Tribes In Ancient India

SR No.: 007311
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 132 MB

Page 307

CHAPTER LVII
THE BULIS—THE KOLIYAS_THE MORIYAS
THE BHAGGAS—THE KĀLĀMAS
We may group together a number of lesser tribes which are occasionally referred to in the Buddhist texts, particularly in the Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta. They may be enumerated as follows:
(1) The Bulis of Allakappa. (2) The Koliyas of Devadaha and Rāmagāma. (3) The Moriyas of Pipphalivana. (4) The Bhaggas of Sumsumāra Hill.
(5) The Kālāmas of Kesaputta."
These five clans or tribes are mere passing shadows in the early Buddhist records, there being scarcely any data for an historical account of them. The Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta mentions the Bulis of Allakappa, the Koliyas of Rāmagāma and the Moriyas of Pipphalivana, along with the Licchavis of Vesāli, the Sākyas of Kapilavatthu and others, as so many distinct clans or corporations, all of whom claimed shares of the bodily remains of the Buddha Gautama on the ground that, like the deceased master, they were of the Ksatriya caste.2 The claimants are said to have obtained their respective shares of relics, which they enshrined with customary ceremonies. The Bulis of Allakappa and the Koliyas of Rāmagāma had the good fortune to obtain one share each of the bodily remains, while the Moriyas of Pipphalivana had to be satisfied with a share of the ashes, as they were rather late in sending their messenger to Kuśīnārā. One of their descendants (or at least a namesake of theirs) a Moriya of Pāțaliputra—was more fortunate. The es xisting Buddhist traditions all agree on the fact of the redistribution of the relics of the Buddha (with the exception of those enshrined at Rāmagāma by the Koliyas) in the time of King Asoka Moriya (Maurya).
The legend from the Asokāvadāna, as summarised by the late Dr. Vincent Smith, is as follows: 'When King Aśoka desired to distribute the sacred relics of the body of Buddha among the eighty-four thousand stūpas erected by himself, he opened the stūpa of the Urn, wherein King Ajātaśatru had enshrined the
1 Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, p. 22. 2 Dīgha Nikāya, II, pp. 164ff., Buddhist Suttas, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 132.