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Tribes in Ancient India c60: Chapter LVII. The Bulis—The Koliyas—The Moriyas—The Bhaggas—The Kālāmas

Tribes in Ancient India c60

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Chapter LVII. The Bulis—The Koliyas—The Moriyas—The Bhaggas—The Kālāmas

c60.2

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 cf Pipphalivana.
(4) The Bhaggas of Sumsumāra Hill.
(5) The Kālāmas of Kesaputta.¹

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¹ Rhys Davids, *Buddhist India*, p. 22.

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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 Vesālī, the Śākyas 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 Kṣatriya 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 Pāṭaliputra—was more fortunate. The existing 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 Aśoka Moriya (Maurya).

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² *Dīgha Nikāya*, II, pp. 164ff., *Buddhist Suttas*, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 132.

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The legend from the *Aśokāvadāna*, 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 cremation relics collected from seven of the eight original stūpas. The eighth, that at Rāmagāma, was defended by the guardian Nāgas, who would not allow it to be opened. The relics thus withdrawn from the stūpa of the Urn were distributed among eighty-four thousand stūpas, "resplendent as the autumn clouds" which were erected in a single day by the descendant of the Mauryas.¹ A similar legend can be gathered from the Sinhalese chronicles and other late Pāli works, particularly Buddhaghosa’s commentary² on the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*; while the epilogues attached to the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta* and the *Buddhavamsa* indicate that the sacred relics of the Buddha’s body were, after their re-distribution, enshrined all over Northern India from Gandhāra to Kalinga.³

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¹ Vincent Smith, *Aśoka*, 2nd Ed., pp. 251-2.

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² *Sumangalavilāsinī*, Burmese edition, Pt. II, pp. 183ff.; P.T.S. Ed., II, 609ff.

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³ *Dīgha Nikāya*, II, p. 167; The *Buddhavamsa* and the *Cariyāpiṭaka*, J.P.T.S., 1882, p. 68; *The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon*, Pt. III, translated by B. C. Law, p. 87.

c60.10

The *Mahāvamsa Commentary*⁴ furnishes us with some interesting information about the origin of the Moriyas of Pipphalivana and their connection with the Maurya rulers of Magadha. We are told that there are two theories about the derivation of the name Moriya. According to one theory, the name is derived from ‘modiya’, meaning pleasing or delightful; the Moriyas were a people who lived in a delightful land. According to the other, the name is connected with ‘mora’, peacock, and the people came to be known as Moriyas from the fact that the place where they founded their city always resounded with the cries of peacocks. Further, the city which they founded had buildings of blue stone, like the neck of the peacock. It is said that the Moriyas were originally Śākyan princes of Kapilavatthu, who escaped to the Himālaya regions to save themselves from the attacks of Viḍūḍabha, the ambitious and cruel usurper of the throne of Kosala, and established a city there, building it around a lake in a forest tract abounding in peepul trees.

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⁴ *Mahāvamsa Ṭīkā* (Sinhalese edition), pp. 119ff.

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When the Moriyas are introduced to us in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*, they are contemporaries and powerful rivals of the Śākyas of Kapilavastu. Viḍūḍabha’s invasion of Kapilavastu and the carnage committed upon its citizens took place, if the tradition is to be believed, shortly before the demise of the Buddha. There may be some truth in the suggestion that the Moriyas were in some way connected with the Śākyas of Kapilavastu, and with the advance of ethnological researches it may be found that the matrimonial alliance of the Śākyas with the neighbouring hill peoples brought some new tribes into existence.

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Moreover, the *Mahāvaṃsa Commentary* traces the origin of the Maurya rulers of Magadha to the Moriyas of Pipphalivana. According to this account, Candragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, was born of the chief queen of the Moriyan king of Pipphalivana. This conflicts with the evidence of Viśākhadatta’s *Mudrārākṣasa*, where Candragupta is represented as a Vṛṣala,¹ a person of low birth, an illegitimate son of the last Nanda king by a Śūdra woman named Murā. How far Viśākhadatta’s account represents the true state of things is a controversial point. But there are many instances of a misconception of history resulting from a conjectural etymology of personal and dynastic names. It appears, however, that the royal family of the Naṇdas was connected by matrimonial alliance with the Moriyas of Pipphalivana; and Aśoka’s mother, Dhammā, was also a Moriyan princess.²

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¹ Act III, pp. 134-6, 141-3, etc.

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² *Vamsatthappakāsinī (Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā)*, P.T.S., 189.

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As regards the Kālāmas of Kesaputta, our information is very meagre. There is a bare mention of them in the Nikāyas, but no doubt they existed at the time of the Buddha as a distinct tribe or clan. Their home was probably in a mountain fastness, not far from the upper Gangetic valley. The etymology of the name ‘Kesaputta’ indicates that the tribe traced its descent from the Keśins, a tribe connected with the Pañcālas.³

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³ *Vedic Index*, Vol. 1, p. 468.

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Among members of the Kālāma clan specially mentioned by name are Bharaṇḍu-Kālāma,⁴ who was once a co-disciple of the Buddha (as Bodhisattva), and Āḷāra-Kālāma, a renowned religious teacher, who is mentioned frequently in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta*⁵ and in other Buddhist texts, ancient and modern. One caravan merchant named Pukkusa, a young Mallian, was a disciple of Āḷāra-Kālāma. Pukkusa laid much emphasis on the spiritual attainments of Kālāma. He said that his preceptor’s ecstatic trance was so very deep and profound that a long train of heavily laden carts passed by him without his perceiving them.⁶ The Buddhist texts represent the Kālāmas as worshippers of the Buddha Gautama, who was a disciple of Āḷāra-Kālāma, before his enlightenment.⁷ The Buddha preached a famous sermon when on a visit to Kesaputta.⁸

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⁴ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, I, 277 f.

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⁵ *Dīgha Nikāya*, II, pp. 130-1.

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⁶ *Buddhist Suttas*, S.B.E., Vol. XI, p. 76.

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⁷ Kern, *Manual of Indian Buddhism*, p. 18.

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⁸ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, I, 188 f.

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Little is known of the Bulis, apart from the fact that they claimed and obtained one-eighth share of the Buddha’s relics and raised a stūpa over them in their city of Allakappa.¹ Their territory was probably near Veṭhadīpa, for the king of Allakappa is mentioned² as being in intimate relationship with the king of Veṭhadīpa.

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¹ *Dīgha Nikāya*, II, p. 167.

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² *Dhammapada Comm.*, I, 161.

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The Koliyas were one of the republican clans in the time of the Buddha, and owned two chief settlements—one at Rāmagāma and the other at Devadaha. The commentaries contain accounts of the origin of the Koliyas. For instance, the *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī*³ states that the eldest of the five daughters of Okkāka contracted leprosy (*kuṭṭharoga*). Her four brothers, being afraid of infection, took her to a forest and there confined her in an underground chamber. Rāma, king of Benares, contracted the same complaint at this time, entered the forest, and cured himself by eating wild fruits and leaves. Hearing the voice of a woman one night, he discovered the princess in her underground chamber. He cured her by means of the fruits and leaves which had cured him, and then married her. He built a town in the forest, removing a big Kola tree in order to do so. Inasmuch as the town was built on the site of the Kola tree, it came to be called Kolanagara, and the king’s descendants were known as Koliyas.

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³ Pt. I, pp. 260–2.

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We find a variant of the story in the *Mahāvastu*,⁴ which tells us that the daughter of a certain Śākya noble was attacked with leprosy. The physicians failed to cure her; sores appeared all over her body, and the people began to hate her. She was taken by her brothers in a palanquin to a spot close to the Himālayas. They dug out a subterranean room, and she was left there with plenty of food and water. They blocked up the entrance to the cave with planks, and put a large heap of dust in front of it, and then returned to Kapilavastu. After living in the stuffy room for some time, she resumed her former beauty, for the heat had cured her of leprosy. Now, not far from the cave lived a royal sage named Kola.⁵ While wandering about in the vicinity of his hermitage, Kola came to the cave where the Śākya girl lived, and saw a tiger scratching up the heap of dust with its feet. His curiosity was aroused; the sage drove away the tiger, removed the planks, and opened the door of the cave, revealing the Śākya girl. Seeing her exquisite beauty, the sage became very much attached to her, and took her along to his hermitage. Sixteen pairs of twin sons were born to the couple. When these sons were grown up, they were sent to Kapilavastu by their mother, who told them that they would there be provided for by their uncles, who were Śākya nobles. She trained them in the manners of the Śākyas, and they were then allowed to set out. They saluted their parents and went to Kapilavastu. On arriving, the sons of the sage, surrounded by a vast crowd, went to the assembly hall of the Śākyas, where five hundred Śākyas were assembled and transacting business. They approached the assembly in the way their mother had taught them. The Śākya assembly was astounded to see the Śākya manners in them, and asked them whence they came. They answered as they had been instructed, ‘We are sons of Kola, the royal sage, who has his hermitage somewhere at the foot of the Himālayas. Our mother is the daughter of a certain Śākya.’ Hearing this, the Śākyas were pleased to learn that the youths were born of the royal sage, and not of some one of inferior rank. Recognising them as Śākyas, they said, ‘Let them be given Śākya girls and appointments.’ They were given Śākya brides, cultivable lands, and villages. As the princes were sons of the sage Kola, they were known as Koliyas.

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⁴ Vol. I, pp. 352–5.

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⁵ A variant of Rāma; Kola also is stated to have been a king of Benares.

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It is stated in the Introduction to the Kunāla Jātaka¹ that the Koliyas used to dwell in the Kola tree. Hence they came to be called ‘Koliyas’ or dwellers in Kola (jujube) trees. When the Śākyas wished to abuse the Koliyas, they said that the latter had once ‘lived like brute beasts in a hollow Kola tree’. The territories of the Śākyas and Koliyas were adjacent, being separated by the river Rohiṇī. A bitter quarrel once arose between the two tribes regarding the right to the waters of the river which irrigated the land on both sides. Incensed by insulting remarks as to their respective origins, the two tribes got themselves ready for battle, and sallied forth at eventide. Now at this time, so the story goes, the Buddha came to the spot from Sāvatthī, and sat cross-legged in the air between the two hosts. The Śākyas recognised him and at once threw down their arms with the words, ‘Let the Koliyas slay us or roast us alive.’ The Koliyas, on seeing the Buddha, acted in the same way. The Lord instructed them, quelled the feud and brought about a reunion. In gratitude, each tribe dedicated some of its young men to the membership of the Order, and during the Buddha’s stay in the neighbourhood, he lived alternately in Kapilavastu and in Koliyanagara.²

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¹ Jātaka, Fausböll, V, p. 413.

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² For details of the quarrel and its results, see Jātaka, V, 412ff.; Dhammapada Comm., III, 254ff.; Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, II, 672ff. A variant of the river-motif runs as follows: ‘When the female slaves of the Śākyas and Koliyas came to the river to fetch water, and throwing the coils of cloth that they carried on their heads upon the ground, were seated and pleasantly conversing, a certain woman

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The *Mahāvastu* tells us that there was a Koliya prince who aspired to rival the Buddha in the art of arrow-shooting, but he, together with others, was defeated.¹

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¹ *Mahāvastu*, ed. Senart, II, pp. 76-7.

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In the *Udāna* we read of Suppavāsā, daughter of the king of the Koliyas (‘*Koliyadhitā*’), who was helped by the Buddha when she was suffering, and who, after a healthy son had been born to her, entertained the Buddha and Sāriputta at her house.²

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² *Udāna*, P.T.S., pp. 15-18.

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It is stated in the *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta* that the inhabitants of Rāmagāma belonged to the serpent race.³ According to Cunningham,⁴ Rāmagāma (Rāmagrāma) is identical with Deokāli; some scholars hold that the Koliyas of Rāmagāma originally came from the same ethnic group as the Koliyas of Devadaha. There are no historical data for ascertaining the political relations of the Koliyas of Rāmagāma and the Śākyas.

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³ *Dīgha Nikāya* (P.T.S.), Vol. II, p. 167.

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⁴ *Anc. Geography of India*, p. 423.

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Several other townships of the Koliyas, visited by the Buddha or by his disciples, are mentioned in literature; e.g. Uttara, the residence of the headman Pāṭaliya⁵; Sajjanela, residence of Suppavāsā⁶; Sāpūga, where Ānanda once stayed⁷; Kakkarapatta, where Dīghajānu lived⁸; and Haliddavasana, residence of the ascetics Puṇṇa Koliyaputta and Seṇiya.⁹

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⁵ *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, IV, 340.

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⁶ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, II, 62.

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⁷ *Ibid.*, 194.

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⁸ *Ibid.*, IV, 281.

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⁹ *Majjhima Nikāya*, I, 387; see also *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, V, 115.

c60.48

The Bhaggas (or Skt. Bhargas) were a republican tribe of Northern India in the Buddha’s time (sixth century B.C.). They are mentioned not only in Buddhist works, but also in Sanskrit works of the *Brāhmaṇa* and Epic periods. The earliest mention of the Bhargas is made in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VIII, 28) where reference is made to a Bhargāyana prince named Kairiśi Sutvan. They are also referred to by Pāṇini in his *Aṣṭādhyāyī* (IV, i, 178), where they are associated with the Yaudheyas (‘*na prācya Bhargādi Yaudheyādibhyaḥ*’). In the *Bhīṣmaparvan*¹⁰ of the *Mahābhārata*, mention is made of the Bhargas along with other tribes, e.g. the Andhras, Kirātas, Kośalas, Gandhāras, Sauvīras, Sindhus, etc. In both the *Mahābhārata* proper¹¹ and the *Harivaṃśa*,¹² the

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¹⁰ Chap. 9, p. 822.

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¹¹ *Vatsabhūmiñca Kaunteyo vijigye balavān balāt Bhargāṇāmadhipañcaiva Niṣadādhipatiṃ tathā.*—Mbh., II, 30, 10, 11.

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¹² 29, 73.

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took another’s cloth, thinking that it was her own; and when owing to this a quarrel arose, each claiming the coil of cloth as hers, gradually the people of the two cities, the serfs and the labourers, the attendants, herdsmen, councillors and viceroys, all of them sallied forth ready for battle.’

c60.53

Bhargas are associated with the Vatsas, as well as with the Niṣādas (II, 30, 10-11). The *Harivaṃśa* tradition describes the Bharga and the Vatsa as the two sons of Pratardana. Attention may also be drawn here to the mention of a people called ‘Bhārgavas’ in the Purāṇas, e.g. in the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* (LVII, 43). The Bhārgavas are also mentioned in the *Bhīṣmaparvan* (IX, 358) where the Bhargas also find mention (cf. Pargiter, *Mārk. P.*, pp. 310 note and 327-8, note). It is likely that the Bhaggas, Bhargas and Bhārgavas are one and the same people.

c60.54

The epic tradition of the close association of the Bhargas with the Vatsas is corroborated by the Buddhist tradition as recorded in the *Jātakas*. The *Dhonasākha Jātaka* (No. 353) states that Prince Bodhi, son of Udayana, king of the Vatsas, had his dwelling-place on the Sumsumāra Hill, where he built a palace called Kokanada. It seems that in Udayana’s time (i.e. the sixth century B.C.), the Bhagga State was under the suzerainty of the Vatsa king.

c60.55

The Bhaggas of the Sumsumāra Hill are casually referred to in some suttas of the *Majjhima* and *Saṃyutta Nikāyas*.¹ There is no doubt that the Sumsumāra Hill, their capital, was used as a fort. It was situated in a deer park at Bhesakaḷāvana. In the lifetime of the Buddha, Prince Bodhi, son of Udena (Udayana), ruled over the Bhaggas, apparently as his father’s Viceroy. He became a follower of the Buddha.² When the Buddha was amongst the Bhaggas, the householder Nakulapitā came to him and asked for instruction, afterwards becoming one of the devotees of the Master at Bhesakaḷāvana.³ The Bhagga country lay between Vesālī and Sāvatthī.⁴ In the *Apadāna*,⁵ the Bhaggas are mentioned with the Kārūsas.

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¹ *Majjhima Nikāya*, Vol. I, pp. 332-8; Vol. II, Pt. I, pp. 91-7; *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, Pt. III, pp. 1-5; Pt. IV, p. 116.

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² *Bodhirājakumāra Sutta*, *Majjhima Nikāya*, Vol. II, p. 91; Fausböll, *Jātaka*, Vol. III, p. 157.

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³ *Saṃyutta Nikāya*, Pt. III, pp. 1-5.

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⁴ Malalasekera, *Dictionary of Pali Proper Names*, s.v. Bhagga. The *Cambridge History of India* (I, 175) says that the Bhaggas were members of the Vajjian confederacy.

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⁵ II, 359. Other references to the clan are: *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, II, 61; IV, 85, etc.; *Vinaya Piṭaka*, II, 127; IV, 115, 198; V, 145; *Theragathā Comm.*, I, 70. See also B. C. Law, *Countries and Peoples of India* (Epic and Pauranic sources), A.B.O.R.I., Vol. XVII, Pt. III, April, 1936.

c60.61

The social customs, religious beliefs, laws and administrative systems of these minor clans were in all likelihood the same as, or similar to, those of the more important tribes dealt with in other chapters.

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