according to peter schalk a professor of theology from university of uppsala who has done studies on sri lankan tamils and their culture, caldwell and the madras tamil lexicon were wrong in deriving "eelam" from "sihala". he concludes that "eelam" is attested well before "sihala" in india and sri lanka, in inscriptions and literature in the 1st century bce. whereas "sihala" is attested for the first time in present-day andhra pradesh to refer to a buddhist temple meant for monks from sri lanka in the 3rd century ce. he further concludes that it is a word used exclusively for toddy beginning from the common era up until the medieval period.