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The Vedda or Wanniyalaeto,are a minority indigenous group of people in Sri Lanka who, among other sub-communities such as Coast Veddas, Anuradhapura Veddas and Bintenne Veddas,are accorded indigenous status. The Vedda minority in Sri Lanka may become completely assimilated.Most speak Sinhala instead of their indigenous languages, which are nearing extinction. It has been hypothesized that the Vedda were probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since before the arrival of other ethnic groups in India.

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. The very name Sabaragamuwa is believed to have meant the village of the Sabaras or "forest barbarians". Place-names such 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.

Etymology

Ethnonyms of Vedda include Vadda, Veddah, Veddha and Vaddo."Vedda" is either a Dravidian word and stems from Tamil word Vēdu meaning "hunting",or from Sanskrit vyādha ("hunter") or veddhṛ ("the one who pierces").

Anthropology

The Vedda are often seen as the native population of Sri Lanka. A 2011 study on dental characteristics suggested a close relation between Vedda and other South Asians as well as to western Eurasian populations.A 2012 study on crania showed the Vedda to have close affinities with other South Asian populations such as other Sri Lankans, South Indians, and Punjabis and to differ significantly from Andaman islanders.

A 2013 craniometric study by Raghavan et al. showed that the Vedda are closely related to other groups in Sri Lanka and India, especially to Sinhalese and Tamils, and also indicated deep relations between South Asian populations and the modern populations of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. According to Raghavan et al. the cranial characteristics of the Vedda are closest to other South Asians and distinct from “Australo-Melanesians”. However, Raghavan et al. also, while also noting the distinctiveness of between South Asian (including Vedda) and Andamanese crania, explain that this is not in conflict with genetic evidence showing a partial common ancestry (a non-West Eurasian component known as "Ancestral South Indian" or "ASI") and genetic affinity between South Asians and the native Andamanese (who are sometimes classified as Australo-Melanesians), stating that "The distinctiveness of Andamanese and southern Indian crania need not challenge the finding by Reich et al. for an “Ancestral South Indian” ancestry shared by southern Indians and Andamanese", and that the differences may be in part due to the greater craniometric specialization of South Asians compared to Andamanese.

Genetics

Groups ancestral to the modern Veddas were probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka. Their arrival is dated tentatively to about 40,000–35,000 years ago. They show a relationship with other South Asian and Sri Lankan populations, but are genetically distinguishable from the other peoples of Sri Lanka, and show a high degree of intra-group diversity. This is consistent with a long history of existing as small subgroups undergoing significant genetic drift.

In one study on maternal (mitochondrial DNA) haplogroups in Sri Lankan populations (the Vedda, Sri Lankan Tamil, and Sinhalese), the Vedda were found to carry predominantly haplogroups U and R and to carry maternal haplogroup M at about 17%, unlike the Tamil people and many mainland Indian tribal groups, among which haplogroup M is predominant. The Vedda people and Low-country Sinhalese showed frequencies of haplogroup R at 45.33 and 25%, respectively. The Vedda were found to be distinct but closer to Sinhalese than to other South Asian groups (including the Sri Lankan Tamils, who are believed to be of "more recent origin from the mainland" and less long-established in Sri Lanka than the Vedda or Sinhalese). It was determined in the study to be likely that the branches of haplogroups R and U "found to be particularly prevalent in the Vedda, were derived from ancestors on the Indian subcontinent."

Another study on maternal haplogroups in Sri Lankan groups (also the Vedda, Sri Lankan Tamil, and Sinhalese) found similar results, with the Vedda belonging predominantly to the mitochondrial haplogroup N (which "exists in almost all European, Oceanian, and many Asian and Amerindian populations.") and its subgroups U and R (with those comprising about two thirds of their maternal lineages), differing from other South Asian groups (such as the Sri Lankan Tamil, Sinhalese, and several Indian Tribal groups) among whom haplogroup M is predominant. The study also found that "South Asian (Indian) haplogroups were predominant" in the three Sri Lankan groups (including the Vedda) but that the Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamil, and Vedda populations also "had a considerable presence of West Eurasian haplogroups." One phylogenetic study on mitochondrial DNA hypervariable segments HVI and part of HVII showed the Vedda to be "genetically distinct from other major ethnic groups (Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils) in Sri Lanka." Another study on alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein allele frequency showed the Veddas and Sinhalese to be more biologically related to each other than to most other ethnic groups in Asia.

Veddha chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo