our milder European sun.' Now, in Ceylon, it is the influ- 

 ence not only of climate, but of circumstances, that has led to a de- 

 parture from the original grammatical forms and the adoption of 

 others savouring of idioms, peculiar expressions, etc. These 

 analogies will fiud a solution in the centinuous intercourse which 

 we have had with the Dravidians for 24 centuries, — daily speaking 

 their language, and wishing not only to understand them, but to be 

 understood by them. In this state of things it is but natural to 

 find that we, like 'the Bengali and other new Indian idioms, 

 have really laid aside our old grammatical habiliments, and have 

 partly put on new.'* But I can promise at the outset, that the 

 changes which our grammatical forms have undergone, are far 

 fewer in number than have been experienced by the Northern 

 vernaculars. 



Supposing, however, for the sake of argument, that they are 

 identically the same in the North-Indian vernaculars and the Sin- 

 halese, it is well worthy of consideration, whether the coincedences 

 might not have originated from other than Dravidian influences. 

 Mr. Caldwell, even without the evidence which I have already 

 adduced, and have yet to adduce, has arrived at this conclusion. 

 What he says, in the following extract, of those idioms, applies 

 equally to the Sinhalese: — "Whatever relationship, in point 



* Bopp's Comp. Grammar, vol. ii. p. 711. 



