 Team of Vedars preparing for the Sadangu ceremony in Vaharai in 1900s | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ca. 8,000 (1983)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Eastern Province, Sri Lanka | |
| Languages | |
| Sri Lankan Tamil Vedda language also used for religious purposes | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Vedda people, Anuradhapura Veddas, Sri Lankan Tamil people |
The Coast Veddas (Tamil: கரையோர வேடர்கள், romanized: Karaiyōra Vēṭarkaḷ, Sinhala: වෙරළේ වැද්දන්, romanized: Veraḷē Væddan), by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka. They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao. Nevertheless, they also inhabit a few villages south of Batticalao as well. They make a living by fishing, slash and burn agriculture, paddy cultivation of rice, basket weaving for market and occasional wage labor. Anthropologists consider them to be partly descended from the indigenous 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 dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from the Vedda language.[3] Most Vedar are Hindu Saivites and worship a plethora of folk deities, as well as the main Hindu deities such as Murugan, Pillaiyar and Amman. They also maintain the ancestor worship tradition of the interior Veddas. Clan divisions, if they still exist, do not play an important role in choosing of marriage partners or place of domicile. Most identify themselves as a caste among the Tamils as opposed to a separate ethnic group.[4] Their economic conditions have been impacted by the Sri Lankan civil war.
- ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p.83
- ^ The article uses Vedda to indicate those who are from the interior and Vedar to describe the Coast Veddas
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
JonDart73was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Jon Dart (Samarasinghe, S. W. R. de A[edit]), p. 70