LANBCACE AND LITERATURE. The Ceylonese, Singhalese. or Sinhalese is a modern Indian dia lect spoken in the south of Ceylon, while a Dravidian dialect, the Tamil, is the language of the northern part of the island. The Singhalese is allied most closely to the Malnirlislitri Prak rit. and the Pali. the most important diddle Indian dialects, and it seems to have come from the northwest of India. The Singhalese differs more from the Prakrit and Pali than is the case with most of the modern Indian dialects. The change of vowels on account of a following a, or i (`umlaut'), the entire loss of the aspirates, and the change of c to s, and of j to d, while s, whether original or developed, may become it or remain unchanged, are noteworthy character istics of this dialect. In its nominal system Singhalese has become analytic, like the other modern Indian dialects. but in its verbal system it represents a comparatively old stage of lin guistic development. There was formerly much discussion whether Singhalese was an Indian or a Dravidian language. it is now, however, gener ally regarded as a true Aryan dialect, despite the many loan-words which have been incorpo rated into its vocabulary. The older form of Singhalese is called Elu, which is still employed for poetical composition. Dialects of the Sin ghalese are :Maldive. and the patois of the Ved das. a, well as the jargon of the Itodiyas, which seems to be a slang of the standard language. Singhalese is written in a special, graceful char acter, apparently derived, like the epigraphical letters, from the Bralunt alphabet of the Asoka inscriptions.
Singhalese literature is rather scanty. The oldest monument of it is a glossary to the com mentary on the Dhammapada in the Tenth Cen tury. The prose literature is chiefly religions, but there are also grammatical work:, sueh as the Sidat-sangariira, and, what is especially note worthy in Indian literature, histories, sue!) as the Diparansa. The golden period of Singhalese poetry was in the Fifteenth Century, when the Siifarihiiii-sandc..tayiz was written. Many of the poems deal with the Buddhist birth-stories, or ilatakas, as the kusuititaka of Alagiyavanna Mohuttiila or Mukaveti, a poet of the Singhalese Renaissance at the beginning of the Seventeenth Century. There are ninny inscriptions in Singha lese, dating from the last centuries c.c. to the Nineteenth Century A.D. After the Fifth Cen tury, however, they are comparatively infrequent.
11.EuGtoN. The prevailing religion of Ceylon within historic times has been Buddhism: it is still the faith of almost the entire southern and central portions, or two-thirds of the island. Hinduism, or the sects of Brahmanism, is con fined chiefly to the north. Christianity and Mohammedanism have a considerable representa tion throughout the land. The census of 1891 gives the following statistics: Buddhism, 1,877, 043; Hinduism, 015.922: Christianity, Mohammedanism. 211,955. Singhalese Buddhism is the principal representative of Southern Bud dhism• which includes also Siam and Burma, in contrast to the Northern 11uddhism of China, Japan, and Tibet. All have their origin, of course, in India. (See BuDimism and INDIA.) The history of the faith as a national religion in Ceylon is reserved in the Pali chronicles of Ceylon, the Naha ransa and the Diparansa.
Tradition claims that Buddha himself visited the island (Lanka) on three different occasions. His sacred footprint, the srirada, on Adam's Peak (q.v.). is still a place of hallowed pilgrimage for the faithful. The real introduction of Bud dhism into Ceylon, however, dates from the Third Century B.C., when :Mahinda came from India and established the faith under the patron age of King Tissa of Ceylon, a contemporary of the great Asoka (q.v.). Mahinda's own sister, the Princess Sanghamitta, brought from Buddha (1aya a branch of the sacred Bo-tree. or flees religiosa, front which the famous tree at Anura dhapura is directly descended. (See Bo-TREE.) The faith thus established entered upon its history in the island. In the Fourth Century A.D. the great Iluddhist scholar and commentator, Buddhaghosa, came from India to Ceylon. and by his admirable treatise on the Buddhist doc trines, the Vissuddhi-magga, or \Vay of Purity, set up a standard of interpretation of the sacred texts which has been authoritative since his time. Under Parkakrama Balm I., the greatest Bud dhist of Ceylon, e. 1200 A.D.. was the time of the highest prosperity of the faith; but a depres sion. more or less great, followed later, and Brahmanism, which had contributed more than one admixture from the earliest Tamil in and the rule of the Malabar kings. proved a formidable rival. In spite, however, of all oppos ing claims, including., :\lohammedanism and Christianity. the title of Buddhism is still para mount. and it has been kept practically free front seets. Three divisions or societies, however, are recognizable. The largest of these in point of numbers, some 50 per cent., and the earliest to develop, is a division due to the influence of Siamese monks who were imported into the Nandvan territory, about A.D. 1750. to restore decadent Buddhism. The second, or Amara punt society, was founded about A.D. 1800, when Bud dhist missionaries from Burma were intro duced. The third, or Ramany branch. repre ,14d s a somewhat reactionary movement or ten dency to stricter eonformity to the faith of the ancient books. Only the Siamese society culti vates caste; the other two reject it as foreign to Buddhism. although of ancient origin. There are some other slight points of distinction be tween the three. In this conneetion it may he worth noting that Christianity has taken hold largely among the fishermen class, who are re garded as among the lowest. orders of the com munity. Hinduism, or Brahmanism, for the most part is the faith of the Tamil or Malabar population of Ce3lon; the Moormen are _Moham medans. The first Protestant missionaries that went to Ceylon after the Portuguese and the Dutch supreinacics had given place to the Brit ish, were sent by the Baptists in 1813; the Wesleyan _Methodists followed in 181-1; the American missionaries entered the field in 1810; and the Church of England came in 1818. The progress of Christianity among the people has been very considerable; schools have been estab lished; female seminaries endowed; and col legiate institutions founded, especially under the guidance of missionaries.