Tribes in Ancient India c60.4

c60.4

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).