Thank you for these discussions, Bhante. I am learning so much! Many eye-openers, as it were. The maps are particularly helpful, as it's hard for a half-educated mid-20th century American to grasp the geographic relationship of ancient realms which are no more. Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu.
What is in essence important factually is that pre-Mahinda Thero official visit , Island Srilanka already had well established buddha dhamma followers as one of the main way of life or religion. However Arrival of Mahinda Thero and later Sangamitta Therani were very much a symbol to our strong kinship and diplomatic alliances of highest order between the two nations. In fact King Dewanampiyatissa accepted dhamma as official way of life for his kingdom by question and answer discourse to show that it was a scholatly pursuit since of supreme order. This may relate to universities of Thakshila Nalanda and contemporary Srilankan institutions already existed in the island. As we know with evidence Lord Buddha visited island Srilanka several times during his lifetime. At least in one visit there were accompanied 500 monks who settled in the island monastries.
There is a difference between Hindu Vishnu god and Buddhist Varuna god. There is no Vishnu in Buddhism. Dhajagga Sutta (in Buddhism) explains about 4 powerful Gods, but they are not eternal Gods like in Hinduism. The 4 Powerful Gods in Buddhism: 1.) Sakra Devendra 2.) Prajapati 3.) Varuna 4.) Ishana The 4 Powerful Gods in Hinduism: 1.) Indra 2.) Brahma 3.) Vishnu 4.) Ishwar (Shiva) Some Hindu books were written (or modified) to make Buddhism a part of Hinduism. They made Avatars of Vishnu.
Good lecture. ALthough I have to comment on an unrelated note. There are some images shown when some events are discussed, for example at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PQ8jjzGTWow.html and the art shown is just very bad juvenile art that shows people characterized in a cartoonish way.
