Buddhism in India

Introduction 5

occasional. But the conflict between classes is constant and perpetual.

It is this which is the root of all suffering in the world. I have to find

a solution to this problem of social conflict (Ambedkar 1992: 57–58).

Thus, in Ambedkar’s interpretation, Gotama’s search begins with

the Marxist problem of social exploitation and class struggle!

Ambedkar’s version of the answer that the Buddha found appears

equally radical. His denial that dukkha, sorrow or suffering, was

central to Buddhism comes from his acceptance of the widespread

notion that the idea involves a pessimistic view of the world and

leads to escapism. Ambedkar apparently took this criticism so seri-

ously that he was ready to deny what many (including most of the

earliest Buddhists) have seen as the essence of Buddhism, viz., the

four noble truths. Ambedkar argues that far from asserting that

sorrow and suffering are inevitable characteristics of the existing

world, the purpose of Buddhism is to end suffering in this world.

In his version, the Buddha’s first sermon is not a proclamation of

the truths but of the ‘middle path’, rejecting asceticism on the one

hand and indulgence in worldly luxury on the other, followed by the

statement of a simple but noble morality. He has the Buddha say,

No doubt my Dhamma recognizes the existence of suffering but forget

not that it also lays equal stress on the removal of suffering. My

Dhamma has in it both hope and purpose. Its purpose is to remove

Avijja, by which I mean ignorance of the existence of suffering. There is

hope in it because it shows the way to put an end to human sufferings

(Ambedkar 1992: 130).

And then the five Parivrajakas greet this first sermon by saying,

‘never in the history of the world has salvation been conceived as

the blessing of happiness to be attained by man in this life and on

this earth by righteousness born out of his own efforts!’ (Ambedkar

1992: 130–31). This is, again, a radical departure from the story

told in all other forms of Buddhism.

Ambedkar’s desire to have a Buddhism without ‘karma’ (kamma

in Pali) as linked to rebirth in the conventional understanding of

it is also radical. It is understandable, since on the one hand, the

concept of the karma/rebirth link is a metaphysical assumption

for which there cannot be any scientific evidence, while on the other

hand, it can be used in almost any society to convince believers

• rejects the traditional version of Siddhattha’s Parivraja or ‘going
  forth’, arguing that the story of being moved by the sight of a
  dead person, a sick person, and an old person was impossible to
  believe since such sights must have been known to anyone;


• claims that the ‘four Aryan truths’—sorrow, the origin of
  sorrow, the cessation of sorrow, and the way to the cessation of
  sorrow—are not part of the original teaching of the Buddha.
  ‘This formula,’ he states flatly, ‘cuts at the root of Buddhism. If
  life is sorrow, death is sorrow and rebirth is sorrow, then there
  is an end of everything.... The four Aryan Truths are a great
  stumbling block in the way of non-Buddhists accepting the
  gospel of Buddhism’;


• asserts that ‘a terrible contradiction’ exists between the doctrines
  of karma and rebirth, and the Buddha’s denial of the existence
  of the soul;


• claims, finally, that the Bhikku can be the ‘hope of Buddhism’
  only if he is a social servant and not a ‘perfect man’ (Ambedkar
  1992: 2–3).

These are breathtaking and radical claims, and Ambedkar’s rein-
terpretations are even more so.
The story of the ‘going forth’ for instance, is not only familiar to
even fairly casual students of Buddhism, it also seems to embody a
basic theme of the sociology of religion—that religion is a response
to the search for meaning in the face of disease and death. Though
they are very much affected by the social structure, old age, disease
and death are not social ills but a part of the universal human
condition. However, Ambedkar’s new version has Gotama leaving
to avoid a war over water between the two tribal oligarchies of
Sakyas and Koliyas. Based on a traditional story recorded in the
Pali canon, it provides a very ‘this-worldly’ interpretation, one
that could even be called ‘over-socialised’. And, after his initial wander-
ing, on hearing that the warring clans have after all made peace,
Gotama determines to continue his renunciation and search, saying,
in Ambedkar’s words,

The problem of war is a problem of conflict. It is only part of a larger

problem. This conflict is going on not only between kings and nations

but between nobles and Brahmans, between householders, between

[friends and family members].... The conflict between nations is

4 Buddhism in India