Council of Pataliputra, Moggaliputta, who had presided over it, came
to the conclusion that the time had come to despatch missionaries to
convert foreign countries. Sinhalese tradition represents this
decision as emanating from Moggaliputta whereas the inscriptions of
Asoka imply that the king himself initiated the momentous project. But
the difference is small. We cannot now tell to whom the great idea
first occurred but it must have been carried out by the clergy with
the assistance of Asoka, the apostle selected for Ceylon was his[26]
near relative Mahinda who according to the traditions of the
Sinhalese made his way to their island through the air with six
companions. The account of Hsüan Chuang hints at a less miraculous
mode of progression for he speaks of a monastery built by Mahinda
somewhere near Tanjore.

The legend tells how Mahinda and his following alighted on the Missaka
mountain[27] whither King Devânampiya Tissa had gone in the course of
a hunt. The monks and the royal cortege met: Mahinda, after testing
the king's intellectual capacity by some curious dialectical puzzles,
had no difficulty in converting him.[28] Next morning he proceeded to
Anuradhapura and was received with all honour and enthusiasm. He
preached first in the palace and then to enthusiastic audiences of the
general public. In these discourses he dwelt chiefly on the terrible
punishment awaiting sinners in future existences.[29]

We need not follow in detail the picturesque account of the rapid
conversion of the capital. The king made over to the Church the
Mahâmegha garden and proceeded to construct a series of religious
edifices in Anuradhapura and its neighbourhood. The catalogue of them
is given in the Mahâvamsa[30] and the most important was the
Mahâvihâra monastery, which became specially famous and influential in