Elu (also Hela, Helu) is the name given to the ancient form of the Sinhala variant of Middle Indic. R. C Childers in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society states that Elu "is the name by which is known an ancient form of the Sinhalese language from which the modern vernacular of Ceylon is immediately received, and to which the latter bears is of the same relation that the English of today bears to Anglo-Saxon... The name Elu is no other than Sinhala much succeeded, standing for an older form, Hĕla or Hĕlu, which occurs in some ancient works, and this again for a still older, Sĕla, which brings us back to the Pali Sîhala...