Looking westwards from India and considering what were the circumstances favouring the diffusion of Indian ideas, we must note first that Hindus have not only been in all ages preoccupied by religious questions but have also had a larger portion of the missionary spirit than is generally supposed.  It is true that in wide tracts and long periods this spirit has been suppressed by Brahmanic exclusiveness, but phenomena like the spread of Buddhism and the establishment of Hinduism in Indo-China and Java speak for themselves.  The spiritual tide flowed eastwards rather than westwards; still it is probable that its movement was felt, though on a smaller scale, in the accessible parts of the west.  By land, our record tells us mainly of what came into India from Persia and Bactria, but something must have gone out.  By water we know that at least after about 700 B.C. there was communication with the Persian Gulf, Arabia and probably the Red Sea.  Semitic alphabets were borrowed:  in the Jatakas we hear of merchants going to Baveru or Babylon:  Solomon’s commercial ventures brought him Indian products.  But the strongest testimony to the dissemination of religious ideas is found in Asoka’s celebrated edict (probably 256 B.C.) in which he claims to have spread the Dhamma as far as the dominions of Antiochus “and beyond that Antiochus to where dwell the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas and Alexander.”  The kings mentioned are identified as the rulers of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia, Cyrene and Epirus.  Asoka compares his missionary triumphs to the military conquests of other monarchs.  It may be that the comparison is only too just and that like them he claimed to have extended his law to regions where his name was unknown.  No record of the arrival of Buddhist missions in any Hellenistic kingdom has reached us and the language of the edict, if examined critically, is not precise.  On the other hand, however vague it may be, it testifies to two things.  Firstly, Egypt, Syria and the other Hellenistic states were realities to the Indians of this period, distant but not fabulous regions.  Secondly, the king desired to spread the knowledge of the law in these countries and this desire was shared, or inspired, by the monks whom he patronized.  It is therefore probable that, though the difficulties of travelling were great and the linguistic difficulties of preaching an Indian religion even greater, missionaries set out for the west and reached if not Macedonia and Epirus, at least Babylon and Alexandria.  We may imagine that they would frequent the temples and the company of the priests and not show much talent for public preaching.  If no record of them remains, it is not more wonderful than the corresponding silence in the east about Greek visitors to India.