Native chronicles such as '' Nadu Kadu Paraveni Kalvettu '' mention the socio-economic status of the Vedar as that of primitive hunter gatherers . The chronicles also mention that the chiefs amongst them received gifts such as clothes from settlers and state that the Vedar in turn provided meat and honey to the settler population , indicating a system of barter trade between the groups . Vedar also seem to have provided manual labor to clear forest lands , in exchange for an annual portion of the food crops harvested . When Tennent visited the east coast in 1858 , the Vedar were living in houses that were made of mud and thatch . They were moved seasonally from place to place dependent on the availability of fish and other game . They were surviving primarily as fishermen , as well as wage laborers working for timber merchants , cutting and transporting timber from the forests . By the time Seligman visited them in 1911 , he considered the Vedar subdivision to be economically better off than the rest of the Indigenous population of the interior . He attributed this to the assimilation of Tamil economic and cultural values by the Vedar clans , as well as to absorption of non-Vedar Tamils into Vedar families by intermarriage . Studies done in the 1980s by the anthropologist Jon Dart , indicated that Vedar in general were poorer than the rest of the Tamil and Muslim communities of the Eastern Province , which Dart attributed to their physical isolation in remote villages , as well as prevailing cultural norms that prevented them from fully integrating within the society . His studies did indicate that some Vedar had successfully integrated in Eastern society , with worldly possessions that did not much differ from those of their non-Vedar neighbors . The marked impact of the Sri Lankan civil war was also noted , due to the proximity of the Vedar 's native villages to the theaters of operations of both rebel LTTE and government forces . ( See Vaharai bombing )
Vaharai bombing
Vaharai bombing
Coast Veddas