Dharmaraksita

Dharmaraksita is then described in important Buddhist Pali historical texts, the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, as being a Greek Buddhist missionary, in charge of propagating the faith to the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.

"When the thera Moggaliputta, the illuminator of the religion of the Conqueror, had brought the (third) council to an end (…) he sent forth theras, one here and one there:

• The thera Mahyantika he sent to Kasmira and Gandhara,
• The thera, MaMdeva he sent to Mahisamandala.
• To Vanavasa be sent the thera named Rakkhita,
• and to Aparantaka (he sent) the Yona named Dhammarakkhita;
• to Maharattha (he sent) the thera named Mahadhammarakkhita,
• but the thera Maharakkhita he sent into the country of the Yona.
• He sent the thera Majjhima to the Himalaya country,
• and to Suvambhurni he sent the two theras Sona and Uttara.
• The great thera Mahinda, the theras Utthiya, Uttiya, Sambala and Bhaddasala his disciples, these five theras he sent forth with the charge: `Ye shall found in the lovely island of Lanka the lovely religion of the Conqueror.'" (Mahavamsa, XII)

The country of Aparantaka has been identified as the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, and comprises Northern Gujarat, Kathiawar, Kachch, and Sindh, the area where Greek communities were probably concentrated.

Dharmarashita is said to have preached the Aggikkhandopama Sutra, so that 37,000 people were converted in Aparantaka and that thousands of men and women entered the Order ("pabbajja"):

"The thera Dhammarakkhita the Yona, being gone to Aparantaka and having preached in the midst of the people the Aggikkhandhopama-sutta gave to drink of the nectar of truth to thirty-seven thousand living beings who had come together there, lie who perfectly understood truth and untruth. A thousand men and yet more women went forth from noble families and received the pabbajja" (Mahavamsa XII, Dipavamsa. VIII.7)