It has been hypothesized that the Vedda were probably the earliest inhabitants of Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since before the arrival of other groups from the Indian mainland.

[9] The study concluded that the Veddas were "a genetically drifted group with limited gene flow from neighbouring Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamil populations" and that the maternal Haplogroup M mediated their initial settlement of the island.

A 2011 study on dental characteristics suggested a close relation between Vedda and other South Asians as well as to western Eurasian populations.

According to Raghavan et al. the cranial characteristics of the Vedda are closest to other South Asians and distinct from "Australo-Melanesians".

It was determined in the study to be likely that the branches of haplogroups R and U "found to be particularly prevalent in the Vedda, were derived from ancestors on the Indian subcontinent.

Another study on alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein allele frequency showed the Veddas and Sinhalese to be more biologically related to each other than to most other ethnic groups in Asia.

[citation needed] When a systematic field study was conducted in 1959, it was determined that the language was confined to the older generation of Veddas from Dambana.

Per its Creole tradition, it has reduced and simplified many forms of Sinhala such as second person pronouns and denotations of negative meanings.

Veddas that have adopted Sinhala are found primarily in the southeastern part of the country, especially in the vicinity of Bintenne in Uva Province.

[20][21] Another group, often termed East Coast Veddas, is found in coastal areas of the Eastern Province, between Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

The chief proponent of the dialect theory was Wilhelm Geiger, but he also contradicted himself by claiming that Vedda was a relexified aboriginal language.

[27] Veddas, along with the Island's Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities, venerate the temple complex situated at Kataragama, showing the syncretism that has evolved over 2,000 years of coexistence and assimilation.

Kataragama is supposed to be the site where the Hindu god Skanda or Murugan in Tamil met and married a local tribal girl, Valli, who in Sri Lanka is believed to have been a Vedda.

Monogamy is the general rule, though a widow would frequently marry her husband's brother as a means of support and consolation (levirate marriage).

[30] The Vedda perception of the world when originally studied in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries was not divided into polarities as life and afterlife or living and dead.

[30] In the words of John Bailey studying this population in 1853: "the Veddahs have a vague belief in a host of undefined spirits, whose influence is rather for good than evil...they believe the air is peopled by spirits, that every rock and every tree, every forest and every hill, in short every feature of nature, has its genus loci;but these seem little else than nameless phantoms whom they regard with mysterious awe than actual dread".

[31] In addition to this experience of the world often referred to as "animism" they have a belief that after death every relative is a spirit "of those who watches over the welfare of those left behind.

This was often held "to present an offering to the newly dead within a week or two of their decease...The yaku of the recently dead....are supposed to stand towards the surviving members of the group in the light of friends and relatives, who if well treated will continue to show loving kindness to their survivors, and only if neglected will show disgust and anger by withdrawing their assistance, or becoming actively hostile.

Bori Bori Sellam-Sellam Bedo Wannita, Palletalawa Navinna-Pita Gosin Vetenne, Malpivili genagene-Hele Kado Navinne, Diyapivili Genagene-Thige Bo Haliskote Peni, Ka tho ipal denne Meaning of this song: The bees from yonder hills of Palle Talawa and Kade suck nectar from the flowers and made the honeycomb.

[34] Many Veddas also farm, frequently using slash and burn or swidden cultivation, which is called Hena in Sri Lanka.

Venison and the flesh of rabbit, turtle, tortoise, monitor lizard, wild boar and the common brown monkey are consumed with much relish.

When the Ruwanweli Seya was built in King Dutugemunu's time (2nd century BCE) the Veddas procured the necessary minerals from the jungles.

[21][36][37][38] Land acquisition for mass irrigation projects, government forest reserve restrictions, and the civil war have disrupted traditional Vedda ways of life.

[41] In 1985, the Veddha Chief Thissahamy and his delegation were obstructed from attending the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations.

[41] Dr. Wiveca Stegeborn, an anthropologist, has been studying the Vedda since 1977 and alleges that their young women are being tricked into accepting contracts to the Middle East as domestic workers when in fact they will be trafficked into prostitution or sold as sex slaves.

"Vedda" has been used in Sri Lanka to mean not only hunter-gatherers but also to refer to any people who adopt an unsettled and rural way of life and thus can be a derogatory term not based on ethnic group.