Buddhism in India

Introduction 11

whatever doctrine and discipline women are allowed to go out from

the household life into the homeless state, that religion will not last

long. (Vinaya III 1885: 325–26)

This certainly is male chauvinism; it may be taken as the recogni-

tion by the Buddha of a patriarchal social reality (i.e. that women

did not have the collective social strength at that time to defend the

Dhamma) or it may be explained as a later interpolation. But aside

from this, the statement reveals something else: a clear conscious-

ness that the history of Dhamma is not one of eternal triumph or

inevitable progression, but that it, like all phenomena, has an

origin, a decline, an ending; it is historical and transient. This was

part of Buddhism’s collective self-understanding, and can be seen

in later writings such as those of the Chinese pilgrim Hsuan Tsang.

It seems there was a consciousness that the Dhamma was a pheno-

menon with only a certain time period, that it would fade away in

India itself.

This shows a historicisation that was already a part of the earliest

tradition. Why 500 years? That would put the period of ‘defeat’

around the 1st century CE—the period when Mahayana was rising,

or perhaps more accurately, of growing absolutist trends within

Buddhism (Kalupahana 1997). The 500 years after that—when

Buddhism apparently remained strong enough to contend fully

with Brahmanism for control in India, could be seen as illusory; the

heart, the core of the teaching was gone.... In any case, the whole

conception of a teaching that was expected to die away raises inter-

esting questions that require deeper historical enquiry.

Current Scholarship and the

‘Essence’ of Buddhism

Many recent scholarly studies of early Buddhism raise equally radi-

cal questions about the interpretation of ‘basic Buddhism’ and cast

some positive light on Ambedkar’s interpretations. Among minor

points, as pointed out by Richard Gombrich, is that the early

sections of the Pali canon does not include the story of Gotama

leaving home due to the sight of an aged, diseased, and dead man;

and even the name Siddhattha is not known (1997: 75). He further

points out that there is some questioning among scholars about

intellect and experience. That means he/she should not rely on
scriptures, nor on authority. What is the scientific method but the
effort to use intellect and experience in the most thorough and
sophisticated way possible? The urge to self-reliance seems to go
against the notion of taking the ‘three jewels’ as refuge, in the sense
of an authority to which one submits.
This advocacy of self-reliance is at the heart of the Buddha’s
teaching. ‘Salvation’ or liberation from the bonds of the world does
not come through faith, through submitting to authority, through
ritual, or any of the traditional forms of religion: but rather through
self-control, experiment and individual effort. As the Dhammapada
puts it,

By ourselves is evil done,

By ourselves we pain endure,

By ourselves we cease from wrong,

By ourselves become we pure.

No one frees us but ourselves,

No one can and no one may,

We ourselves must tread the Path,

Buddhas only show the way(see Smith 1998: 34).

The final words of the Buddha—‘all conditioned things are tran-
sitory; strive with diligence’—urge control of self and struggling, but
not necessarily withdrawal from or rejection of the world.
In fact, an examination of the Buddha and his teachings histori-
cally has been sanctioned by some of the traditions of Buddhism
itself. These show that the Buddha himself relativised or historicised
his Dhamma. In the famous story on his reluctance about taking
women into the Sangha, or setting up a Bhikkuni Sangha, Anand
finally convinces the Buddha to do so, but the gloomy reply is,

If, Ananda, women had not received permission to go out from the

household life and enter the homeless state, under the doctrine and

discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata, then would the pure religion,

Ananda, have lasted long, the good law would have stood fast for a

thousand years. But since, Ananda, women have now received that

permission, the pure religion, Ananda, will not now last so long, the

good law will now stand fast for only five hundred years. Just,

Ananda, as houses in which there are many women and but few

men are easily violated by robber burglars, just so, Ananda, under

10 Buddhism in India