The "Mahavamsa" §29 records that during the rule of the Greco-Bactrian King Menander I (165/155 –130 BCE), a Yona (Greek) head monk named Mahadharmaraksita led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Yona city of Alasandra" (Alexandria in the Caucasus, around north of modern Kabul, Afghanistan) to Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Ruwanwelisaya Stupa in Anuradhapura. This happened during the reign of the Sinhala king Dutthagamani (161 BC to 137 BCE), who was the first to truly unite the various Sri Lankan states on the island into one polity by defeating the Tamils who had conquered the north.