modliar

Updated: May 14, 2025

Since the above was written Gooneratné Modliar, the Singhalese Interpreter to the Supreme Court at Colombo, has supplied me with another conjecture, that the word elephant may possibly be traced to the Singhalese name of the animal, alia, which means literally, "the huge one."

Sir James Emerson Tennent - Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon