No. 24. — 1881.] ORIGIN OF THE VEDDAS. 97 



It will be seen from the above exegesis that they (Ku- 

 veni's children, Jivvahatto and Disala) are spoken of by the 

 commentator as "the progenitors" [A'di purisa], of the 

 Pulindas (Veddas). 



I am, moreover, in a position to add that the tradition that 

 the Veddas are the descendants of Kuveni's children by 

 Vijayo, is still current in some parts of the Kandyan country. 

 In 1879, when 1 visited the Eatnapura and U'va Districts to 

 inspect Temple Libraries, I made it a point to collect informa- 

 tion about the Veddas, whenever an opportunity occurred. 

 When at Pelmadulla Vihare, I enquired from the incumbent, 

 Induruwe Piyadassi Unnanse, whether he knew anything about 

 the origin of the Veddas, and, to my surprise, he said at once 

 that the tradition is that they are descendants of Kuveni's 

 children by Vijayo. On my enquiry, whether he had read the 

 passage in the Mahawartso which forms the subject of this 

 note, he replied he had never seen it, but that his information 

 was derived from a Sinhalese work on the Veddas. which he had 

 seen long ago in the possession of a native. He added that, 

 according to that work, the Veddas first settled in Sabara- 

 gamuwa, and hence the name for the district from Sahara 

 ' a Vedda,' and gamuwa i a Village,' in strict conformity with 

 the tradition, recorded in the Mahawanso, that Kuveni's chil- 

 dren settled themselves in the country near Samantakuta 

 mountain (Adam's Peak), and became "numerous by their sons 

 and daughters." 5 I made every possible endeavour, both at 

 Ratnapura and Badulla, to trace the work referred to, but 

 unfortunately without success. 



When at Badulla, a low-country Sinhalese man, who had 

 travelled much in Bintenna, and from whom I collected infor- 

 mation about the Veddas, their songs, charms, &c, also stated 

 the tradition current in Bintenna is 1 that the Veddas are 

 descendants of Kuveni's children.' He further informed me 

 that the Veddas themselves claim to be descendants of royalty, 



