262 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XII. 



With respect to the history of the Sinhalese language, I 

 pointed out that the results of the researches of eminent 

 philologists, such as Max Miiller, Kuhn, and many others, 

 have conclusively proved that our language is a pure and 

 distinctive Aryan language — the proofs which have led to 

 this indisputable conclusion being too numerous to be recited 

 in the course of these remarks. I also drew attention to the 

 fact that while Mr. Nell writes in ignorance of the languages 

 to which he would trace an affinity to the Sinhalese language, 

 and of some of which he had only casually seen the written 

 character, the learned philologists upon whose authority the 

 Sinhalese language stands proved to be Aryan were obviously 

 more competent to determine the merits of the resemblances, 

 of which Mr. Nell makes capital, as they have made a 

 study of those languages also contemporaneously with the 

 Sinhalese. 



Mr. Tissanayagam, in his remarks on this part of 

 Mr. Nell's Paper, commits the blunder of deriving Elu from 

 Telugu. 



Relying on this fact, about which the highest and most 

 competent authorities are unanimously agreed, viz. : that the 

 Sinhalese language is an Aryan dialect, we attain a position 

 from which all the theories of the writer can be overthrown. 

 For the next step in the inquiry into the history of this 

 language leads us to another most important discovery, 

 namely, that it was the " language of the land " before 

 Vijaya's arrival. For the proofs of this statement I need only 

 refer to the Introduction to the Sidat Sangardwa, by the 

 late Hon. James de Alwis, where he enters into the question 

 in detail, and proves the fact by a complete chain of evidence. 



This then being the fact, can it be disputed that the 

 Aryans had established a people and a language in the Island 

 long before the conquest of Vijaya. Whoever the aborigines 

 were, the people whom Vijaya found in the Island were 

 Aryans. Thus the contention that the Yijayan colonists, by 

 possible intermarriage with the pre- Yijayan inhabitants of 

 Lanka, introduced a non-Aryan element into the nation, is 

 completely disposed of. 



The suggestion that Vijaya himself was non-Aryan seems 

 almost too absurd to notice. If this contention is meant 

 seriously, innumerable proofs can be brought forward to show 

 that Vijaya and his 700 followers were Aryan Kshatriyas of 

 Magadha, anything in the realms of fable to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



That the story of the lion was a pure invention of the poet, 

 introduced merely to " lend interest to his narrative," which 

 was intended for the " delight and amazement " of a primi- 

 tive people, is proved from the fact that the authority upon 



