Abstract:
Idioms plays an inseparable role in Hindi and Sinhala languages which are belong to Indo-
Aryan language family. In these two languages there are various idioms which indicate human
body parts with related to their own culture. The purpose of this study is to examine how body
parts have been used in Hindi and Sinhala idioms. Dictionaries of idioms have been used as
primary resource. Books and magazines related to Sinhala and Hindi literature have been used
as secondary resource. This paper indicates that there are some idioms which have been based
on the same human body part as well as in some causes different body parts have been used to
convey the same meaning. This paper highlights that there are more Hindi Idioms which are
based on human body parts rather than in Sinhala. It also highlights that some idioms based on
body parts such as ‘mɑ̃g bhərnɑː’ (married woman) are difficult to understand without knowing
the cultural background of the language. Another finding of this research is that there are more
Hindi idioms on body parts which conveys more than one meaning but in Sinhala language it
is hard to find such causes. The above mentioned findings of this paper help us to understand
Hindi and Sinhala idioms based on body parts according to the cultural background of its’ own.
