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MAY, 1904.]
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
143
GLIMPSES OF SINGHALESE SOCIAL LIFE.
BY ARTHUR A. PERERA.
(Continued from p. 61.)
(7) Zolationship and Rights of Property.18 Seven generations of family descent is a matter of pride, and each link of the chain has a name of its own: (1) appa, (2) ata, siyiya or mutta, (3) mi-mutta, (4) natta, (5) panatta, (6) kitta, and (7) kirikitta (father, grandfather, &c.); these terms are used for the direct as well as collateral ancestors.
The next-of-kin to a father (app) or mother (ammd) and brother (sahodaraya) or sister (sahodari)18 are the father's brothers and mother's sisters, and mother's brothers and father's sisters ; of these the first pair has a paternal rank and is called · father' (appd) or mother (amma), qualified by the words big (Lola), intermediate (madduma), or little (punchi, kudd or bala), according as he' or she is older or younger than one's parents; their children are brothers (sahodaraya) and sisters (sahodart), who are, in their turn, styled 'father' and mother' by the speaker's children. The second pair becomes "uncle' (mama) or aunt (nendd); and their children male cousing (massind) and female cousins (nénd), who are themselves addressed 'uncles' and 'aunts' by the next generation.
These are not confined to the relationships mentioned, but are used to friends and elders as expressions of endearment, familiarity or respect, and also to denote other forms of kinship. Appa, qualified as before, is applied to a mother's sister's husband or a step-father; amma to a father's brother's wife or a step-mother; mama to a father's sister's husband or a father-in-law; nende to a mother's brother's wife or a mother-in-law; sahodarays to a wife's or husband's brother-in-law or a maternal cousin's husband; sahodari to a wife's or husband's sister-in-law or a maternal cousin's wife; massing to a brother-in-law or a paternal cousin's husband; nend to a sister-in-law or . paternal cousin's wife.
Those who are related as brothers and sisters' rarely marry; and a husband's uncles, aunts, and cousins of the one class are to his wife uncles, aunts, and cousins of the other. The terms son, nephew, grandson, and great-grandson, with their female equivalents, also stand for several forms of kindred. A son (pútd) is one's own son, the son of a brother' (male speaking) or of a sister (female speaking). A daughter (dura) is one's own danghter, the daughter of a brother' (m. s.) or of a sister' (f. s.). A nephew (bend) is a son-in-law, the son of a sister' (m. s.) or of a brother (F. s.). A piece (lélt) is a daughter-in-law, the daughter of a sister' (m. s.) or of a brother' (f. s.). A grandson (munupurd) and granddaughter (minipirt) are a 'son's' or daughter's' or a nephew's' or 'piece's children ; their sons and daughters are great-grandsons (mi-munupur) and great-granddaughters (mi-minipiri).
The ancestral holding of a field and garden devolves, according to the old Singhalese Law, which is still in force, with modifications, in the inner provinces of the island, on the sons, unless ordained as Buddhist priests, or adopted out of the family, and on those daughters who are unmarried or bare not moved from their parents after marriage. Matrimony is of two kinds: diga when the husband takes the wife to his own home, or binns when he settles down at her father's house. To keep & plot of ground intact the males have had recourse to polyandry.
11 Authorities
(a) Thomson's Institutes of the Law of Ceylon (1866), Vol. II. pp. 597-672. (6) Phear's The Aryan Hage in India and Coylon (1880), pp. 173-206. (c) Niti Nighanduva, or A Vocabulary of Kandyan Law (1880). (d) The Orientalis, Vol. L (1884) p. 217, and Vol. II. (1886) p. 64.
(e) Ceylon North Central Province Manual (1890), p. 166. 20 Elder brother is aytyd. Elder sister inakku. Younger brother is malaya. Younger pister is nangi.
