113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

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of South Indian Tamila whose leaders were the chiefs of the Vanni
districts These Tamil sources preserve traditions relating to
the migration of this caste to Ceylon, which event appears to
have taken place in the early part of the thirteenth century.
In the present day, with the opening up of several colonisation
schemes in the Vanni, the Vaiyar caste has almost become
integrated into the Sinhalese and Tamil population. But in the
nineteenth century when the Vanni was being opened up for the
first time the Vanniyar formed a distinct caste and followed
their age-old occupation of bunting and occasional cultivation.
Not all the people of the Vanni areas belonged to the Vaiyar
caste. In fact only a small percentage of the people of the
Vanni were Vaiyars. The following observation of Fowler is
worthy of note in this context.
These people are the Wanniaha and are entirely dependent
on hunting and occasional chena cultivation. They have
no money and cannot buy land. These Wanniaha are a distinct
caste, of which these men are the only representatives
in the province. (There are five or six villages in the
North-Central Province, I believe). They still use the
primitive bow and. arrow and. are well acquainted with the
most remote jungles through which they wander in search
of honey and game. There are some peculiarities in their
dialect, which with their mode of life, suggest relationship
with the Veddah, but they alto ether repudiate the idea. 2
1. See infra, pp . 3 fl-
2. S .Fowler, Diary of 3rd ?iay 1 87, quoted in the lionthly egister
and Noted and Queries for Ceylon, II, No. 5, May 189k, p. 98.