A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s1.22

v2.c19.s1.22

The chroniclers of Ceylon then go on to relate that it was Tissa, the President of the council, who first sent out missionaries to the North and the South and prepared the way for the propagation of Buddhism in foreign lands. A pupil of Tissa was Mahinda, the younger brother (according to another tradition, the son) of Aśoka, who is supposed to have brought Buddhism and the Buddhist texts to Ceylon. It is conceivable that legends took up this apostle of Ceylon; and even though we shall not believe the chronicler when he says that Mahinda and the monks who were accompanying him flew, like flamingoes, through the air to Ceylon, yet we need not reject the whole tradition,¹ but may suppose that underlying the many legends, there is the one historical fact that Mahinda actually introduced Buddhism into Ceylon and brought with him the texts of the canon. These texts are said to have been first transmitted orally, until, under the Singhalese king Vaṭṭagāmani, in the first century B.C., they were committed to writing. This again sounds quite trustworthy.²