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Created page with "{{Short description|Republican tribe in Iron-Age India}} {{Use Indian English|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox country |native_name = |conventional_long_name = Moriya |common_name = Moriya |era = Iron Age |government_type = Republic |year_start = {{c.|5th century BCE}} |year_end = c. 3th century BCE |event_end = Conquered by Ajātasattu of Magadha c. 468 BCE |p1 = |s1..."

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{{Short description|Republican tribe in Iron-Age India}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox country
|native_name =
|conventional_long_name = Moriya
|common_name = Moriya
|era = [[Iron Age]]
|government_type = [[Republic]]
|year_start = {{c.|5th century BCE}}
|year_end = c. 3th century BCE
|event_end = Conquered by [[Ajatashatru|Ajātasattu]] of Magadha c. 468 BCE
|p1 =
|s1 = Magadha
|image_map = Gana_Sanghas_(c._500_BCE).jpg
|image_map_alt =
|image_map_caption = Moriya among the [[Gaṇasaṅgha|{{transl|sa|Gaṇasaṅgha}}]]s
|image_map2 = Mahajanapadas (c. 500 BCE).png
|image_map2_caption = The [[Mahajanapadas]] in the post-Vedic period. Moriya was to the east of Sakya, northeast of Kosala, and west of Malla.
|leader1 =
|capital = [[Pipphalivana]]
|common_languages = [[Prakrit]]<br/>[[Sanskrit]]
|religion = [[Historical Vedic religion]]<br/>[[Buddhism]]<br/>[[Jainism]]
|currency =
|title_leader = {{transliteration|pi|Rājā}}
|today = India<br/>[[Nepal]]
}}
'''Moriya''' ([[Pali|Pāli]]: {{transliteration|pi|Moriya}}) was an ancient [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] [[tribe]] of northeastern [[South Asia]] whose existence is attested during the [[Iron Age in India|Iron Age]]. The Moriyas were organised into a [[Gaṇasaṅgha|{{transl|sa|gaṇasaṅgha}}]] (an [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] [[Oligarchy|oligarchic]] [[republic]]), presently referred to as the '''Moriya Republic'''.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}}

==Location==
The Moriyas lived to the northeast of [[Kosala]], from which they were separated by the [[Anoma River|Anomā]] or [[East Rapti River|Rāptī]] river. The Moriyas' western neighbours were the [[Koliya]]s, while the [[Malla (tribe)|Mallakas]] lived to their east,{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}} and the [[Ghaghara|Sarayū]] river was their southern border.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

The capital of the Moriyas was [[Pipphalivana]], which the 7th century CE Chinese pilgrim [[Xuanzang]] later referred to by the name of Nyagrodhavana.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}}{{sfn|Cunningham|1871|pp=430-433}}

==Name==
{{multiple image
| align = left
| caption_align = center
| direction =vertical
| total_width=250
| image1 = The eastern Gangetic plain before Ajatasattu's, Vidudabha's and Udayana's conquests.jpg
| caption1 = Map of the eastern Gangetic plain before Ajātasattu's conquest of Moriya and of the Vajjika League
| image2 = The eastern Gangetic plain after Ajatasattu's, Vidudabha's and Udayana's conquests.jpg
| caption2 = Map of the eastern Gangetic plain after Ajātasattu's conquest of Moriya and of the Vajjika League
| footer=
}}
The Moriyas originally obtained their name from the Mora ([[Indian peafowl|peacock]]) because the peacock was their [[totem]].{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}}{{sfn|Cunningham|1871|pp=430-433}}{{sfn|Mookerji|2016}}

==History==
Like the other republican tribes neighbouring them, the Moriyas were an [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]] tribe in the eastern Gangetic plain in the [[Greater Magadha]] cultural region.
{{sfn|Levman|2014|pp=145–180}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2007|p=6}}

After the death of the [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]], the Moriyas claimed a share of his relics from the [[Malla (tribe)|Mallakas]] of [[Kusinārā]], in whose territory he had passed away and had been cremated.{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}}{{sfn|Cunningham|1871|pp=430-433}}{{sfn|Fleet|1906|pp=655-671}} The Moriyas received the embers from the Buddha's cremation, which they then enclosed within a [[stupa|{{transliteration|sa|stūpa}}]] in their capital of Pipphalivana.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}{{sfn|Fleet|1906|pp=655-671}}

King [[Ajatashatru|Ajātasattu]] of [[Magadha]] annexed The Moriyas soon after he had annexed the [[Vajjika League]].{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

===Legacy===
The Moriya tribe were the ancestors of the [[Maurya Empire|Maurya dynasty]]{{sfn|Kapoor|2002}}{{sfn|Cunningham|1871|pp=430-433}} who under the leadership of [[Chandragupta Maurya|Candagutta Moriya]] in the 4th century BCE seized power in the Magadha empire. Candagutta and his descendants would expand Magadha's empire so that it at one point ruled most of South Asia.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

Under the reign of Candagutta's grandson [[Ashoka|Asoka]], who was a patron of [[Buddhism]], Buddhist writers attempted to connect Asoka to the Buddha by claiming that his ancestral tribe, the Moriyas, were descended from Sakyas who had fled from the [[Kosala|Kauśalya]] king [[Virudhaka|Viḍūḍabha]]'s annexation of their state by fleeing into the mountains. The record of the oldest Buddhist texts, according to which both the Moriyas and the Sakyas were among the tribes who claimed a share of the Buddha's relics from the Mallakas of Kusinārā and the Moriyas were descended from Sakyas who had fled into the [[Himalayas|Himālaya]] mountains, which were to the north of the Sakya state.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

==Political and social organisation==
===Republican institutions===
The Moriyas were a [[kshatriya|{{transl|sa|kṣatriya}}]] tribe organised into a [[Gaṇasaṅgha|{{transl|sa|gaṇasaṅgha}}]] (an [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] [[Oligarchy|oligarchic]] [[republic]]).{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

====The Assembly====
Like the other {{transl|sa|gaṇasaṅgha}}s, the ruling body of the Moriya republic was an Assembly of the {{transl|sa|kṣatriya}} elders who held the title of {{transliteration|pi|rājā}}s (meaning "rulers"), whose sons were the {{transliteration|pi|rājakumāra}}s ("princes").{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

====The Council====
The Assembly met rarely, and the administration of the republic was instead in the hands of the Council, which was a smaller body of the Assembly composed of councillors selected from the membership of the Assembly. The Council met more often than the Assembly and was directly in charge of administering the republic.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

====The Consul====
The Moriya Assembly elected from among the {{transliteration|pi|rājā}}s a chief who would be the head of the republic and run its administration with the help of the Council.{{sfn|Sharma|1968|pp=219-224}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last=Bronkhorst|first=Johannes|title=Bronkhorst, J. (2007). Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India|publisher=Brill Publishers|location=Boston|year=2007|doi=10.1163/ej.9789004157194.i-416|isbn=9789047419655|url=https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004157194.i-416.6}}
*{{cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Cunningham|title=The Ancient Geography of India: I. The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang|pages=430–433|publisher=Trübner and Company|location=London|year=1871|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yH9Xef_vm1EC}}
*{{cite journal|last=Fleet|first=JF|author-link=John Faithfull Fleet|title=XXIV:The Tradition about the Corporeal Relics of Buddha|journal=[[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland]]|pages=655–671|year=1906|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00034857 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZLPO-SD_ecC&dq=pipphalivana&pg=PA665}}
*{{cite book|last=Kapoor|first=Subodh|title=Encyclopaedia of Ancient Indian Geography|volume=2|publisher=Cosmo Publications|location=New Delhi|year=2002|isbn=978-8177552997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8897ridkczoC&dq=pipphalivana&pg=PA536}}
*{{cite journal|last=Levman|first=Bryan Geoffrey|title=Cultural Remnants of the Indigenous Peoples in the Buddhist Scriptures|journal=Buddhist Studies Review|volume=30|issue=2|pages=145–180|year=2014|doi=10.1558/bsrv.v30i2.145|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276914202|doi-access=free}}
*{{cite book|last=Mookerji|first=Radha Kumud|author-link=Radha Kumud Mukherjee|title=Chandragupta Maurya and His Times|edition=4th|publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]]|location=Madras|year=1988|isbn=8120804333|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5g2EAAAQBAJ&dq=Moriyas&pg=PA14}}
*{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=Jagdish Prasad|title=Republics in Ancient India, c. 1500 B.C.-500 B.C.|publisher=Brill Publishers|location=Leiden|year=1968|isbn=978-9004020153}}
{{refend}}

[[Category:Ancient peoples of India]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Nepal]]
[[Category:Gaṇa saṅghas]]

Moriya (tribe) - Revision history