Page 247 - Proceedings book

The Buddhist Sangha and Political Power in Ancient Sri
Lanka

Dr. Eshan Imalka Wijerathne
lecturer, Teachers College of Aesthetic Education, Giragama.
eshanpanhinda@gmail.com

Keywords Abstract
Buddhist Sangha The study of the relations between the Buddhist sangha and the
State state in Sri Lanka in precolonial times has to be viewed to a
South Asia considerable extent as part of the study of the larger problem of
History religion and political power in ancient South Asia, and perhaps
also Southeast Asia. Sri Lankan society shared certain
fundamental political concepts with society in the neighboring
subcontinent, and the impact of influences from subcontinent can
be traced in certain parallelisms between the development of
institutions in Sri Lanka and that of certain parts of the Indian
subcontinent. The extensive modern literature on the problems of
religion and political power in ancient society in the neighboring
subcontinent confronts with a confusingly wide variety of
theoretical interpretations, some of them so sharply divergent that
they even appear to be diametrically opposed. The French scholar
Louis Dumont whose brilliant if controversial studies have left a
deep impact on South Asian studies. To even a greater extent
than the Brahmana priest, the Buddhist monks initially placed
themselves at a distance from the affairs of the political realm.
His comments are equally applicable to the Jainas, the Ajivikas
and some other ascetic groups as it is to Buddhist monks and
nuns. In a sense they all tend to represent an attempt at voluntary
withdrawal from the prevalent political and economic order. The
ideal of the Cakkavatti presented by the Buddhists appears to
represent to resolve this problem. It was an idealist view of a
political order which consciously and deliberately sought to
eschew reliance on violence. Particularly when monks tried their
hand at such risky business as king-making, the results were
often disastrous. It was such an attempt which brought about a
massive reversal of their fortunes in the form of the confiscation
of the wealth of the major monasteries in the twelfth century. The
material we have examined would help to clarify the special
context and conditions in which the term symbiosis could be used
to characterize the relationship between the sangha and the king.
Symbiosis did not mean total harmony. It was a generally
accommodating and interdependent type of relationship which,
nevertheless, incorporated within its ambit with a considerable
share of competition, friction and antagonism.

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