Mahendra ［摩呬陀］ (n.d.) (; Pali Mahinda;  Mahinda): A son of the Indian king Ashoka, he brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka in the third century b.c.e. He became a monk at age twenty under the guidance of Moggaliputta Tissa. Obeying Ashoka’s wishes, Mahendra went to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism. Under the patronage of the king of Sri Lanka, a convert to Buddhism, he built Mahāvihāra (Great Monastery), the first Buddhist monastery in Sri Lanka, in the capital of Anurādhapura. He spent the remainder of his life in Sri Lanka and is attributed with establishing Buddhism there with the aid of his sister Samghamitrā.