Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.–500 B.C. c15.s1.t2.16

c15.s1.t2.16

In the unhistorical atmosphere of the times, it would be natural for the earnest Buddhist monks to conceive, from their extreme devotion to the Sakyan sage, that their great patron, Aśoka, must himself have been a blood relation of the Buddha. Such being the case, a story to account for his relationship would be concocted and implicitly believed, perhaps even by the monks who devised it. This would be especially true if they had felt themselves inspired by some supernatural insight. Alternatively, it is possible that the story of the connexion of the Moriyas with the Sakyas arose in Ceylon itself. The powerful Moriyan clan in Ceylon would have appreciated evidence linking it to the race of the Buddha. The monks of the Island, as well, might have wished to connect Aśoka, by whose missions Ceylon was first converted to Buddhism, with the founder of their faith.