NOTES ON ANCIENT SIMHALESE INSCRIPTIONS. 15 



33 ; the form for 3 usually found in this period is tim = trini, 

 modem tuna, tun. 



2) Bdya " brother." This is a genuine instance of a 

 long vowel in ancient Simhalese ; but this only arose from 

 contraction, the older form being batiya. The word was 

 contracted into bee. 



3) Mi. This particle is simply corroborative, " the king 

 himself" or something to that effect. Perhaps the oldest 

 form was nimi, if we are to read this in the Kirinde inscrip- 

 tions (see later on) ; then we have ma, mae and again ma. 



4) Apa, crude form " our." 



5) Ciidi. I have translated "uncle" but hesitatingly; 

 it seems best to derive this word from kshudra, whence it 

 may mean " little father" (at present kudappa), comp. 

 Bang alt khuda " uncle." 



6) Purumuka, see I 1 . 



7) Tari for teri u a thero." 



S) Pali must mean "reverend" or something to that 

 effect. It is possibly derived from pada " foot," as thera- 

 pado in Pali, from the custom of prostration before a 

 respected person has come to mean " venerable thero" (see 

 Childer's Diet, and comp. note to III. 51. But it is more 

 likely to be either palita " grey" for " aged" or pandita 

 " learned."* 



* It strikes me that these two words must be or"ginallyi dentical and 

 both connected with pandu, white, &c. I am aware that the corres- 

 ponding words in the other Indo-Germanic languages, as Latin palleo, 

 etc., seem to claim an independent origin for palita. But pandu, as it 

 stands, cannot be the original form. To account for the cerebral, we have 

 to go back to a form *paru, this would become nasalized *pamru, pamru, 

 and naturally be changed into *pamdru, pandu. There is indeed a 

 word panda " science," but this looks very much as if invented for the 

 explanation of pandita. Again the Pali form phalita points to an ori- 

 ginal r, as otherwise the aspirate could not be accounted for. 



