Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to

257 Pages·2006·2.28 MB·English

by  Richard F. Gombrich

Therava¯da Buddhism
Therava¯da Buddhism is widely recognised as the classic introduction to
the branch of Buddhism found in Sri Lanka and parts of South East
Asia. The Buddha preached in north-east India in the fifth-centurybce.
He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation,
and put forward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monastic
Order to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most of
its history the fortunes of Therava¯da, the most conservative form of
Buddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under the
great Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Therava¯da reached
Sri Lanka in about 250 bce. There it became the religion of the Sinhala
state, and from there it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.
Richard Gombrich, a leading authority on Therava¯da Buddhism, has
updated his text and bibliography to take account of recent research,
including his discovery of the date of the Buddha and recent social and
political developments in Sri Lanka. He explores the legacy of the
Buddha’s predecessors and the social and religious contexts in which
Buddhism has developed and changed throughout history. Above all,
he shows how it has always influenced and been influenced by its social
surroundings in a way which continues to this day.
Richard F. Gombrich is Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for
Buddhist Studies, and one of the most renowned Buddhist scholars in
the world. From 1976 to 2004 he was Boden Professor of Sanskrit,
University of Oxford. He has been President of the Pali Text Society
and was awarded the Sri Lanka Ranjana decoration by the President of
Sri Lanka in 1994 and the SC Chakraborty medal by the Asiatic Society
of Calcutta the previous year. He has written extensively on Buddhism,
including How Buddhism Began: the Conditioned Genesis of the
Early Teachings (Routledge 2005); and with Gananath Obeyesekere,
Buddhism transformed: Religious change in Sri Lanka (1988).
The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices
Series editors:
John Hinnells and the late Ninian Smart
This series provides pioneering and scholarly introductions to different
religions in a readable form. It is concerned with the beliefs and prac-
tices of religions in their social, cultural and historical setting. Authors
come from a variety of backgrounds and approach the study of
religious beliefs and practices from their different points of view. Some
focus mainly on questions of history, teachings, customs and ritual
practices. Others consider, within the context of a specific region, the
interrelationships between religions; the interaction of religion and the
arts; religion and social organisation; the involvement of religion in
political affairs; and, for ancient cultures, the interpretation of archaeo-
logical evidence. In this way the series brings out the multi-disciplinary
nature of the study of religion. It is intended for students of religion,
philosophy, social sciences and history, and for the interested lay
person.
Other titles in the series include:
Hindus
Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Julius Lipner
Mahayana Buddhism
The Doctrinal Foundations
Paul Williams
Muslims
Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Andrew Rippin
Religions of Oceania
Tony Swain and Garry Trompf
Zoroastrians
Their Religious Beliefs and Practices
Mary Boyce
Therava¯da Buddhism
A social history from ancient
Benares to modern Colombo
Second edition
Richard F. Gombrich
First published in 1988
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
This edition published in 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1988, 2006 Richard Gombrich
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been applied for
ISBN10: 0–415–36508–2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–36509–0 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–01603–3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–36508–6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 9–78–0–415–36509–3 (pbk)
ISBN13: 9–78–0–203–01603–9 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgments and recommendations for further reading ix
Preface to the second edition xi
1 Introduction 1
A Introductory information 1
B A social history of Buddhism? 5
The limitations of Marxist and Weberian views of religion 11
Unintended consequences 15
The Sangha 18
What inquiries will the evidence support? 19
Therava¯din history: the uneven pace of change 22
Buddhist identity 23
2 Gotama Buddha’s problem situation 32
A Vedic civilization 32
The Vedic tradition 32
The early Vedic period 35
Later Vedic society 38
Religion in the later Vedic period 40
Karma and escape from re-birth 46
B The social conditions of his day 49
To whom did the Buddha’s message appeal? 56
3 The Buddha’s Dhamma 61
The Dhamma in its context: answers to brahminism 67
Buddhism as religious individualism 73
An ethic for the socially mobile 80
The Buddha on kings and politics 83
vi Contents
4 The Sangha’s discipline 89
General principles of the vinaya 90
Dating and development of the rules 92
The middle way between discomfort and indulgence 95
The disbarring offences and enforcement of chastity 105
Hierarchies of age and sex 106
The formal organization of the Sangha 107
Sect formation: Therava¯da defined 111
Maintaining conformity 114
Relations between ordained and laity 115
5 The accommodation between Buddhism and society
in ancient India 119
A Buddhist devotion 119
The Buddha as an object of faith and devotion 120
Pilgrimage 122
Relics 123
Mortuary rituals and ‘transfer of merit’ 125
B Secular power: Asoka 128
Asoka’s inscriptions 129
Asoka in Buddhist tradition 132
The missions: interpreting the evidence 135
6 The Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka 137
The Sinhalese Buddhist identity 138
Periodization of Sinhalese Buddhist history 139
Sources 140
Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism 141
Cosmology 142
A Buddhist society 143
Worship of Buddha images 145
Role of the village monk 146
The achievements of Mahinda’s mission 148
Establishing Buddhism in a new country 150
The Sangha’s duty to preserve the scriptures 151
The use of Pali: Buddhaghosa 153
Translation and popularization 155
Village dweller and forest dweller 156
The structure of the Sangha in Ceylon 157
Contents vii
Formal state control of the Sangha 158
Sangha and state in Anuradhapura 160
The Sangha as landlords 161
Decline... 165
...and revival 166
The character of Sinhalese Buddhist religiosity 168
7 Protestant Buddhism 171
The disestablishment of the Sangha 173
The British missions 175
Early Buddhist reactions 179
The rise of the Buddhist laity 182
The impact of the Theosophists 183
Anaga¯rika Dharmapa¯la 186
Lay religious activism 189
Other characteristics of Protestant Buddhism 192
Limited scope of Protestant Buddhism 194
8 Current trends, new problems 196
Religious pluralism 196
The new ethos 197
Unintended consequences of lay religious activism 198
Recent economic and social developments 199
The cultural effect of the war 201
Hinduizing trends 203
The decline of rationality 204
The crisis of authority 205
Altered states of consciousness 205
Using Buddhism for this world 206
Developments in the Sangha 207
The challenge 209
Works cited 211
Abbreviations and primary sources 217
References 219
Index 227

Acknowledgments and
recommendations for
further reading
There are two great pleasures in working on Therava¯da Buddhism: the
primary sources and the secondary sources. To praise the Pali Canon
and its commentaries would be an impertinence. I hope it may not be
thought impertinent, however, to say what admirable books modern
scholars have written on the subject matter of this one. Very often I
have found I could do no better than attempt to summarize the conclu-
sions of my learned and lucid predecessors. I only hope that what is
essentially a presentation of their work has not been too inept to
encourage the reader to go back to their fuller accounts. Here are
the works I particularly have in mind; in brackets after each are the
numbers of the chapters which most heavily rely on them.
Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha taught (3)
Walpola Rahula: History of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anuradhapura
Period (6)
Mohan Wijayaratna: Le moine bouddhiste selon les textes du Theravâda
(4)
Michael Carrithers: The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka: An Anthropo-
logical and Historical Study (4)
R.A.L.H. Gunawardana: Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic
Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (6)
Kitsiri Malalgoda: Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 1750–1900: A Study
of Religious Revival and Change (7)
Heinz Bechert: Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Ländern des
Theravada Buddhismus (7)
Gananath Obeyesekere: ‘Religious Symbolism and Political Change in
Ceylon’ (article) (7)
Naturally these works figure, with others, in the references (which con-
stitute almost my only footnotes). But that does not convey my full debt