A. Many other Bhikkhunis. She, in due time, admitted the Queen and many of her ladies, together with five hundred virgins, into the Order. 302. Q. _Can we trace the effects of the foreign work of the Emperor Ashoka's missionaries?_ A. His son and daughter introduced Buddhism into Ceylon: his monks gave it to the whole of Northern India, to fourteen Indian nations outside its boundaries, and to five Greek kings, his allies, with whom he made treaties to admit his religious preachers. 303. Q. _Can you name them?_ A. ANTIOCHUS of Syria, PTOLEMY of Egypt, ANTIGONUS of Macedon, MARGAS of Cyrene, and ALEXANDER of Epiros. 304. Q. _Where do we learn this?_ A. From the Edicts themselves of Ashoka the Great, inscribed by him on rocks and stone pillars, which are still standing and can be seen by everybody who chooses to visit the places. 305. Q. _Through what western religious brotherhoods did the Buddha Dharma mingle itself with western thought?_ A. Through the sects of the Therapeuts of Egypt and the Essenes of Palestine. 306. Q. _When were Buddhist books first introduced into China?_ A. As early as the second or third century B.C. Five of Dharmāshoka's monks are said--in the Samanta Pasādika and the Sārattha Dīpanī--two Pālī books--to have been sent to the five divisions of China. 307. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Korea?_ A. From China, in the year A. D. 372. 308. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Japan?_ A. From Korea, in A. D. 552. 309. Q. _Whence and when did it reach Cochin China, Formosa, Java, Mongolia, Yorkand, Balk, Bokhara, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries?_ A. Apparently in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. 310. Q. _From Ceylon, whither and when did it spread?_ A. To Burma, in A.D. 450, and thence gradually into Arakan, Kamboya and Pegu. In the seventh century (A.D. 638) it spread to Siam, where it is now, as it has been always since then, the State religion. 311. Q. _From Kashmir, where else did it spread besides to China?_ A. To Nepāl and Tibet. 312. Q. Why is it that Buddhism, which was once the prevailing religion throughout India, is now almost extinct there? A. Buddhism was at first pure and noble, the very teaching of the Tathagata; its Sangha were virtuous and observed the Precepts; it won all hearts and spread joy through many nations, as the morning light sends life through the flowers. But after some centuries, bad Bhikkhus got ordination (_Upasampada_) the Sangha became rich, lazy, and sensual, the Dharma was corrupted, and the Indian nation abandoned it. 313. Q. _Did anything happen about the ninth or tenth century A.D. to hasten its downfall?_ A. Yes. 314. Q. _Anything besides the decay of spirituality, the corruption of the Sangha, and the reaction of the populace from a higher ideal of man to unintelligent idolatry?_