Person · missionary monk
Mahinda
Also known as Mahinda Thera, Arahat Mahinda, Mahendra
The monk the Sri Lankan chronicles make Ashoka's son, sent to the island about 247 BCE and credited with converting Devānampiya Tissa at Mihintale. The Mahāvamsa's account of that meeting is the founding event of Sinhala Buddhism and of the island's own sense of its history.
- Date
- 3rd century BCE
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Mahavamsa; Dipavamsa
- Confidence
- Traditional / narrative attribution
Worth knowing
His sister Sanghamittā is said to have followed with a cutting of the Bodhi tree, planted at Anurādhapura and still standing — by that reckoning the oldest human-planted tree with a recorded planting date anywhere.
Connections (3)
- Teaching lineageMihintale
The Mahāvamsa has Mahinda meet Devānampiya Tissa on the hill at Mihintale about 247 BCE and test his intelligence with a riddle before teaching him. Whether or not it happened that way, the island dates its own history from it, and Poson full moon is a national holiday for it.
- Sacred transplantAnurādhapura
Mahinda's sister Sanghamittā is said to have brought a cutting of the Bodh Gayā tree to Anurādhapura, where it still stands. When the Indian tree later died, a cutting was taken back from Anurādhapura to replant it — so the tree at Bodh Gayā today descends from the Sri Lankan one.
- PatronageAshoka
The Sri Lankan chronicles make Mahinda Ashoka's son and the mission to the island one of nine the emperor sent out after the third council. Ashoka's own thirteenth edict names Tambapanni among the places his dhamma reached, which is the rare case of chronicle and inscription agreeing. The Mahāvamsa also has Mahinda's sister Sanghamittā bring a cutting of the Bodhi tree, which still stands at Anurādhapura and is the oldest human-planted tree with a recorded planting date.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Mahinda (Buddhist monk)”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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