King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

and the countries they visited. 47 This list is repeated in theSamantapāsādikā in detail. With regard to the names of the individualmissionaries Mookerji says that the truth of the legendhas been unexpectedly confirmed in some inscriptions foundin the stūpas of Sānchi of the second or first century B.C., 48where names of the missionaries referred to in the chroniclesare inscribed. 49 An inscription at Mihintale belonging to thefirst century mentions Mahinda and this is confirmed by documentaryevidence in Sri Lanka as wells. 50 A similar inscriptionwas found at Rajagala where the relics of both the ElderMahinda and his companion the Elder Itthiya are enshrinedin a stūpa. Palaeographically this inscription belongs to the 2 ndcentury B.C. 51After the Third Great Council held at Pāṭaliputta, accordingto the chronicles, Mahinda was requested by his preceptorMoggaliputta Tissa to visit Sri Lanka and establish the BuddhistDispensation. Mahinda concluded that it was not theproper time to go there since Mutasiva, the reigning monarch,was old and it was not possible to establish the Dispensationunder his patronage. Accordingly, Mahinda awaited the accessionof Mutasiva’s son Tissa to the throne and spent time visitingrelatives and his mother at Vedisagiri. After the death ofMutasiva, Tissa ascended the throne of Anuradhapura. It wasthen that Tissa sent gifts to Aśoka with a missionary. The ElderMahinda, who spent a month at Vedisagiri accompanied by sixothers, sprang up from the mountain Vedisa, and after travellingthrough the air, he landed on the Missakapabbata (Mihintale)near Anuradhapura on the full-moon day of Jeṭṭhamula(May – June). It seems that Mahinda took about seven monthsto visit Sri Lanka after the Pāṭaliputta council. This long delaymay be accounted for as the time taken for the journey by the131