THE SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



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lexically and grammatically, to the Pali, and therefore to the 

 Sanskrit, has been found to be so { palpable and striking* that 

 their relationship appeared at once to be even greater than that 

 between the Sanskrit and the Indo-European dialects. I am fully 

 persuaded that no one, who has followed me closely through the 

 investigations which are here submitted, could fail to notice 

 that the prominent features of the Pali are indelibly impressed 

 upon the very face of the Sinhalese, and so clearly, that it is 

 impossible to deny to them the affinity of mother and daughter. 

 But whether their relationship is so close or more distant, the 

 points of resemblance which I have exhibited between some of 

 the North-Indian vernaculars (so entirely different from the 

 Dravidian), and the Sinhalese, especially in the case of Pronouns, 

 see p. 63 ; and the still closer resemblance which the Sinhalese 

 bears to the Pali, when compared with the North-Indian dialects, 

 must satisfy any candid mind that the Sinhalese had at one time 

 a local existence in the North of Hindustan, and that her early 

 separation from her Sisters, combined with the help which 

 Pali literature has rendered her, on the one side, and on the other, 

 the implacable hatred of our forefathers towards their Dravidian 

 neigbours which induced her to repel their advances, has enabled 

 her to live upwards of two thousand years without those material 

 changes which her Hindu Sisters have undergone. Indeed, 

 I may remark in conclusion, with far less weighty evidence, than 

 I have adduced, did Professor Max Mullerf lay down his brief, 

 and leave his case in the hands of an English Jury, confident of 

 their verdict as to the relationship of the Hindu, Greek, and the 

 Teutonic. With, however, the venerable authorities which I have 

 cited, the overwhelming results of the cross-examination to which 

 I have subjected the witnesses on the opposite side, and the 



• Professor M. Williams's Sanskrit Grammar, p 348. 

 t Ancient Sanskrit Literature, \\ 11. 



