Vedda people

Vedda

Vedda chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo.
Total population
2,500 (2002), Coast Veddas 8,000 (1983), Anuradhapura Veddas 6,000 (1978)
Regions with significant populations
Sri Lanka       2,500 (2002)
Languages
Vedda (extinct), Sinhala, Tamil
Religion
Animism, Buddhism, Hindu
Related ethnic groups
Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils

The Vedda (Sinhalese: වැද්දා [ˈvædːaː], Tamil: வேடர் Vēdar) are an indigenous people of Sri Lanka. They, amongst other self-identified native communities such as Coast Veddas and Anuradhapura Veddas, are accorded indigenous status. Most speak Sinhala and Tamil instead due to their indigenous language having become nearly extinct.

According to the genesis chronicle of the Sinhala people, the Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle"), written in the 5th century CE, the Pulindas believed to refer to Veddas are descended from Prince Vijaya (6th–5th century BCE), the founding father of the nation, through Kuveni, a woman of the indigenous Yakkha 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 (Adam's Peak in the Ratnapura District), where they multiplied, giving rise to the Veddas. Anthropologists such as the Seligmanns (The Veddas 1911) believed the Veddas to be identical with the Yakkha.

Veddas are also mentioned in Robert Knox's history of his captivity by the King of Kandy in the 17th century. Knox described them as "wild men", but also said there was a "tamer sort", and that the latter sometimes served in the king's army.

The Ratnapura District, which is part of the Sabaragamuwa Province, is known to have been inhabited by the Veddas in the distant past. This has been shown by scholars like Nandadeva Wijesekera (Veddhas in transition 1964). The very name Sabaragamuwa is believed to have meant the village of the Sabaras or "forest barbarians". Such place-names as Vedda-gala (Vedda Rock), Vedda-ela (Vedda Canal) and Vedi-kanda (Vedda Mountain) in the Ratnapura District also bear testimony to this. As Wijesekera observes, a strong Vedda element is discernible in the population of Vedda-gala and its environs.