[Sanskrit: ‘Land of Gold’]. A site or territory on the mainland of Southeast Asia, not identified with certainty, to which the 3rd-century bc Indian emperor Asoka sent the two Buddhist missionaries, Sona and Uttara. This earliest Buddhist centre was most likely located in Mon country either in present Lower Burma or in the lower Menam plain, present-day Thailand. See also Thaton.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied