An Analytical Study on the Singing Style of the Dambana Ādivāsi Community in Sri Lanka

Indigenous people in Sri Lanka (Ādivāsi) are usually an isolated community living in a country or region who have a specific language, culture, and way of life belonging to generations that are endemic to each country or region. While indigenous communities are the inheritors of the earliest history of a country, those in Sri Lanka are referred to as the “Vedi” community (Veddas). Possessing a unique language, culture, and lifestyle, they have coined the term “Wanniyalaeto” (forest dwellers) to refer to themselves. The purpose of this research is to identify the music of the Dambāna Ādivāsi community and to examine the characteristics of their music from an ethnomusicological aspect. The analysis of this research is twofold: qualitatively and quantitatively. Data was collected through the use of audio-recorded interviews, field observations, formal discussions as well as studying existing literature on the matter. The basic features of chanting can be seen in the Vedi chants of the Ādivāsi folk, while reflections of man’s first attempts at singing a line of words can be gleaned at through Vedi songs. Vedi Daru Nalavili (indigenous lullabies) in the Dambana region are a prominent source in the study of ethnomusicology in Sri Lanka. In finding the unique identity possessed by Ādivāsi music through examination of the notations and tonality of their music, a new method of analyzing audio recordings is introduced in this study. Here, the use of Python programming to extract and filter the pitch-time data of an audio signal and then graphically analyze it using Origin is utilized. Within this analysis approach, the tonality of the music, as well as the quotients between successive intervals was also noted. A significant aspect of this study is that while the music of the Ādivāsi community is discussed in researches, a quantitative study into it has not been approached since Myers’ analysis of Ādivāsi music, which is found as a chapter in the text by the Seligmanns in 1911, which might also be the given time frame of the identification. This study also goes on to show that the music of the Veddas can indeed be considered as prehistoric music3, and the importance of conserving this intangible cultural heritage is of utmost importance in contemporary times.