Indo-Aryan migration vs Indigenous origin - scholarly debate

[Narayan S. Raja]

S Krishna <mahadevasiva at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

> 2. Page 115 makes the claim( un referenced) that the earliest settlers
> of Srilanka came from Gujarat. This is something I find strange, since
> all texts that I know off talk about descent of the Sinhalese from
> East Indians i.e. Bengalis/Oriyas/Biharis; some people also claim that
> the name "Sinhala" is from Vijaya Sinha, the king who sailed with 700
> men from Tamralipti in Bengal to Srilanka to establish a kingdom. Has
> anybody seen this Gujarati origin in any other text?


A few years ago I was reading a lot of books about
the ancient history of Tamils and also of Sri Lanka.

While less frequent than the "East India" theory, I did
also encounter statements that the ancestors of today's
Sinhalas came from Gujarat.  Unfortunately, I can't
cite the references.

By the way, Thor Heyerdahl's "Maldive Mystery" also has
something to say about this, though it is far from being
a scholarly book.

Regards,


Raja.