north was doubtless maintained, for in the reign of Asoka we find the
King of Ceylon making overtures to him and receiving with enthusiasm
the missionaries whom he sent. It is possible that southern India
played a greater part in this conversion than the accepted legend
indicates, for we hear of a monastery built by Mahinda near
Tanjore.[3] But still language, monuments and tradition attest the
reality of the connection with northern India.

It is in Asoka's reign too that we first hear of Indian influence
spreading northwards. His Empire included Nepal and Kashmir, he
sent missionaries to the region of Himavanta, meaning apparently the
southern slopes of the Himalayas, and to the Kambojas, an ambiguous
race who were perhaps the inhabitants of Tibet or its border lands.
The Hindu Kush seems to have been the limit of his dominions but
tradition ascribes to this period the joint colonization of Khotan
from India and China.

Sinhalese and Burmese traditions also credit him with the despatch of
missionaries who converted Suvarṇabhûmi or Pegu. No mention of this
has been found in his own inscriptions, and European critics have
treated it with not unnatural scepticism for there is little
indication that Asoka paid much attention to the eastern frontiers of
his Empire. Still I think the question should be regarded as being
_sub judice_ rather than as answered in the negative.

Indian expeditions to the East probably commenced, if not in the reign
of Asoka, at least before our era. The Chinese Annals[4] state that
Indian Embassies reached China by sea about 50 B.C. and the Questions
of Milinda allude to trade by this route: the Ramayana mentions Java
and an inscription seems to testify that a Hindu king was reigning in