Note 2 — Chapter XXXVIII · AT CEYLON. RISE OF THE KINGDOM. FEATS OF BUDDHA. TOPES AND MONASTERIES. STATUE OF BUDDHA IN JADE. BO TREE. FESTIVAL OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH.

That Śâkyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful. Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207–213, has brought together the legends of three visits,—in the first, fifth, and eighth years of his Buddhaship. It is plain, however, from Fâ-hien’s narrative, that in the beginning of our fifth century, Buddhism prevailed throughout the island. Davids in the last chapter of his ‘Buddhism’ ascribes its introduction to one of Aśoka’s missions, after the Council of Patna, under his son Mahinda, when Tissa, ‘the delight of the gods,’ was king (B.C. 250–230).