Encyclopedia of Buddhism

vant chapter is best read against the background of the
traditional Machiavellian principles of rule in India to
which it refers, and which it denounces as harmful and
as a distortion of Buddhist morals. It is likely that the
text aimed at supplying a practicable alternative and a
more ethical set of rules for kings. It therefore had to
come up with standards relating to war.

Surprisingly, the text includes no explicit prohibi-
tion against a war of aggression. The details, however,
strongly suggest that what is being described are the
rules for a defensive war. The king is advised to con-
front the hostile army with an attitude of kindness and
to grant favors to the enemy. If this does not help, he
should try to threaten his adversary by demonstrating
(or pretending) military superiority. Such an ap-
proach, the text makes clear, is intended to prevent a
war. If these actions prove futile, the king must re-
member his duty to protect his family and subjects,

and so he may try to conquer the enemy by taking the

hostile soldiers captive. As the next step, the king is de-

scribed as addressing his army. The passage on war

ends with the statement that even though a king may

wound or slay his enemy, he will be without any blame.

Immeasurable merit will fall to him who has done all

this in a compassionate spirit and without resignation.

This passage allows for different interpretations. It

likely expresses no more than the wish that a king fight

and win a war by taking the enemy alive. But in the

end, the text is ambiguous in that it absolves the king

of blame in case he does kill somebody. Compassion

is the essential element, and compassion automatically

frees the king from the unwholesome consequences

such acts would otherwise entail. Fighting a defensive

war thus took on the guise of a morally correct en-

deavor, as long as the above rules were followed. Such

an approach would enable a king to survive in hostile

WAR

Buddha statues in the wreckage of Nagasaki, Japan, after the atomic bombing in 1945. © Getty Images. Reproduced by permission.