The Vedda of Sri Lanka represent the indigenous hunter-gatherer population of the island. Currently the word “Indigenous” is used as a general term to refer native or traditional people living in many countries all around the world. Indigenous people can be defined as follow.

 “Indigenous peoples are the descendants of those who were there before others, who now constitute the mainstream and dominant society. They are defined partly by descend, partly by particular features that indicate their distinctiveness from those who arrived latter and partly by their own view of themselves” (Corry, 2011, p. 18).

Sri Lankan Indigenous people: the Vedda people have been recognized as a distinct human race due to their cultural and biological uniqueness. Today, majority of this group, who self-identified themselves as Vedda, speaks an Indo-European language and do not depend on hunting and gathering as their way of subsistence (Kulathilake, 2012). They have been identified as a group of people who are being culturally and biologically diminishing due to their assimilation with other main populations of the country.  This assimilation process has been taken place over the past ca. 2500 years. Mechanisms of cultural change; acculturation and diffusion have affected their traditional cultural systems and have given birth to admixed cultural and biological features.

“Indigenous hunter gathers”, no longer exist in Sri Lanka. Hundred years have passed after the famous account on Veddas by reputed ethnologist C. G. Seligman. At present historically mentioned indigenous people have been limited only to book chapters. The only indigenous group in Sri Lanka is now at the threshold of disappearing. They are admixing with the mainstream and associating with the globalisation process and seeking a way for the tomorrow’s world as traditional way of life no longer facilitate them. At present, we have to read and look at their ancestors’ photographs to see actual indigenous people of the land. Nevertheless contemporary some kind of cultural uniqueness have stored under the arms of their older generation as youngsters have not tend to protect their identity as well as their culture as it have  not successfully enable to eliminate their hunger. Thus, the remaining indigenous uniqueness too is being disappearing rapidly.

In the past indigenous groups were mainly found at Bintenna as stated in the writings of Robert Knox and John Devy (Knox, 1817; Davy, 1983).  Bintenna is situated in Uva Province also known as Maha Vedhi Rata (Vedda Country). In 1911 Seligman had visited about 16 Vedda communities (Seligman, 2011). In 1978 James Brow wrote about 44 villagers scattered in Anuradhapura with the population about 6000 (Brow, 2011).

The habituation of indigenous population seemed to be limited to few regions in mid-20^th century.  As a consequence of the Mahawali Development Project in 1960’s, currently they have been restricted to very few regions of Sri Lanka. At present indigenous people can be seen mainly in the Eastern, Uva and North Central Provinces of Sri Lanka including in the Districts of Moneragala, Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Badulla (Silva &  Punchihewa, 2011).

Although they have been limited to few Districts, influence of majority Sinhala and Tamil Populations have not confined. Before the analysis of the current state of the Veddas, it is important to visualize how the Vedda settlements have increasingly become bounded making them a vulnerable group. It is even more important to identify the current population sizes at each location (Silva & Punchihewa, 2011).

Vedda people were not included as a separate group in the Census from 1963 as a consequence of the decreasing numbers in their population. Thus from 1963 they have included under the category “Other”. In this manner, we cannot count exact number of indigenous populations of Sri Lanka from 1963.  This was not a good practice as the indigenous population is declining, it is important to record their population number as well as their assimilation or migration patterns on regional basis.

Research conducted by Silva et al, in 2011 have assumed the entire population of Vedda population in Sri Lanka as 10,000 including the areas of Muttur, Panama Wilachchiya Anuradhapura, Dambana, Rathugala, Pollebedda, Dalukana, Henanigala and Vakarai (Silva & Punchihewa, 2011, p. 27).

Table 1: Vedda population in Sri Lanka from 1911 – 2012 (Thousands)

¹-Included under the category of “Other”: Vedda and European Ethnic Groups (Census Report, 2012, p. 129).

Few early studies focusing on physical characteristics of these specific people have done in the late 19^th century on Sri Lankan indigenous groups (SLIG) with small no of samples and majority with doubtful anthropometric techniques. Virchow (1886), Deschamps (1891:334-335), and Sarasin (1893) can be stated as few of earliest researchers who studied physical and biological features of Vedda People (Deraniyagala,  1961).

The most comprehensive work on the physical anthropology of Veddas has been done by Hill (1941), who published a detailed description of the anthropometry and morphology of a series of 34 living male Veddas. In addition, works Chanmugam (1949), by P. E. P. Deranigala, H. Marett (1939), Hill (1937), Kennady (1965), Wikesekara (1964), Kulathilake (1996-2013) have produced sound data on this Vedda people. However, until now very few Physical anthropological studies on SLIG have conducted that compares with the socio-cultural data.

Wikramanayake et al, (1994), Pathmanathan (1993) and Hewapathirana et al (2014), Chandimal et al (2012)  have focused on nutritional, oral disease patterns and on the tooth patterns of the Vedda people.

When searching the accounts on the physical anthropological studies on SLIG from 1886 up until now it is apparent that considerably fewer studies has been done. Only few  indigenous people have scatted all over the Sri Lanka now and their significant physical characteristics are disappearing due to the massive assimilation with the mainstream societies of the country. Present study was focused on the physical characteristics of the indigenous groups in Henanigala and Yakkure and those data will fill the gaps of the literature on physical anthropological characteristic of these diminishing populations.

However, considerable literature on the socio-cultural data on indigenous people of Sri Lanka has collected by many of researches from all around the world including Sri Lanka. Very first, most important and comprehensive discovery on indigenous groups was done in 1911 by reputed Ethnologists C. G. Seligman and Z. B. Seligman. They had studied about 16 indigenous groups inhabited throughout the Eastern, North Central and Uva Provinces in Sri Lanka, including coastal Veddas in Eastern coast. They have divided these people into three categories as: Veddas, Village Veddas, and coastal Veddas. Under these categories he has describe their chronological status, social organization, family life, property and inheritance, religion, magic, rituals, art craft, music, language and their sensuality of five senses (Seligman, 2011).

Then onwards these remnant people have been focused in to many studies from the aspect of their socio cultural background such as by the scholars N. Wijesekara, James Brow (1970) Dharmadasa and Samarasinghe (1990), Jon Dart (1990), Thangaraja (1995), Obeyesekere (2002), Punchihewa and Silva (2011) etc.

Corry, S. (2011). Tribal Peoples for Tomorrow’s World. Alcester: A Freeman Press Publication.

Brow, J. (2011). Vedda Villages of Anuradhapura:The Historical Anthropology of a Community in Sri Lanka. Colombo 5: Social Scientist’s Association.

Census Report. (1901). Sri Lanka: Department of Census and Population Statistic.

Census Report. (2012). Sri Lanka: Department of Census and Population Statistic.

Seligman, C. G., & Seligman, B. Z. (2011). The Veddas. (C. Ranasinghe, Trans.) Colombo: Surasa Publication.

Silva, P. D., & Punchihewa, A. G. (2011). Socio-Anthropological Research Project on Vedda Community in Sri Lanka. Colombo: University of Colombo.

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