Buddhism in India

The Dhamma 71

be the slave of the priest. Even if he is set free by his master, a

Shudra is not set free from slavery; for since that is innate in him,

who can take it from him?’

Similarly, at the other end of the scale, the Brahman is a

Brahman by birth and nature.

As presented in these discourses, the Buddhist ethics is what would

be called by Marxists to be an ethics appropriate to capitalism, and

not, obviously, to a classless society. (This is also the point of Upreti

1997). In the context of first millennium BCE society, however, it

is quite remarkable. A welfare economy in which employees are to

get a proper wage, holidays and a kind of medical insurance is not

a small or mean ethics, and probably fares well historically when

compared to the actual hierarchies and exploitation carried on in

societies such as the former Soviet Union, which was the first society

that aimed to abolish hierarchy altogether.

The Cakkavatti Emperor and the

Non-violent ‘Welfare State’

In regard to political life, the differences between Buddhism and

Brahmanism are equally striking (see also Kancha Ilaiah’s recent

study of ‘Buddha’s Challenge to Brahmanism’; Ilaiah 2001). Numer-

ous dialogues of the Buddha deal with the problems of rulership

and of order and prosperity in society; many dialogues are also

with rulers, most notably Ajatasattu and Bimbisara, rulers of

Magadha, the rising monarchy of that time. The differences with

the Brahmanism begin with accounts of the origin of kingship. The

Brahmanical version emphasises the divine origin and even divinity

of kings. As the beginning of the Manusmritichapter on kingship

puts it:

A ruler who has undergone his transformative Vedic ritual in accor-

dance with the rules should protect this entire (realm) properly. For

when this world was without a king and people ran about in all direc-

tions out of fear, the Lord emitted a king in order to guard this entire

realm, taking lasting elements from Indra, the Wind, Yama, the Sun,

Fire, Varuna, the Moon and the Lord of Wealth....Even a boy king

should not be treated with disrespect, with the thought, ‘He is just a

human being’; for this is a great deity standing there in the form of a

festivals]. In these ways ministered to by their master, servants and

employees love their master in five ways:—they rise before him, they

lie down to rest after him; they are content with what is given to them;

they do their work well; and they carry about his praise and good

fame’ (III, 32).

This of course maintains a master–employer relationship, but it
humanises and softens it. It also suggests, specially when it speaks
about wages, that slavery is to be transcended, that the worker has
rights.
The ethics of Buddhism for household life condones accumulation.
In what is apparently an older poem in the sutta praising the accu-
mulation of wealth it is said:

The wise and moral man shines like a fire on a hilltop,

making money like the bee, who does not hurt the flower.

Such a man makes his pile as an anthill, gradually.

The man grown wealthy thus can help his family

and firmly bind his friends to himself. He should divide

His money in four parts; on one part he should live,

with two expand his trade, and the fourth he should save

against a rainy day.(ibid.: 26)

This indicates an acquisitive society and, as one commentator points
out, a phenomenal rate of reinvestment suggesting a rapidly growing
economy (Basham 1958: 125n).
The ethics that is stressed here is one that is appropriate to a
society that was open but was still influenced by class and gender.
Relationships of subordination remain. Wife and husband, servants
and master remain separate social categories. However, the admo-
nitions begin in each case by describing how the superior should
serve the subordinate, and the service of the subordinate is called
upon in return for what the superior does for them. While this
clearly involves the maintenance of the ideal patriarchal family
and relationships of employment, mutuality is emphasised. The
difference with the ideals of varnashrama dharmais striking. While
the term dasa-kammakarain the Buddhist texts simply indicates
people doing the work of service i.e., for pay or in bondage, for
Manu and others servitude is a state of being. According to Manu,
the Brahman may ‘make a Shudra do the work of a slave, whether
he is bought or not bought; for the Self-existent one created him to

70 Buddhism in India