Etymology
Sinhala (Siṃhāla) is actually a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indic word is Sīhala; the actual Sinhala term is heḷa or (h)eḷu. The Sanskrit and the Middle Indic words have as their first element (siṃha and sīha) the word "lion" in the respective languages. According to legend, Sinhabahu or Sīhabāhu ("Lion-arms"), was the son of a Vanga princess and a lion. He killed his father and became king of Vanga. His son Vijaya would emigrate from north India to Lankā and become the progenitor of the Sinhala people. Taking into account linguistic and mythological evidence, we can assume that the first element of the name of the people means "lion".
As for the second element la, local tradition connects it to the Sanskrit root lā- "to seize", as to translate it "lion-seizer" or "lion-killer", or to Sanskrit loha/Sinhala lē "blood", to have it mean "lion blood". From a linguistic point of view, however, neither interpretation is convincing, so that we can only safely say that the word Sinhala is somehow connected to a term meaning "lion".
Disputing this traditional etymology, however, Thomas Burrow, argued that the word may instead be Dravidian in origin. He suggests that the Dravidian word "Eelam" (or Cilam) meaning "toddy", referring to the palm trees in Sri Lanka, was later absorbed into Indo-Aryan languages. This, he says, is also likely the source for Pali '"Sīhala".
Read more about this topic: Sinhala Language
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