The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c32.12

v1.c32.12

This tale seems to contain the following nucleus of fact. There were apparently two streams of immigration celebrated in the earliest legends³. The first, which probably was mainly Dravidian, came from Orissa and perhaps southern Bengal; the second, mainly Āryan, started from Sīhapura in Lāṭa (possibly the modern Sihor, in Kāthiāwār) and Sopāra⁴. The latter band belonged to the Siṃhalas (Sīhalas) or 'Lion-tribe,' and it was probably they who imposed their Āryan tongue on Ceylon (*v. sup.* p. 605). At any rate, they gave to their new home the name of *Siṃhaladvīpa* (in Pāli *Sīhaladīpa*), whence are derived its later titles, the Arabic *Sarandīb*, the Portuguese *Ceilão*, and our *Ceylon*⁵. Popular imagination combined the two movements by giving the eponymous Sīhabāhu a home on both sides of India, and so the legend shaped itself into its classical form¹. The lion, Kuvaṇṇā, and the Yakkhas are pure fiction².