King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

successfully paint his glowing picture of Mahinda’s miraculousconversion of the island. Buddhism did exist in Sri Lankaprior to the visit of Thera Mahinda though it was only afterDevānampiya Tissa’s conversion that it became the state religionof the country. 44Ultimately, this led to the formation of the monastic orderand thereby the establishment of the Buddha Sāsana in theisland. 457. The Advent of MahindaThe account of Elder Mahinda’s advent is narrated in the Palichronicles Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa and in the Vinaya commentary,the Samantapāsādikā, the latter being in agreementwith the Mahāvaṃsa.According to these chronicles Mahinda’s advent tookplace only after the Third Council. While some Indian scholarslike Romila Thapar, who regard the Pali sources as unreliable,doubt this account, 46 the Third Council itself and themissionary work which followed it are accepted as factual bythe majority of scholars. In Sri Lanka, the chronicles and theother Pali sources are held in such high esteem because theiraccounts are further confirmed by the Schism Edict in whichAśoka speaks of continued unity of the Saṅgha and the expulsionof dissident monks and nuns.The Third Buddhist Council was held at Pāṭaliputta withthe Thera Moggaliputta Tissa presiding over it. After the councilwas concluded Buddhist missionaries were sent to variousparts of the Indian subcontinent and to the neighbouring countries.Mahinda Thera was sent to Sri Lanka in the twentiethregnal year of Aśoka, in 249 B.C.The Mahāvaṃsa gives us the names of the missionaries130