Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/45

Rh Pândya kingdoms of the extreme south of the peninsula, which were independent. But these operations, extensive though they were, did not satisfy the zeal of Asoka, who ventured to send his proselytizing agents far beyond the limits of India, into the dominions of Antiochos Theos, King of Syria and Western Asia ( 261-246); Ptolemy Philadelphos, King of Egypt ( 285-247); Magas, King of Cyrene in Northern Africa, half-brother of Ptolemy (about 285—258), Antigonos Gonatas, King of Macedonia ( 277-239), and Alexander, King of Epirus (acc.  272). Rock Edict V adds to the list of border nations given above the names of the Râshtrikas of the Marâthâ country, and the Gândhâras of the Peshâwar frontier, noting that there were yet others unnamed; while Rock Edict II, which again names Antiochos, with a reference to his Hellenistic neighbours, as well as the Cholas, and Pândyas, as far as the Tâmraparni river, adds the Satiyaputra and Keralaputra kingdoms of the Western coast to the list of countries in which healing arrangements for man and beastwere carried out. The date of the missions is fixed approximately by the fact that the year 258 is the latest in which all the Greek sovereigns named were alive together. The statements in the two edicts quoted constitute almost the whole of the primary and absolutely trustworthy evidence concerning Asoka's missionary organization.

The Ceylonese chronicles, the earliest of which was composed by Buddhist monks about six centuries