Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s1.t1.1

c15.s1.t1.1

The Moriyas were Kṣatriyas like other republican communities of the Buddhist period, and it is on this basis that they advanced their case for a share in the relics at Kusinārā. We hear of no single Moriyan king in the Buddhist sources which refer to them, except, of course, the imperial Mauryas of later times. On the other hand, there is ground to believe that they were ruled by a republican or quasi-republican form of government. Upon hearing that the Buddha had passed away, it was the Moriyas of Pipphalivana, and not an individual Moriyan ruler, who sent an envoy to the Mallas asking for a share in the remains of the Exalted One.¹ The *Buddhavamsa* also alludes to the same fact,² and the Tibetan tradition further strengthens this view that the embers went to the *Nyagrodhika* country (Pipphalivana).³