Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c41.s2.21

v2.c41.s2.21

The question is how far the Ceylonese tradition about the despatch of missionaries to different countries can be relied on. The find of the relic-urn, on the inner and outer lid of which appear the following two inscriptions respectively: *Sapurisa [sa] Majhimasa* and *Sapurisa[sa] Kāsapagotasa Hemavatācariyasa* is a definite proof of the fact that Majjhima with Kassapagotta Thera propagated the religion in the Himalayan countries. In view of the fact that Mahāvihāra became the repository of the Pāli Piṭaka and a centure of the Theravāda sect, we may accept the traditional accounts about the missionary activities of Mahinda in Ceylon as fairly authentic. That the members of the Theravāda sect or the Theriya Nikāya as they are called in the *Nikāya Saṅgraha* (see above, p. 268) were imbued with a missionary spirit is amply corroborated by one of the Nāgārjunikoṇḍa inscriptions (3rd or 4th century A.D.); It runs as follows:—