Читать книгу Hidden Hunter-Gatherers of Indian Ocean. with appendix - Sergey Marlenovich Gabbasov - Страница 5

The Veddah community in the east, often referred to as “Muhudu Veddah” or “Veddahs of the sea”, reside mainly in the Districts of Trincomalee and Batticaloa. Despite being intrinsically connected to the “original inhabitants of the land”, this community bears very little resemblance to the original Veddahs. The Veddahs themselves have a belief that they migrated from the inlands, being driven from their native Sabaragamuwa during the 17^th century.

The Coastal Veddahs are often referred to as “Vardar”, “Vardaa” or “Vedar”. They are also referred to as “Palaya aalkal” (“ancient people”), a term ethnic Tamils fall back to when referring to a Veddah. Veddahs themselves prefer referring to them as “Vedar”, “Vedar Vellar” or just simply “Veddahs”. Canagaratnam considered the Vedar as a separate caste among the Tamil community itself (Canagaratnam 1921).

The title “Vellalar” is associated with the Tamil caste system prevalent in the north and the east. According to the caste hierarchical system, the Vellalar are an elite caste, thereby they receive privileges that are not associated with those of the lower castes. The Vellalar caste represents farmers, who are considered the highest of all castes apart from the Brahmins in the north of the country. This linkage with the title of Vellalar has helped the Veddah to shun his natural identity resulting in some acceptance within modern society. However, upon close inspection one would find out that this term has not been associated with Veddahs of the previous generation.

The older generation of Veddahs, despite not being able to give a clear date or place of their arrival in the coast, were of the opinion that their forefathers migrated to the coast of the country from a place with the name of “Gala” (“stone”). Taking the above into consideration, we can assume that these Veddahs migrated from either Dimbulagala or Nilgala, habitats situated close to the Batticaloa District. The Coast Veddahs do not know when they came or how they came, but they say that long ago their ancestors came from Gala, far beyond the hills to the west. They also sometimes say they came from Kukulugam near the Verukal, other suppose it to be somewhere far away.

Seligmanns (1911) suggested that the Coastal Veddahs and the Veddahs from Dimbulagala share certain similarities, including affiliation to the “Aembalawa” clan and this is used as a tool to evidence the relationships between the Veddahs of Dimbulagala and the Coastal Veddahs, thereby refuting the claim that they were in fact driven away from Sabaragamuwa Province in the 17^th century.

Seligmanns wrote that “The Coast Veddahs do not know when they came or how they came, but they say that long ago their ancestors came from the Gala, far beyond the hills to the west. They also sometimes say they came from Kukulu-gammaeda and spread out along the coast. Some say this is near Verukal; others suppose it to be somewhere far away” (Seligmann 1911).

When due recognition is given to empirical data it can be deduced that the origins of the Coastal Veddahs can be traced back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries. During that period, ethnic Sinhalese dominated the dwellings of Batticaloa and Hugh Neville’s research shows a presence of Coastal Veddahs during that time (Neville 1887). But Seligmanns stated (1911) that the Coastal Veddah settlements was limited to the north of Batticaloa. According to his discovery, the Nadukadu Record goes on to state that when Mudliyar Rajapakshe visits Batticaloa, he brings with him two Veddahs akin to modern day bodyguards. The reason was his fear of attack from another Veddah clan, which resided in an area then known as Palwekam. There is also a record of the visit of King Senarath to the eastern coast. During this visit it is said that the Veddah of the “Vegoda” clan played the role of “obedient servant” to the king (Neville 1987).

During the Dutch rule of the island (1658—1798), Francois Valentine prepared a map of Ceylon (1796), titled “New Katt Van Het Eyland Ceylan” and consisted of an area in the east coast reaching up to modern day Mulaithivu demarcated as Coastal Veddah territory. There are certain records of the Dutch using Veddahs as soldiers and slaves (Goens 1974).

Some Coastal Veddahs have no distinct features that would immediately distinguish them from village Tamils, they speak the local dialects and do not possess any knowledge of the Veddah language (de Silva 1972). Unlike many indigenous groups, the Veddahs are proud of their culture and heritage and seek to preserve it unless circumstances are clearly unfavorable, hence the integration can be attributed to the natural evolution of the Veddahs, rather than any external factor. Many of the Veddahs of the older generation were proud of the fact that they were in fact Veddahs and referred to themselves as Vardar. However, the younger generation seems less inclined to acknowledge the essence of their forefathers and preferred to call themselves Tamils as opposed to Vardars. Very few old men know the names of some of the Veddah warige.

The folk that we consider as Coastal Veddahs also dislike being identified with the indigenous people. This can be mainly attributed to the caste hierarchy prevalent in the eastern and northern regions of the country. The Tamils lay a lot of emphasis on the caste of an individual and to modern days certain practices which discriminate individuals according to their caste are prevalent. The Veddah community is considered the lowest of the regional castes and is shunned by persons of higher castes. As a result, there has been a tremendous loss of heritage and roots for the Coastal Veddah people.

The Coast Veddahs are expert fishermen and make and use of various forms of nets including a cast net. They also spear and shoot fish, using a bifid iron spear-head, 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 (Storey 1907).

The ancestors of the current community were Veddah hunters with the bow and arrow and other traditional weapons. Despite the non use of traditional weapons, the modern days Veddahs don’t seem to have forgotten their ancestral customs – they have hunter dogs and use them to hunt animals such as monitors and rabbits, sometimes wild boar, killing it by spears.

The Verdars are darker, taller and more stoutly built than the inland Veddah (Wanniyala-aetto). Coastal Veddahs build comfortable huts in small clearings, usually within a mile of the sea. They cultivate maize and pumpkins round their houses and in patches of clearings in the surrounding jungles. They have plenty of pots, baskets and fishing gear. Their mode of life differs but little from that of the poor and low caste Tamils who are their neighbours. The religion of the Coast Veddahs is strongly tinged with Tamil customs and beliefs.

Some of the Coast Veddahs know the names of the warige to which they belong, and a few know the names of some important warige of the Veddas inland. Uru warige appears to be the clan to which most of the Coast Veddahs who remembered their ancestral warige belonged, very few stated that they belonged to Ogatam, Kavatam, Umata (Umatam), Aembalaneduwe and Aembala warige (the last one is probably the same as the inland Aembala warige). At the time of Seligmanns’ research very few can remember Morane warige and fewer know Unapane (Seligmann 1911).