Abstract
In premodern warrior societies, religions often provided the institutional basis for an ethics and soteriology for warriors, for whom fighting was a social role. This paper examines a Buddhist case in ancient India. I focus particularly on the discourse related to warfare in the middle-late period Mahāyāna scripture, the Satyakaparivarta, and elucidate its ethics and soteriology for kings. In the Satyakaparivarta, a king is encouraged to be a bodhisattva, who is mindful of impermanence and compassionate, who is not greedy, hateful, or delusional, and who protects sentient beings in conformity with the Ten Good Deeds. The text also teaches how a righteous king such as this, who employs warfare as a last resort to protect his people, can be saved from rebirth in hell, which occurs as a karmic retribution for his engagement in warfare. This discourse consists of elements such as compassion, self-sacrifice, and karma, which are derived from traditions both within and outside Buddhism and arranged so as to allow a king to play his role and still attain salvation. Buddhist discourse on warfare has multiple aspects. Exploring its ethical and soteriological aspect will be conducive to clarifying a form of Buddhism as a redemptive institution for warriors, which previous studies did not conduct sufficiently.
Highlights
One would suppose that an important function of religions is to teach their followers not to kill or injure others intentionally
Some other ancient South Asian texts are examined, such as Buddhist discourses on the cakravartin, or “wheel-turner,” a theological paradigm of ideal kingship, Buddhist discourses on compassionate violence, and Brahmanical discourses on the dharma of the ks.atriyas, in order to understand the ideological context in which the discourse in the Satyakaparivarta was developed
The Satyakaparivarta provides ethical instruction to a king to achieve his role of fighting in battle without creating the negative karma that killing generally produces
Summary
One would suppose that an important function of religions is to teach their followers not to kill or injure others intentionally. Some important aspects of the discourse on warfare in the Satyakaparivarta were clarified by Schmithausen, Zimmermann, and Jenkins.. By exploring the kingly ethics and soteriology in the Satyakaparivarta, this paper clarifies an aspect of Buddhism that enabled the tradition to serve as a redemptive institution for warriors, which is a challenge to previous studies and conducive to clarifying the purpose of the discourse. These sections include consideration of elements derived from the Brahmanical ethics for warriors. Jerryson begins his argument to summarize the Buddhist scriptural teachings of violence (including ethical teachings of warfare) with, “The first section introduces examples from the Buddhist doctrine that provides spaces to justify violence.”. Discussion and clarifies how the discourse in the Satyakaparivarta is an ethical instruction on how a king may play his role and attain rebirth in heaven
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