What is the correct usage,

ෙහළ or ෙහල in words like

heLAbasa?
The " correct" usage of a word or a language is ultimately dictated by the majority
usage prevalent in the language. However, even then one should look at what the
learned have said to find out what is the "accepted way".

This note is written in the hope that those interested in the Sinhala language would
have some comments on the following. What is said below are merely my personal
views, and hence they are an invitation for discussion and correction.
Let me at the outset say that many years ago I leaned towards the form ෙහළ, but
today I use the form ෙහල !

We find that both Mooddhaja (Linguals) Layanna , ළ, and the danthaja ( dentals)
layanna ල are used by modern writers who use various forms like:

ෙහල, ෙහළ, සිහල, සිහළ, සිංහල, and also ලංකාව, ෙදමල, ෙදමළ etc., but fortunately,
no one writes " ළංකාව" as far as I know !!!

What can we say about this? It is usually said that one should look at the source
languages and the etymology of the words to understand their correct spelling.
Unfortunately, modern Sanskrit uses only the danthaja form ල, and hence one
needs to go to Old Sanskrit to resolve the problem -- that is, now one has to look at
various forms of old Prakrit, Pali, Elu and renderings of early Sanskrit. It is not
enough to look at what some dictionary says because dictionary writers may not
have spent enough time thinking about it! We need a closer look at the etymology or
"Nishpanna".

1. One view is that the word "Hela" came from the word "Sinhala", derived from
Sinha, "සිංහ" and "ල", or "slayer", harking back to the story of Sinhabahu and
Vijaya (irrespective of the historicity or not of the story, if a belief exists, that is a
sufficient anthroplogical basis ). If the origin of the word is indeed from "Lion
slayer", the danthaja form would be expected. Thus the sinhalese form (but not
the Elu) should be සිංහල, and hence, hela is an abbriviation of සිංහල → හල→ ෙහල.
This suggests that the danthaja form "ල", should be used.
2. On the other hand, since the Elu and Pali forms are සිහළ → හළ→ ෙහළ. This
suggests that the moordhaja form should be used. The Elu (and Pali) form may
have arisen from Si සි (=Lion), haLa, i.e, ෙහළන ලද or "helooo", and again seems to
hark back to the story of slaying the lion. In "heloo" the Moordhaja ළ is the
accepted standard from.

3. Another view is that the word hela has NOT originated from සිංහල or සිහළ,
but from Lanka. In Parkrit (↔ Pali, Sanskrit), words where a gaathraakshara
(consonant) like L or R is the begining letter, it is common to add a praanakashar
(vowel) like e, i or at least an he or ha or hi before the consonant. Thus rahath is
found as arhath or arhant in the source languages. The word welamba (mare)
becomes elamba in prakrit colloquial forms.

This same rule is also mentioned in the Tamil grammar Tolkappian, and so Lanka
→ Ilankai, இலங்ைக, but I don't think it is mentioned in the Sidath Sangara. However, within
this view, Lanka becomes Elanka, or Helanka. The shortening of Helanka → Hela, ෙහල is,
according to this view, the origin of Hela. Thus, it is quite ironic that Ilankai →
Ilan → Eelam comes from the same etymological roots. [ In fact, many so-called
original Tamil words turn out to have roots in old (Rig Veda) Sanskrit - a fact
ignored or inadequately researched by some modern writers interested in pushing
ethnicities. See the incorrect Tamil etymology in, e.g., footnote 359 of Kathigesu
Indrapala's The evolution of an ethnic identity ].

We should note that Lanka is the oldest recorded name given to this island. Dr.
Susantha Goonatilleke's recent book has a detailed discussion of the origin of the
name of Sri Lanka. The form ළංකා does not occur anywahere as far as we know.
Both Pali and Sanskrit forms use the danthja layanna.

It should also be added that at one time Prof. D. V. A. S. Amarasekera (Colomo

University maths Prof.) claimed that hela had some thing to do with the Greek
"Hela". That has no foundation at all.

These arguments, based on the origin of Hella from Lanka, also suggest that the
correct way to write Hela is with a danthaja L, i.e., ෙහල.

4. The word "damila", written "දමිළ" is I think unequivocally accepted to have

originated from දෙම්ඩ ( ← දවිඩ ), where a hard letter D, ඩ, is found in the source
language. Then it is custormary to replace the hard D with a moordhaja ළ
in the Elu form and, subsequently in Sinhala. Hence these arguments show that
damila, or demala, should be written as "දමිළ" or "ෙදමළ", if one wants to be picky
about ළ and ල .

Summary

Hence, most of the arguments seem to favour the danthaja layanna in writing hela,
i.e., ෙහල, and similarly ලංකාව has a danthaja laynna. On the other hand, "ෙදමළ"
has to have a moordhaja layanna. Or, should we follow modern sanskrit and just
use the danthaja layanna everywhere?

Prof. Chandre Dharmawaradana

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