380 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. IX. 



The southerly half of the Island, the old province of 

 Euhuna, and the central Maya-land, are still peopled by the 

 Sinhalese,* the former by comparatively pure-blooded Sin- 

 halese, the latter by the somewhat more mixed Kandyans, 

 who have been repeatedly mentioned as the immediate 

 neighbours of the Yeddas. 



The ethnological position of the Sinhalese has been until 

 now discussed chiefly on linguistic grounds. 



Since Easkf their language has been considered as Dravi- 

 dian ; LassenJ has sustained this opinion with the whole 

 weight of his authority ; he regarded the Sinhalese people, 

 according to their language, as belonging to the great family 

 of the Dekkan tribe. Still more recently Mr. F. Miiller has 

 declared the Sinhalese language to be an idiom akin to the 

 Dravidian language, strongly mixed with Indian elements, 

 which, however, differing from them genealogically, has there- 

 fore had an independent development. Hence he infers the 

 population to be a mixture of immigrated Indians! with the 

 aborigines, who seem to be of the same race as the Dravidians. 

 Directly the opposite opinion (and one which of late is more 

 and more generally recognised) has been maintained by 

 d'Alwisf and Childers,** both of whom were employed in 

 the civil administration of the Island. Childers, whose 

 thorough knowledge of the Indian languages is universally 

 acknowledged, separates the present Sinhalese language from 

 the ancient Elu, from which, as he says, it is certainly derived, 

 but from which it also differs through the immense number of 

 Sanskrit words it includes, partly unchanged, as the English 



* In the writing- of this name I follow the explanation of it by Childers, 

 I. <?., p. 37 (instead of Singhalese or Cinghalese). 

 f Rask. Singalesisk Skriftlaere. Kolombo, 1321, (quoted by Lassen). 

 X Christ. Lassen. Indische Alterthumskundl, I., s. 199-303. 

 § Fr. Miiller. Allgemeine Ethnography. Vien., 1879, s. 466, sq. 

 || Reise der Novara, 0. S., 139. 



^[ James d'Alwis. On the Origin of the Sinhalese Language. Journal of 

 the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1867-70. 



** Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. New series. London, 1875, 

 vol. VII., p. 35 ; 1876, vol. VIII., p. 131. 



