370 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. IX. 



as belonging to the social order of the Buddhists. Thousands 

 of years had not sufficed to reduce the Kodiyas to that 

 degree of degradation to which the Veddas had fallen 

 when Knox heard of them, and which is most strongly ex- 

 pressed in the words of Davy,* who says of the forest Veddas 

 that they are " rather solitary animals than social, and resem- 

 bling more beasts of prey in their habits than men." We 

 shall yet see what objections there are to our regarding the 

 Veddas simply as "wild Sinhalese," and how it has happened 

 that a great number of direct observers have thought to find 

 their origin on the coast of Malabar. This point will be 

 more appropriately treated of later, and after we have con- 

 sidered the physical peculiarities of the different tribes 

 under discussion. It here seems in place first to bring 

 forward the historical and linguistic observations which 

 concern the relations of the cultivated tribes of the Island. 



The natural territory for immigrants is, as aforesaid, the 

 north-west part of the Island, which lies nearest to the pen- 

 insula of Hindustan. Here a Tamil population is established, 

 whose connection with the Dravidian of India seems 

 unquestionable. In the history of Ceylon we find very early 

 mention of inroads by the Dravidian hordes. In the Maha- 

 wanso these people are called " Damilos." Since according to 

 the testimony of the trustworthy Childers,f the word Damila 

 is in the Pali identical with Dravida in the Sanskrit, we may 

 without hesitation apply to the Dravidians whatever is said 

 of the Damilos in the Mahdwanso. The English local writers 

 generally call them Tamils or Malabars. Sir E. Tennent,J 

 however, repeatedly warns us against understanding this 

 to mean only the inhabitants of the actual Malabar coast. 

 On the contrary, they belonged to one of the earliest organised 

 states in the south of India, to the kingdom of Pandiya, 



* Davy, I. c, p. 116. 



f R. C Childers' Notes on the Sinhalese Language. Journal of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society. London, 1875, vol. VIII.. p. 133, note. 

 % Tennent, /« c, L, pp. 353-91. 



