Tournier speculates that the story of Mahākāśyapa resolving that his body endure until the next Buddha is a "conscious attempt to dress the "arhat" in a "bodhisattva" (Buddha-to-be) garb". On a similar note, Strong argues the story shows sentiments that are at the root of the "bodhisattva" ideal, and may have led to the idea of the Eighteen Arhats () that "postpone" their death to protect the Buddhist teaching till the arrival of Maitreya. Indologist Padmanabh Jaini argues that the story was created by the Mūlasarvāstivādins to connect Maitreya Buddha to Gautama Buddha, through a line of transmission. In this, they may have been influenced by the Indo-Greeks and Persians, who ruled the area where the Mūlasarvāstivādins lived. Historian Max Deeg raises the question, however, that if Jaini is correct, why no traces of an early development of the legend can be found. Silk also hypothesizes that the story was developed by Mahāyāna authors to create a narrative to connect the two Buddhas physically through Mahākāśyapa's "paranirvāṇa" and the passing on of the robe. Lagirarde notes, however, that not all Āgama sources insist on connecting the two Buddhas. Furthermore, Pāli, Thai and Laotian sources do not mention the passing on of the robe, yet the meeting is still narrated as significant. Silk also notes that the Sanskrit texts the "Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra", the "Mahāprajñāpāramitōpadeśa" and the "Divyāvadāna" contain the story of Mahākāśyapa under the mountain, and do not mention the robe of the Buddha at all. But in every version of the account there is a physical connection between Gautama Buddha, Mahākāśyapa and Maitreya Buddha. He concludes that Mahāyāna authors used Mahākāśyapa as a way to legitimize the Mahāyāna teachings, by affirming that there were more authentic teachings which had not yet come.