New book on Wanniyela Aththo
As the war in the pearl of the Indian ocean rages the Veddas have
almost disappeared from the country says a new book.
"Practically unseen, they became the stuff of folklore-and tended to
be remembered as elf like creatures who existed in half-legend and
half-reality. Known as 'Yakshas' in some Sinhalese accounts, a mystical
mask is imposed on their aboriginal identity," says the book 'Sri Lanka,
A Land in Search of Itself', by Mohan K. Tikku.
A Senior fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),
Delhi, Tikku was Hindustan Times correspondent in Colombo through the
IPKF years. Those among the Veddas who were assimilated by the dominant
culture and community, lived in the cities and the villages to a settled
life style, naturally, they lost touch with the others who were left
behind in the jungles.
Most did not even know if they still survived, or how, the book says.
The Veddas inhabited the island at least 14,000 years ago. If anyone,
they are the original Sri Lankans. For it looks like that at some point
in pre-history- and quite close to Sri Lanka's Neolithic period- these
people crossed the shallow waters of what later came to be known as the
Palk Strait to reach the island.
Like the Ho and Birhors of Chota Nagpur in Central India, the Veddas
belong to the Austro-Asiatic family. Among their other cousins are the
Kubus of Indonesia, The sakai in Malaysia and the Aborigines of
Australia, the author says.
Strangely, the people who inhabited the island long before either
Tamils or the Sinhalese appeared on the scene have not been part of the
'me first' debate. If at all, they have been practically ignored -
pushed as they were beyond the margins of society.
PTI |