Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c15.s1.t2.34

c15.s1.t2.34

In Edict XIII Aśoka declares that the "conquest of the Law of Piety,......has been won by His Sacred Majesty......among all his neighbours as far as six hundred leagues, where the king of the Greeks named Antiochos dwells, and beyond (the realm) of that Antiochos (where dwell) the four kings (*rājāno*) severally Ptolemy (Turamāyo), Antigonos (Aṁtekina), Magas (Maga or Maka), and Alexander (Alikasudaro)—(likewise) in the south (*micha*), the Cholas and the Pāṇḍyas as far as Tambapaṁni......Even where the envoys (*dūtā*) of His Sacred Majesty do not penetrate,³ those people, too, hearing His Sacred Majesty's ordinance based upon the Law of Piety and his instruction in the Law, practise and will practise the Law."¹ Buddhism doubtless made some progress in Western Asia and influenced later sects like the Manichaeans. But Greeks apparently were not much impressed by lessons on non-violence. When the strong arm of Aśoka, "who possessed the power to punish inspite of his repentance," was withdrawn, the Yavanas poured once more into the Kābul valley, the Pañjab and the *Madhya-deśa* and threw all the province into confusion. The southern missions were more successful. Curiously enough, the Ceylonese chronicles do not seem to refer to the envoys sent to the independent Tamil and Hellenistic kingdoms² but name the missionaries sent to Ceylon and **Suvaṇṇabhūmi** (Lower Burma and Sumatra). The Ceylonese mission was headed by prince Mahendra who secured the conversion of Devānaṁpiya Tissa and many of his people. No direct reference to Suvaṇṇabhūmi occurs in the Edicts hitherto discovered.