That Accidents In The History Of Marine Affairs In Those Seas Should Have Led To The Adoption Of The Malay And Javanese Names In The Case Of Ceylon Also Is At Least Conceivable.

But Dr. Caldwell has pointed out to me that the Pali form of Sinhala was Sihalan, and that this must have been colloquially shortened to Silan, for it appears in old Tamul inscriptions as Ilam.[1] Hence there is nothing really strained in the derivation of Sailan from Sinhala.

Tennent (Ceylon, I. 549) and Crawford (Malay Dict. p. 171) ascribe the name Selan, Zeilan, to the Portuguese, but this is quite unfounded, as our author sufficiently testifies. The name Sailan also occurs in Rashiduddin, in Hayton, and in Jordanus (see next note). (See Van der Tuuk, work quoted above (p. 287), p. 118; J. As. ser. IV., tom. viii. 145; J. Ind. Arch. IV. 187; Elliot, I. 70.) [Sinhala or Sihala, "lions' abode," with the addition of "Island," Sihala-dvipa, comes down to us in Cosmas [Greek: Sielediba] (Hobson-Jobson).]

NOTE 3. - The native king at this time was Pandita Prakrama Bahu III., who reigned from 1267 to 1301 at Dambadenia, about 40 miles north-north-east of Columbo. But the Tamuls of the continent had recently been in possession of the whole northern half of the island. The Singhalese Chronicle represents Prakrama to have recovered it from them, but they are so soon again found in full force that the completeness of this recovery may be doubted.

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