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



the cultivators ; Go-vaisya, the cattle keepers ; and Vanig- 

 vaisya, merchants. The Sudras were the artisans, who were 

 divided into many classes, according to the kind of work in 

 which each was engaged. 



According to the Abhidhdnap-padipika, a Pali vocabulary, 

 the Kshatrya took precedence. This is the caste system 

 which obtains in India as well as in Ceylon up to this date, 

 in spite of the teachings of Buddha, who preached 

 against it. This caste system, as well as the systems of 

 medicine, astronomy, astrology, laws and customs, and 

 most other things, were adopted by the other inhabitants of 

 India who were non-Aryas, except perhaps the hill tribes and 

 a few others who did not accept the civilisation which was 

 thus introduced into India by the Aryas. The religious 

 system which now prevails amongst the Dravidas is this 

 Vaidic religion preached to them by the Aryan Brahmans. 

 In Ceylon, the same gods are venerated by the Sinhalese 

 Buddhists. 



The mistake committed by Mr. Nell is in supposing that 

 these are Dravidian institutions instead of Aryan. Hence 

 he was surprised to find that Parakrama Bahu, when he 

 attained his age, was invested with the sacred thread by 

 Brahmans of his father's court. Says Dr. Caldwell : — 



The Brahmans, by whom the Ayran civilisation was grafted on the 

 ruder Dravidian stock, laboured assiduously to extirpate the old 

 Dravidian religion, and to establish their own in its room ; and they 

 are generally supposed to have succeeded in accomplishing this 

 object. 



Again, at page 519, he says : — 



The system which prevails in the forests and mountain fastnesses 

 throughout the Dravidian territories, and also in the extreme south of 

 the penisular, amongst the low caste tribes, and which appears to have 

 been still more widely prevalent at an early period, is a system of 

 demonolatory, or the worship of evil spirits, by means of bloody 

 sacrifices and frantic dances. The system was introduced within the 

 historical period from the Tamil country into Ceylon, where it is now 

 mixed up with Buddhism. 



These matters should be borne in mind in all questions 

 touching the ethnology of India and Ceylon. 



The system of caste and race distinctions having once 

 taken hold of the mind of the people proved too strong even 

 to the preachers of Buddhism to undo. To this I attribute 

 the reason why races and castes remain unmixed up to this 

 day both in India and Ceylon. 



Now it is said in the Mahdwansa that the king of Vanga, an 

 Aryan prince, married the daughter of the king of Kalinga. 



