Abstract
Buddhist scriptures in ancient South Asia include discourses that teach measures by which a warrior can face problems in confrontation with foreign armies and domestic rebel troops without resorting to killing them in battle. These moderate measures have not attracted much attention in previous studies on Buddhist statecraft and warfare. There are eleven kinds, and they can be organized according to the following three types: retreat from the role of warrior, resolution without pitched battle, and fighting in a pitched battle without killing. Similar ideas regarding measures for resolving military confrontations can be found in Indian Classics in the context of statecraft. The compilers of the Buddhist discourses collected ideas about similar measures from common sources and reshaped those borrowed ideas from the perspective of the Buddhist precept against killing. A warrior who implemented such measures did not acquire as much negative karmic potential as intentional killing produces. In premodern warrior societies, religion often provided the institutional basis for both a code of ethics and a soteriology for warriors, for whom fighting was in fulfillment of their social role. The compilation of discourses containing measures that do not involve killing represents an aspect of Buddhism’s function in ancient South Asia.
Highlights
In ancient South Asia, kings and other warriors, as well as religious specialists such as brahmins and renouncers, constituted an important social stratum.1 They were given a special role in lay society.As Kane put it, the fundamental function of a king is to protect his people, and the dan.d.a, i.e., the use of armed forces comprised of warriors to counter foreign armies and domestic rebel troops, was often an important means of offering that protection.2 such protection may involve killing opponents
According to the general Buddhist view of karmic law, intentional killing creates negative karmic potential. For committing such an act, a killer suffers negative karmic retribution, typically rebirth to a miserable existence, such as hell. This dilemma raises the question: what instructions do Buddhist scriptures provide for warriors who must confront armed opponents in order to fulfill their social role?
This paper presents an examination of Buddhist discourses on measures by which a warrior can face problems in confrontation with armed opponents without resorting to intentionally killing them in battle and elucidates both the warrior code of ethics and a soteriology for warriors represented in those discourses
Summary
In ancient South Asia, kings and other warriors, as well as religious specialists such as brahmins and renouncers, constituted an important social stratum. They were given a special role in lay society. This paper presents an examination of Buddhist discourses on measures by which a warrior can face problems in confrontation with armed opponents without resorting to intentionally killing them in battle and elucidates both the warrior code of ethics and a soteriology for warriors represented in those discourses Such discourses can be found in ethical teachings for warriors and narratives that feature a warrior (who was often the Buddha in a former life) as a protagonist.. Keown examined the role of military deterrence in peace-building, using the discourse on the wheel-turner in the Cakkavattisıhanādasutta, who, with his huge, strong fourfold army, conquers foreign kings without bloodshed.9 The Conclusion summarizes the discussion and clarifies the discourses as ethical and soteriological instructions for warriors
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