Coast Veddas

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Coast Vedda
Sri Lankan Tamil people

The Coast Veddas (

Vedda people, as well as local Tamils. Residents of the Eastern province consider their Vedar (Tamil for "hunter")[2]
neighbors to have been part of the local social structure from earliest times, whereas some Vedar elders believe that their ancestors may have migrated from the interior at some time in the past.

They speak a

Sri Lankan civil war
.

Identity

Western observers such as

hunter-gatherers or settled agriculturalists. Settled Veddas have tended over a period of time to assume Sinhalese or Tamil identity based on the area of residence. If considered a subdivision of Veddas, then they are by far the largest sub-group amongst the Vedda people.[9]
Residents of Eastern Province consider those who maintain a primitive life style, or are partly dependent on hunting and gathering, as Vedar without any connotations of ethnic origins.

Vedar are not designated as an indigenous community of Sri Lanka. They are placed within the Sri Lankan caste system. Vedar sometimes refer to themselves as "Veda Vellalar", thus claiming a high caste ranking (the

Ambattar (barbers), Vannar (washerman) and Pallar (agricultural workers), but field studies indicated that such unions did sometimes take place.[4]

Once a non-Vedar married into a Vedar family, he or she was assimilated as part of the Vedar village. Almost all Vedar families had an ancestor who was Tamil or a family member who was married to a Tamil from a neighboring village.[10]

Some Vedar have gradually lost most aspects of their aboriginal identity and culture and no longer identify themselves as Vedar. During the 1980s and 1990s, most Vedar families were displaced from their native villages due to the effects of the

Sri Lankan civil war and were placed in refugee camps along with other Tamil refugees.[11]

History

Ancestors of Vedar migrated to Sri Lanka via the Indian sub continent during the pre-historic period. A number of

Tirukovil in the Ampara District. It is a Tamil 14th to 16th-century original text. The chronicle documents the presence of a people who practiced hunting and gathering for survival, exercising jurisdiction over vast jungle tracts close to the Akkaraipattu township. It names a number of Vedar chiefs, such as Kadariyan and Puliyan. These Vedars were not just hunter-gatherers, but were also accepted as the rightful owners of the forest lands.[12]

Emerson (1858) documented the presence of Vedar north of Eravur who subsisted by fishing or helping the traditional fisherfolk, as well by cutting wood for Muslim traders. He speculated that there were then at least 400 to 500 individuals in the group. He also recorded that it was the British colonial officers, as well as Wesleyan missionaries who provided land for them to start cultivating yams and other vegetables.[5][6]

Neville (1890) and Seligman (1911) also documented the presence of a subdivision of Vedar called Kovil Vanam ("Temple precincts" in Tamil) within the southern edges of the

Batticalo District; their name suggests they had originally lived in the jungles close to the Kataragama temple in the Hambantota District in the Southern Province. By the early 1900s these Vedar had mingled with the local Tamils and Sinhalese and were not encountered as a separate group any more.[13] Local legends attribute the origins of some Hindu temples in the eastern province to the presence of Vedar. Important Hindu temples in villages such as Kokkadichcholai and Mandur
have such Vedar creation legends. But Vedar are no longer associated with either the ownership or maintenance of these regionally important temples.

Culture

Clans and family organization

Clans of the interior Veddas

Interior Veddas have

clans
called Waruge or Variga that were named after trees, animals or places of origin. Seligman speculated that these clans were territorial, thus hunting territory was divided amongst the clan, not to be violated by members of other clans. These clans were:

  1. Morana (after Mora tree)
  2. Unapana (Water)
  3. Namudana (Namuda tree)
  4. Ura (Wild boar)
  5. Ambilo (Ant)
  6. Tala (Plains)
  7. Rugam (Village name)
  8. Kovil Vannam (Temple precincts)[14]

Among these, the Morana and Unapana clans claimed superior status to Namudana, Ambilo and Ura clans. Seligman reported that Morana and Unapana clans considered the other three as their servile groups, a classification strongly denied by the others. This also led to so-called servile groups denying such clan association when questioned and claiming Morana or Unapana clan origins.

Retention of Clan system amongst Vedar

When Seligman inquired about the Waruge divisions of the Vedar, most of them did not remember their clan origins. Of those who remembered, most self-identified as Ura Waruge. Others mentioned clans such as Ogatam, Kavatam, Umatam, Aembalaneduwe and Aembale. They also had memories of other clans such as Morana and Unapana.

Vannimai. But these clan divisions and related rules of endogamy were not totally followed by all Vedar, and there no practical prohibitions from marrying from each Kuti.[16]

As with local Tamils, the preferred marriage pattern is based on

cross cousin preference. Parallel cousins are considered brothers and sisters and are ineligible as partners. As most marriages take place between first and second cousins, clan endogamy even it is present is of no value. Within a village, most of the residents are related and this carries on over to villages that are three to five miles away as well. The longer the distance the more distantly are the villagers related to each other.[10]
Related lineages also maintain places of worship that are the private property of the family group.

Religion

folk Hinduism, who are sometimes unique to Veddars. Most of the folk deities are also commonly propitiated by other local Tamils such as Vairavar, Virapathirar, Kali and Narasingan. Seligman (1911) encountered two unique deities, Kapalpei (“Ship spirit”) and Kumara Deivam (“Young god”)[17] who are peculiar to Vedar. The cult of Kappalpei is based on legends of foreigners coming over by ships and landing along the coast where the Vedar usually lived. They are propitiated to ward off evils and hard times. Kumara Deivam was also noted amongst the primitive Sinhalese village of Gonagolla in the Ampara District known as Kumara Devio.[18] Jon Dart in the 1980s found that these deities were no longer worshipped, but were replaced by the Periyasami cult.[19]

The worship pattern is a combination of

Mahabharatha and Ramayana.[21]

Language

Vedar use the

bilingual in Vedda language and Tamil, but that is no longer the case.[22]

Geographic distribution

Native chronicles have documented the presence of Vedar or Vedar-like people throughout the island from the beginning of the historic period. Vedar presence in the present Eastern province has been noted during the

Muttur and Foul Point.[23]

Economic status

Native chronicles such as Nadu Kadu Paraveni Kalvettu mention the socio-economic status of the Vedar as that of primitive hunter gatherers. The chronicles also mention that the chiefs amongst them received gifts such as clothes from settlers and state that the Vedar in turn provided meat and honey to the settler population, indicating a system of

LTTE and government forces.(See Vaharai bombing
)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.83
  2. ^ The article uses Vedda to indicate those who are from the interior and Vedar to describe the Coast Veddas
  3. ^ a b c Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.73
  4. ^ a b Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p. 70
  5. ^ a b c d Tennent, p.441
  6. ^ a b c d Tennent, p.448
  7. ^ Seligman, pp. 330–331
  8. ^ Wijesekera, p. 60
  9. ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.68
  10. ^ a b Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.69
  11. ^ Harrigan, Patrick (June 2002). "Sri Lanka's Coastal Veddas". Cultural Survival trust. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  12. ^ Seligman, pp. 11−12
  13. ^ Dharmadasa(Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), pp. 150−151
  14. ^ Meegaskumbura(Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.109
  15. ^ a b Seligman, p. 333
  16. ^ a b Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), pp. 70-71
  17. ^ a b Subramaniam, p.50
  18. ^ a b Seligman, pp. 336 - 337
  19. ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.75
  20. ^ Seligman, p. 335
  21. ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), pp. 73-76
  22. ^ a b c Seligman, p. 332
  23. ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), pp. 82-83

References

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Further reading

External links

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