History Grade 07

This essay introduces the Arya people and how they arrived in India. Their origins are detailed at some great length, a distinguishing feature of this essay. The essay presents Vijaya’s story from a more nuanced, one could say multi-dimensional, standpoint, unlike in other textbooks. The story of a merchant called “Sinhala” has, to be sure, been mentioned in other books, but none of them relate that story to the formation of civilization in Ceylon and the origin myths of Europe.

How settlements were built in Ceylon, the origin myth of the lion, are all presented here from a comparative perspective, with references to sources from Rome, Assyria, and India. As with the 1999 syllabus, illustrations and maps have been used here.

This essay does not emphasize the Vijaya story that much. There is very little one gets to know about Vijaya, Kuveni, the Yaksha tribe, and Vijaya’s and Kuveni’s children. The textbook does describe the administration of the country following Vijaya’s reign.