OF BHARATAVARSA OR IXDIA. 
129 
and seems to prove that the recollection of the splendoiu' and 
power of the ancient Pallas or PalUs had not died out in the 
minds of the people when these words came into use.. 
The Buddhist missionaries, who propagated throughout 
India the precej^ts of their master, spoke and wrote a Pra- 
kritised form of Sanskrit. This became gradually the sacred 
language of the Buddhists, and from India it was_, together 
with the Buddhistic faith, introduced into Ceylon. Though 
this idiom differed "nddely from the language which the 
Dravidian Pallas spoke in those days, in the same way as 
the priestly Latin differed much from the vernaculars of 
Northern Eui'ope into which it spread with the progress of 
Christianity, yet, as the Buddhistic religion came to Ceylon 
from the coimtry inhabited mostly by Pallas, or in whose 
towns and temples — Palli or Pali—\i had found a firm 
abode, the dialect in which the sacred books reached Ceylon 
was likewise called Pali after them. 
Explanation or the words Pandta, Vellala, Ballala, 
Bhillala. 
The Paljar and Pallis claim, as has been previously pointed 
out, kinship with the kings who ruled over them, i.e., with 
the Pandyas and Pallavas. It has been proved that a 
philological connection can be established between the words 
Palla, Palli and Pallam, and no gTeat difficulty will be 
experienced in extending it to the name of the Pandyas. 
The Pandyas of Southern India have been linked by 
legends with the Pandavas of the North. According to the 
Harivarhsa (XXXII, 123), Pdndya, together with Kerala, 
Kola, and Cola, was a descendant of the famous king Dusyaida, 
the husband of Sakuntala and father of Bharata. Arj'ima 
meets and fights in his adventures for the Asvamedha with 
while padukkaiyarai is the common sleeping room. Compare also atout 
palh in the sense of a royal title the Jatisangrahamm, p. 281. 
