No. 43. — 1892.] ETHNOLOGY OF CEYLON. 



243 



descendants. To avoid this conclusion we must either reject 

 the whole story as a myth, or assume that the Pandava was not 

 a Dravidian — an impossible assumption, because we shall 

 have first to sweep away all the traditions, inscriptions, and 

 chronicles of the Tamil race, as well as the subsequent 

 account of the existence of Tamil settlement in Ceylon 

 given in the Mahdwansa itself. 



If we deny Tamil emigration, we are left to adopt the 

 conclusion that Vijaya and his seven hundred followers, by 

 their intermarriage with the consorts from Madura at a 

 period about 543 to 550 B.C., established the whole popu- 

 lation of the present day, and gave not only to their 

 direct descendants, but also to the descendants of the 

 Yakkhas, the Nagas, and the Tamil colonies, the common 

 name of Sinhalese. 



We do not find of the Danes and Norwegians, though they 

 were so firmly established in England, and gave kings to 

 England, that they were able to take away the name of the 

 people already constituting the chief population. In Scotland 

 the Norwegians and Danes were long established on the 

 east coast, and king Alexander III. of Scotland had 

 to defeat Hacon IV., king of Norway, in a great battle to 

 drive them away. 



The settlement of Vijaya cannot be compared to these 

 powerful invasions and possession of a foreign country. 



The popularly accepted derivation of the name Siha- 

 ■lese or Sinhalese is due to the descendants of Vijaya 

 strictly, and may be extended to those of his seven 

 hundred followers also. If we go further, and suppose that 

 in the course of time the term was transferred to the 

 thousands of other races who populated the country, it 

 will not follow, in an ethnological inquiry, that the race 

 so called can put forward their adopted name as a proof 

 of their descent. And we cannot ignore the people of 

 Lanka, who have continued in possession from before the 

 time of Vijaya, during his reign and after, even to the 

 present day. Even in the reign of Vijaya, after he had put 



