with Gotama who was himself a Hindu, were more likely
than these distant islanders to preserve the spirit of his teaching.
But there is another side to the question. The Hindus being
addicted to theological and metaphysical studies produced original
thinkers who, if not able to found new religions, at least modified
what their predecessors had laid down. If certain old texts were held
in too high esteem to be neglected, the ingenuity of the commentator
rarely failed to reinterpret them as favourable to the views popular
in his time. But the Sinhalese had not this passion for theology. So
far as we can judge of them in earlier periods they were endowed with
an amiable and receptive but somewhat indolent temperament, moderate
gifts in art and literature and a moderate love and understanding of
theology. Also their chiefs claimed to have come from northern India
and were inclined to accept favourably anything which had the same
origin. These are exactly the surroundings in which a religion can
flourish without change for many centuries and Buddhism in Ceylon
acquired stability because it also acquired a certain national and
patriotic flavour: it was the faith of the Sinhalese and not of the
invading Tamils. Such Sinhalese kings as had the power protected the
Church and erected magnificent buildings for its service.

If Sinhalese tradition may be believed, the first historical contact
with northern India was the expedition of Vijaya, who with 700
followers settled in the island about the time of the Buddha's death.
Many details of the story are obviously invented. Thus in order to
explain why Ceylon is called Sinhala, Vijaya is made the grandson of
an Indian princess who lived with a lion. But though these legends
inspire mistrust, it is a fact that the language of Ceylon in its
earliest known form is a dialect closely connected with Pali (or
rather with the spoken dialect from which ecclesiastical Pali was
derived) and still more closely with the Maharashtri Prakrit of
western India. It is not however a derivative of this Prakrit but
parallel to it and in some words presents older forms.[11] It does not
seem possible to ascribe the introduction of this language to the
later mission of Mahinda, for, though Buddhist monks have in many
countries influenced literature and the literary vocabulary, no
instance is recorded of their changing the popular speech.[12] But
Vijaya is said to have conquered Ceylon and to have slaughtere