The Sinhala language came to Sri Lanka with the original migrants from North India who are traditionally considered to be the founders of the Sinhala nation. They spoke Indo-Aryan vernaculars depending on the areas from which they migrated. The early migrants came from Bengal, Magadha and Kâlinga. The languages in all these areas were variants of Indo-Aryan, not too dissimilar to each other, and it is speculated that Sinhala is an amalgam of these languages.
Some scholars think that there was also an early migration from North-Western India from the region corresponding to modern Gujerat, and that the language spoken there, from which modern Gujerati is derived, too may have been blended to form the Sinhala language.
Later on it came to be influenced by Pali which is the language in which the Buddhist canonical writings were preserved. The origin of Pali is something of a mystery some scholarly opinion considering it the dialect of the region of Ujjain, but like other Indo-Aryan languages related to Maghadhi which the Buddha would have used in his preaching.
The original migrants also brought with them the Brahmi script. The Mahâvamsa says that King Vijaya communicated with kings in India to arrange marriages, etc. and this could only have been done with a commonly understood language and script.
The Brahmi script of the early inscriptions had five short vowels (a, i, u, e o), their long versions ( â etc.) and 32 consonants all of which are preserved in the modern sinhala.
Extant literature does not lead us beyond the 9th Century CE (Common Era). Yet it cannot be said that this alone proves the non-existence of an earlier literature. The Nikâya Sangrahaya mentions twelve poets during the time of Agbo II, about the 2nd Century BCE (Before Common Era).
The extant Pali commentaries, according to their principal compiler Buddhaghosa Thera are also said to be translations from Sinhalese originals all of which are now lost. Dr Adhikaram lists 28 works now lost which would have been used by Buddhaghosa many in Sinhala such as: Sihalatthakathâ Mahâvasa, Mahâ Paccâriya Atthakathâ, Sîhala Dhammapadatthakathâ, a Sinhala treatise on medicine, etc The Gätapada works also betray traces of other strata of language harking back to earlier times.
The earliest extant works of substantial length in Sinhala are the Siyabaslakara and Elu Sandas Lakuna. They too refer to earlier works and the fact that they are works on poetics shows us that there must have been an earlier literature.
The earliest examples of Sinhala writing are contained in the inscriptions. Prof. Geiger classes the language of the 2nd Century BCE up to the 5th Century CE. as the Prakrit age, basing his evidence on the inscriptions. Vowel endings characterise the language.
(i) upasaka asaha lene
(ii) taladara nagaha puta devaha lene agana anagata catudisa sagasa
(Epigraphia Zeylanica)
The names and donors of caves are referred to here. The inscriptions increase
