Vedda

Vedda

Vedda man and child, Sri Lanka.
Total population
Between 2,500 - 6,600
Regions with significant populations
Sri Lanka       2,500 (2002)
Languages
Vedda (extinct), Sinhala, Tamil
Religion
Animism, Buddhism, Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils

The Vedda (Sinhalese: වැද්දා [ˈvædːaː], Tamil: வேடர் Vēdar) are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other self-identified native communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. The Veddha minority in Sri Lanka is in threat of being extinct. Most speak Sinhala and Tamil instead due to the near-extinction of their indigenous languages.

It has been hypothesized that the Vedda was probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka and have lived in the island before the arrival of Sinhalese from India. According to the 5th-century genesis chronicle of the Sinhala people, the Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle"), are the Vedda descended from Prince Vijaya (6th–5th century BCE), the founding father of the nation who originated from Eastern India, through Kuveni, a woman of the indigenous Yakkha(odia/pali for yaksha) whom he married. The Mahavansa relates that following the repudiation of Kuveni by Vijaya, in favour of a Kshatriya-caste princess from Pandya, their two children, a boy and a girl, departed to the region of Sumanakuta (Sri Pada or Adam's Peak in the Ratnapura District), where they multiplied, giving rise to the Veddas. Anthropologists such as Charles Gabriel Seligman believed the Veddas to be identical to the Yakkha.