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



265 



molestation. Thus, while the royalty and nobility were 

 Aryans, the people were Dravidian, and the language of the 

 people came inevitably to be adopted by the ruling class also. 

 The Pandiyan royalty and aristocracy thus were Aryan, 

 though they subsequently adopted the Tamil speech. 



It is a significant circumstance that the Mahdwansa, Avhich 

 records every Tamil invasion, never speaks of the Pandiyans 

 as Damilos. On the other hand, whenever a marriage with 

 the Pandiyans is recorded, it is stated that it is done in 

 order to prolong and establish the purity of the race. Of 

 King Vijaya Bahu I. it is recorded that he married first 

 Lilavati, " having satisfied himself of the purity of her race," 

 and having no son by her, he made a princess of Kalinga, 

 his Queen, " being desirous to prolong and establish his 

 race." "And the king, who prided himself in his race," 

 (Mahdwansa, chap. LIX., 40) " sent forth and brought hither 

 a prince of Pandu, born of a pure race, and bestowed 

 on him his younger sister, the Princess Mitta." Thus all 

 throughout the Pandiyans are spoken of ,as a race, intermar- 

 riage with whom only confirmed the Aryan purity of the 

 Sinhalese. 



It remains to consider what the history of the people was 

 in subsequent times, when the country was overrun by 

 innumerable, heterogeneous tribes. The existence and strict 

 observance of the rule by which Sinhalese and Tamils of 

 respectable castes do not intermarry is a living proof of how 

 strictly purity of race has been preserved through all the 

 vicissitudes of the Sinhalese history. The Mahdwaiisa and 

 all histories, while speaking of the existence side by side of 

 various tribes, whose name is legion, always scrupulously 

 distinguish the Sinhalese from them, and no amalgamation 

 of people is anywhere recorded. 



In conclusion I will mention one authenticated fact in our 

 history, which is alone sufficient to prove that at a very 

 modern period the Sinhalese people enjoyed a high reputation 

 for the purity of its race among the Aryans of India. I refer 

 to the intermarriage of the Sinhalese with the Rajputs of 

 Mewar in the fourteenth century. After South India was 

 converted to Hinduism, and the Aryaand the Dravida joined 

 hands in fellowship and association, an amalgamation of races 

 and castes seems to have speedily taken place, leading to an 

 enormous multiplication of castes by reason of various 

 " combinations." But all through the Rajputs of Rajasthan, 

 the proud descendants of the son of Rama, the son of the 

 sun, preserved their purity and their caste by religiously 

 avoiding mixed marriages. On this account they were 

 indisputably given pre-eminence among the Hindu kingdoms 

 of India. In the fourteenth century they had long ceased 



64—92 I 



