Little-known coastal Veddhas

By D.C. Ranatunga
A Veddah is generally identified as a bare-chested man, carrying a short ‘porawa’ on his shoulder with the hair tied behind in a ‘konde’. This description does not fit in to the Veddah community in the east who are referred to as ‘Muhudu Veddahs’ – Veddahs of the Sea.
They mainly live in the districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa. They do not resemble the indigenous people as we know, possibly because most of them have married into native Tamil families and lead the normal way of life of the community. The names like Ponnamma and Vasanthi do not have any traditional Veddah touch.

Researchers have found that the older generation of coastal Veddahs were of the opinion that their forefathers migrated to the east from a place with the name ‘gala’ (rock). Thus it is possible that they had gone from either Dimbulagala or Nilgala, habitats close to the Batticaloa District.
Some believe that they had come to the coastal areas in the 13th and 14th centuries. According to researcher Hugh Neville, the coastal village of Akkaraipattu had a Veddah chieftain by the name Puliyan. He was hailed as the chief of seven Veddah villages and his village was called Puliynthiwu. It is recorded that Batticaloa as a whole was named Puliynthiuwa.
In his acclaimed book, ‘The Veddas’ (1911) Seligman writes: “The Coast Veddhas are expert fishermen and make and use various forms of nets including a cast net. They also spear and shoot fish using a bifid iron spearhead which they have adopted from the Tamils. For shooting fish they use the usual Veddah bow but the arrow has become a harpoon with a shaft as long as the bow into which the iron with its running line fits loosely.”
The Dilmah research team had met Tamil speaking Veddahs during their journey to Kataragama with the pilgrims who walk from the north. The team noticed that there was a section of people who kept a visible distance from the Tamil-speaking pilgrims. Quite by accident they had met the leader of this group – an 18-year-old young man named Tiruchelvam, who had inherited the leadership of the clan from his grandfather known as Kandan.
Tiruchelvam had a completely different view of the existence of the Tamil speaking coastal Veddahs. “Although today most of us are Tamil, we were Sinhalese three or four generations ago,” he said. According to him, the British had created settlements for seven Sinhala Veddah families. They were given land along the coastal belt reaching Trincomalee on one side and Batticaloa on the other. The families had earlier been residents of a place named Palivena situated within the precincts of Batticaloa.
Today there are 15 villages in the surroundings of Muttur and Thopur with a predominantly Tamil speaking Veddah population which Tiruchelvam estimates to be over ten thousand. In addition, villages such as Thiriyaya, Kuchchaveli and Jaffna also have a considerable number of Tamil speaking coastal Veddahs.
The coastal Veddahs do not use the tradition al bow and arrow for hunting and they confess they do not possess the skill to hunt with traditional weapons. “We have the bows and arrows that our forefathers used but we keep them in reverence and pay homage to them,” they say. “We have hunter dogs and we use them to hunt animals such as monitors and rabbit. Once in a while we use them to chase and hunt wild boar and use our spears to kill them once they are hunted down.”
A majority of coastal Veddahs earn a living by doing various jobs. Some of them have told the Dilmah team that since they do not have any paddy land they don’t have the luxury to cultivate. They can only help others in cultivation work.
They have also forgotten the distinct and unique Veddah language, nor do they use the traditional names, thereby losing their identity. Although there is a Tamil identity in their present names, on close examination it’s not difficult to trace some link to the names traditionally used by the community. Kandan (Kanda), Velan (Vela), Kadiran (Kadira) and Walli (Walliamma) are a few examples.
Veddah ancestors found divinity in the dead and this phenomenon is common among the Veddahs everywhere. Many of the coastal Veddahs, however, have moved over to the worship of Hindu gods. They also pay homage to numerous deities.

(Source: ‘The Veddahs’ – a Dilmah publication)