Abstract
Expressions of a Buddhist ethos as principles of policy on the part of Buddhist rulers have been dismissed by Max Weber as gestures of mere formality,1 for example, a victorious Mahâyâna Buddhist king of early 9th century Bengal, proclaiming in an inscription that he released captive elephants — who with tears in their eyes rejoined their fellow elephants in the forest.2 Bengal under the Pâla Dynasty [about 725–1125] became a center of Mahâyâna Buddhism that had extended into Sumatra. A Buddhist monarch of the Shrivijaya Empire in Sumatra and Malaya proclaimed about himself (in 775 A.D.) that those who “have their heart burned by the flames of poverty come to him to put themselves into his extreme power, as the elephants, when the sun is hot, come to take refuge in ... the cool water.”3 Mahâyâna Buddhism inspired a similar state ethos in Cambodia, one of the earliest culturally Indianized empires of Indochina, where it enjoyed high favor under Jayavarman VII (1181–1218?). This Buddhist ruler described his aspirations as follows:
Perceiving that the earth, of which his wisdom had made a heaven, was oppressed by Death, he pointed out the ambrosia of remedies for the immortality of the mortals.
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References
Max Weber, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, II, p. 229.
“Mungir Grant of Devapâladeva,” in: Indian Antiquary, XXI, (1892), p. 257. In the Mati-Posaka-Jâtaka, king Brahmadatt of Benares releases a captive elephant who was to become the Bodhisattva, so that he could join his elephant mother in the forest: Cowell, Jâtaka...transl. (1957), Vol. IV, p. 58; cf. Râjâvaliya, p. 63.
English version from the French translation of the original published in: Institut Royal Service Archéologique du Siam, G. Coedès, Recueil des inscriptions du Siam (Bangkok, 1929), Vol. II, p. 38.
English version from the French translation of the original Jayavarman’s VII Say-Fong Hospital Inscription, v, vi, x, xi, xiii, xlii, xliii, xlv, xlvi: M. L. Finot, “Inscription Sanskrite de Say-Fong,” in: Bulletin de l’Ecole Française d’Extrème-Orient, Vol. III (1903), pp. 29, 30, 33.
Przyluski, La Légende, p. 171.
Nihar Ranjan Ray, Sanskrit Buddhism in Burma (Calcutta, 1936), pp. 1911.
Paul Mus, p. 833.
E. Abegg, “Der Buddha Maitreya,” in: Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft der Freunde ostasiatischer Kultur, VII (1945), p. 30; E. Abegg, Der Messiasglaube in Indien und Iran (Berlin, 1928), p. 201. Cf. ibid., pp. 143, 152, 165.
Dîgha Nikâya, XXVI, 24 f.: transl. Rhys Davids, p. 73.
Przyluski, La Légende; p. 171.
S. Paranavitana, “Mahâyânism in Ceylon,” in: Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G, Vol. II (December, 1928/February, 1933) p. 52.
Dasa-bodhisatt-uppatti-katha (printed in Ambatanna in 1926), cited by Paranavitana, op. cit., p. 67.
Ibid., pp. 67–68.
Mahâsudassana-Sutta, II, 37; II, 42: Buddhist Suttas translated from Pâli by T. W. Rhys Davids, in: SBE, Vol. XI, pp. 285, 289.
Mahâvastu, I, 52–53: transl. Jones, Vol. I, pp. 44f.
Cf. C. W. Nicholas & S. Paranavitana, A concise history of Ceylon... to 1505 (Colombo, 1961), p. 171.
Paul Mus, p. 728.
Mahâvaṃsa, XXXVI, 90; W. Geiger, The culture of Ceylon in medieval times (Wiesbaden, 1960), p. 211.
Cûlavaṃsa, XXXVIII, 67–68: transl. Geiger, Part I, p. 36.
Sanskrit Kuccaveli Rock Inscription, in: Epigraphia Zeylanica, Vol. III (London, 1933), p. 161.
Cûlavaṃsa, L, 65 : transl. Geiger, Part I, p. 143.
Paranavitana, “Mahâyânism in Ceylon,” op. cit., p. 59.
Second Jêtavanârama Slab Inscription of Mahinda IV: Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, in: Epigraphia Zeylanica, Vol. I (London, 1912), p. 240.
Cûlavaṃsa, LXXX, 12: transl. Geiger, Part II, p. 126.
Epigraphia Zeylanica, II, p. 176.
Cûlavaṃsa, LXXXVIII, 35; XC, 48: transl. Geiger, Part II, pp. 185, 205.
Paranavitana, “Mahâyânism in Ceylon,” op. cit., p. 59.
S. Paranavitana (of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon), in: Epigraphia Zeylanica, Vol. III (London, 1933), p. 87.
Institut Royal Service Archéologique du Siam : G. Coedès, Recueil des inscriptions du Siam, Part I (Bangkok, 1929), pp. 97, 101.
W. A. R. Wood, A history of Siam from the earliest times to the year 1781 (London, 1926), p. 60. This inscription, discovered in 1833 by the subsequent king Mongkut of Siam, was translated into English by Prince Pawaret: “There is reason to suppose that Prince Pawaret’s translation was not very exact.” The stone with a large part of the inscription has crumbled since. Therefore, it can no longer be fully reconstructed.
Translation given from two French versions of the original: G. Coedès, “Documents sur la Dynastie de Sukhodaya,” in: BEFEO, XVII, No. 2 (1916/1917), pp. 27f. and also G. Coedès, Les états hindouises d’Indochine et d’Indonésie (Paris, 1948), pp. 368–369.
Wood, A history of Siam, p. 60.
G. Coedès, “Documents sur la Dynastie de Sukhodaya” (Textes Pâlis), in: BEFEO, XVII, No. 2 (1916/1917), p. 43.
Cûlavaṃsa, XCIX, 97: transl. Geiger, Part III, p. 264, fn. 3.
Cûlavaṃsa, CI, 17: transl. Geiger, Part III, p. 301.
Pe Maung Tin, “Buddhism in the inscriptions of Pagan,” in: Journal of the Burma Research Society, XXVI, i (1936), p. 59.
S. Paranavitana in: Archaeological Survey of Ceylon, Epigraphia Zeylanica, Vol. III, p. 192, fn. 3.
Sylvain Lévy & Edward Chavannes, “Les seize Arhat protecteurs de la loi,” in: Journal Asiatique, 11th Series, Vol. VIII (1916), p. 14.
Przyluski, La Légende, p. 226.
Cf. Richard Gard, “Introduction to the study of Buddhism and political authority” pp. 4–6.
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Sarkisyanz, E. (1965). Emergence of the Bodhisattva Ideal of Kingship in Theravâda Buddhism. In: Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6283-0_7
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