late 19th century linguists took the view that the name "eelam" was derived from the pali (an indo-aryan language) form "sihala" for sri lanka. robert caldwell, following hermann gundert, cites the word as an example of the omission of initial sibilants in the adoption of indo-aryan words into dravidian languages. the university of madras tamil lexicon, compiled between 1924 and 1936, follows this view.