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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. IX. 



of a very high caste, and call themselves Vedda Vellalas. 

 From these communications we see clearly that the designa- 

 tion " Vellala," which we find also in Hindustan, has only a 

 hierarchical meaning, but is of no help at all toward the 

 discovery of the relationship and derivation of the tribe. 



Another name here requires particular mention, as it is 

 liable to introduce confusion. It is the name " Dada Veddas," 

 which is given to a division of the Sudra (Kshudra) caste, 

 that being one of the very lowest classes : hunters dwelling 

 in the wildest parts of the mountain region.* 



Knox f says the lowest of the low are beggars, who are the 

 descendants of the "Dodda Vaddahs, which signifies hunters ;" 

 it had been their task to provide game for the King of Kandy. 

 When, however, instead of venison they brought him human 

 flesh, the king had them thrust out, and given over to beggary. 

 The detailed description which he gives of them shows that 

 he means one of the outcasts. Davy cites two kinds of them : 

 the Gattaru and the Rodiyas, or Gasmando, whom he compares 

 with the gypsies. The latter are now usually called 

 Rodiyas. Of them Sir Emerson TennentJ relates the same 

 story that Knox tells of the Dada Veddas, adding that a 

 legend declares them to be a branch of the Veddas. A still 

 more minute description of them has been furnished by Mr. 

 Casie Chetty. § He calls them a peculiar and distinctive race, 

 either descendants from a colony of wandering hordes out of 

 India, or the last remnants of an aboriginal population mixed 

 with Sinhalese women of high caste, who had been punished 

 by the king with loss of caste. They live, he goes on to say, 

 in the interior, not great in numbers, — perhaps, in all, not 

 above one thousand, — scattered, or in special detached 

 villages (kuppdyam). In the Seven Korales two divisions 

 are distinguished : the Tiringa Rodi and the Halpage Bodi. 



* Davy, I. c. } pp. 112-27. Philalethes, I. c, p. 331. 

 f Knox, I. c, p. 70. + Tennent, I. c, II., p. 187. 



§ Simon Casie Chetty. Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society, 1853, p. 171. 



