After the cremation of Buddha’s mortal remains and the distribution of the relics, peaceably managed by the Pounha Dauna, Kathaba, on account of the high esteem Buddha ever had for him—esteem which he had manifested in a striking manner when he invested him with his one robe—considered himself as having been thereby especially appointed to provide effectual means for placing the law on an unshaken foundation. As a monarch before his death appoints his son to succeed him, to wield the supreme power and keep it in his family, in a like manner Buddha had appointed his eldest spiritual son to take his place. Being, therefore, the acknowledged head of the assembly, he had but one object in view, the maintenance of the doctrines and institutions of his great master in their original purity, and the establishment of religion on a firm basis. When on his way from the town of Pawa to that of Kootheinaron, to be present at the funeral of Buddha, he had met with a Rahan, who had given him particulars respecting the last moments and death of Gaudama, and at the same time had dared to express feelings of satisfaction on that mournful occasion in the following manner: “Now that our master has gone to Neibban, he will be no longer amongst us, to tell us, ‘You must do this, you have to shun that; such a regulation ought to be observed; such a duty is to be performed.’ We shall hear no longer the reproaches he was wont to address to us. At present we are at liberty to do what we like, and to follow our own inclinations.” Such unbecoming, nay, impious language, stung to the quick the ardent soul of the venerable Kathaba. From that moment he was daily engaged in revolving in his mind, and examining within himself, what would be the best course to be entered upon, in order to keep intact the doctrines he had heard from the mouth of Buddha himself, and establish upon a firm basis the religious institutions he so much valued. “As soon,” said he within himself, “as the funeral of the most excellent Phra shall have been performed with a becoming solemnity, I shall congregate together the most zealous and learned members of the assembly, and, with their united efforts and energy, I will oppose the spreading of false doctrines, which obscure the true ones. I will put down the newly-invented erroneous disciplinary regulations, by setting in a strong light the genuine ones. To prevent, in future, the re-occurrence of similar evils so detrimental to religion, all the preachings of Buddha as well as the disciplinary rules shall be arranged under several heads, and committed to writing. The books containing the above shall be held up as sacred.”[30]