depicted here as choosing not only his successor, but also the successor of his successor, which emphasizes the preeminent position that Mahākāśyapa was seen to have. Buddhist studies scholars Akira Hirakawa (1915–2002) and Bibhuti Baruah have expressed skepticism about the teacherstudent relationship between Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda. They have argued that there was discord between the two, as indicated in the early texts. Hirakawa has further hypothesized that Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda were co-disciples, with the same teacher being Gautama Buddha, so there would be no need for a transmission between the two. East Asian religion scholar Elizabeth Morrison cites a tract by the Zen scholar Qisong (1007–1072) about the tradition of patriarchs in Buddhism. He noted the problem of a transmission between co-disciples who are not master and student. He resolved the problem by comparing Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda to siblings who inherit according to birth order. Responding to Hirakawa's arguments, Silk further argues that the unilinear nature of the transmission made it impossible for both Mahākāśyapa and Ānanda to receive the transmission from the Buddha, so Ānanda had to receive the transmission from Mahākāśyapa instead. Preserving the Buddha's relics The fifth-century commentary to the Dīgha Nikāya relates that after the Buddha's paranirvāṇa, Mahākāśyapa was concerned that the Buddha's remains or relics would become too dispersed, since they were now divided in eight portions. He gathered the portions of the Buddha's relics, by requesting them from the families who had preserved them, though he left a token amount of relics with the families. With the help of King Ajātaśatru, he then preserved them in an underground chamber called the "shrine for the eighty disciples" to the east of Rājagṛha. Because of the name, Southeast Asia scholar François Lagirarde raises the question whether this chamber may also have been intended for the burial of relics of foremost disciples, but Strong interprets that it was a ruse: the whole operation was done in secrecy because Mahākāśyapa feared for the safety of the Buddha's relics. Later, according to post-canonical Buddhist texts such as the Theravāda Paṭhamasambodhi, the remains thus enshrined in one place were taken out and divided by emperor Aśoka (268–232 BCE) throughout India in 84,000 portions. Instead of the relics being hid away somewhere, they were now accessible to the population at large. The earliest accounts have Mahākāśyapa merely visit and pay his respects to each of the eight portions of the relics;