DISPUTED LEGACIES

Other historical personalities who are claimed by more than one community

EMPEROR ASHOKA Kshatriya or Kushwaha?

On the birth anniversary of the 3rd century BCE ruler, the BJP assigned the responsibility of organising a grand celebration at his birthplace in Pataliputra, modernday Patna, to Kushwaha leader Samrat Chaudhury. Uttar Pradesh deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya was a special invitee as, apart from being a Kushwaha, he also has Maurya in his name. Another Maurya leader, Keshav Dev, too, celebrated the occasion with great gusto in UP. "Ashoka was a king, so he was called Kshatriya," he says. "But we are from the same lineage. Our place in the varna system changed after we took to farming"