Caste.—­Amongst the aboriginal inhabitants caste appears to have been unknown, although after the arrival of Wijayo and his followers the system in all its minute subdivisions, and slavery, both domestic and praedial, prevailed throughout the island.  The Buddhists, as dissenters, who revolted against the arrogant pretensions of the Brahmans, embodied in their doctrines a protest against caste under any modification.  But even after the conversion of the Singhalese to Buddhism, and their acceptance of the faith at the hands of Mahindo, caste as a national institution was found too obstinately established to be overthrown by the Buddhist priesthood; and reinforced, as its supporters were, by subsequent intercourse with the Malabars, it has been perpetuated to the present time, as a conventional and social, though no longer as a sacred institution.  Practically, the Singhalese ignore three of the great classes, theoretically maintained by the Hindus; among them there are neither Brahmans, Vaisyas, nor Kshastryas; and at the head of the class which they retain, they place the Goi-wanse or Vellalas, nominally “tillers of the soil.”  In earlier times the institution seems to have been recognised in its entirety, and in the glowing description given in the Mahawanso of the planting of the great Bo-tree, “the sovereign the lord of chariots directed that it should be lifted by the four high caste tribes and by eight persons of each of the other castes."[1] In later times the higher ranks are seldom spoken of in the historical books but by specific titles, but frequent allusion is made to the Chandalas, the lowest of all, who were degraded to the office of scavengers and carriers of corpses.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xix. p. 116.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibit., ch. x. p. 66.  The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is represented as “one born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her pups.”—­HARDY’S Buddhism, ch. iii. p. 80.]

Slavery.—­The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be presumed to have been borrowed from India.  As the Sudras, according to the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to helpless bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race[1]; and those condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to their strength.[2] And although the liberality of theoretical Buddhism threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the priesthood, the slave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his admission would deprive the owner of his services.[3]

[Footnote 1:  In later times, slavery was not confined to the low castes; insolvents could be made slaves by their creditors—­the chief frequently buying the debt, and attaching the debtor to his followers.  The children of freemen, by female slaves, followed the status of their mothers.]