One day of the full moon in 247 BC, King Devanampiyatissa met Mahinda Thera, the son of Emperor Asoka on the Mihintale hill. A strange conversation was struck up between the king who was hunting deer and the Thera who had been appointed to take Buddhist teachings to the island of Lanka, as they sat beneath a mango tree at the top of the hill.
King Mahinda asked:
- O king...