A genetic study of the Veddas and the Sinhalese

Abstract

Sixteen polymorphic and 6 monomorphic gene loci have been studied in veddhas from Kandeganvila, Millans and Dimbulagala and in Sinhalese from Badulla in Sri Lanka. The genetic identity between the two populations was calculated from frequencies of the phenotypes at such locus using the formula of NEi. The genetic distance between the two population groups calculated from these genetic identities also using Nei's formulae, is approximately 50,000 years. This corresponds to the period of which Homo sapiens balangodensis is postulated to have been in existence in Sri Lanka. It is postulated that the differeces in some of the allele frequencies between the two populations date from he late paleolithic period of Sri Lanka