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* The particulars of this legend are recorded in the Atthata katha of
the Uttaraviharo priests.
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The Commentary on the Mahavanso thinks that the princes of the town Mori were thence called Mauryas.  Vachaspattya, a Sanskrit Encyclopaedia, places the village of Katapa on the northern side of the Himalayas—­ hence in Tibet.  The same is stated in chapter xii. (Skanda) of Bhagavat, vol. iii. p. 325.  The Vayu Purana seems to declare that Moru will re-establish the Kshatriyas in the nineteenth coming Yuga.  In chapter vi.  Book iii. of Vishnu Purana, a Rishi called Koothoomi is mentioned.  Will any of our Brothers tell us how our Mahatmas stand to these revered personages?

—­R.  Ragoonath Row

Editor’s Note

In the Buddhist Mahavanso, Chandagatto, or Chandragupta, Asoka’s grandfather, is called a prince of the Moryan dynasty as he certainly was—­or rather as they were, for there were several Chandraguptas.  This dynasty, as said in the same book, began with certain Kshatriyas (warriors) of the Sakya line closely related to Gautama Buddha, who crossing the Himavanto (Himalayas) “discovered a delightful location, well watered, and situated in the midst of a forest of lofty bo and other trees.  There they founded a town, which was called by its Sakya lords, Morya-Nagara.”  Prof.  Max Muller would see in this legend a made-up story for two reasons:  (1) A desire on the part of Buddhists to connect their king Asoka, “the beloved of gods,” with Buddha, and thus nullify the slanders set up by the Brahmanical opponents of Buddhism to the effect that Asoka and Chandragupta were Sudras; and (2) because this document does not dovetail with his own theories and chronology based on the fanciful stories of the Greek-Megasthenes and others.  It was not the princes of Morya-Nagara who received their name from the Rajput tribe of Mori, but the latter that became so well known as being composed of the descendants of the Moryan sovereign of Morya-Nagara.  Some light is thrown on the subsequent destiny of that dynasty in “Replies to an English F.T.S.” (See ante.) The name of Rishi Koothoomi is mentioned in more than one Purana, and his Code is among the eighteen Codes written by various Rishis, and preserved at Calcutta in the library of the Asiatic Society.  But we have not been told whether there is any connection between our Mahatma of that name and the Rishi, and we do not feel justified in speculating upon the subject.  All we know is, that both are Northern Brahmans, while the Moryas are Kshatriyas.  If any of our Brothers know more, or can discover anything relating to the subject in the Sacred Books, we shall hear of it with pleasure.  The words:  “The Moryas will possess the earth, for Kautilya will place Chandragupta on the throne,” have in our occult philosophy a dual meaning.  In one sense they relate to the days of early Buddhism, when a Chandragupta (Morya) was