Quartoseptcentennial Commemorative Volumes to honour the 175th Anniversary Celebrations of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka

He [Visākha Thera] was a landowner, it seems, at Pāṭaliputta (Patna). While he was living there he heard this: “The Island of Tambapaṇṇi (Sri Lanka), apparently, is adorned with a diadem of shrines and gleams with the yellow cloth, and there a man can sit or lie wherever he likes; there the climate is favourable, the abodes are favourable, the people are favourable, the Dhamma to be heard is favourable, and all these favourable things are easily obtained there.” He made over his fortune to his wife and children and left his home. … Eventually he came to Mahāvihāra at Anuradhapura.

Visuddhimagga Brahmavihara-niddesa

Trans: Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, The Path of Purification, 2010, p.306