Page 248 - Proceedings book

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Introduction
The study of the relations between the Buddhist sangha and the state in Sri Lanka in

precolonial times has to be viewed to a considerable extent as part of the study of the
larger problem of religion and political power in ancient South Asia, and perhaps also

Southeast Asia. It would be superfluous on my part to emphasize the significance of

the pathbreaking and influential contribution made by Professor Tambiah in relation
to the second area: but I should say that his work has implications that have to be

taken into consideration by any student working on the theme in respect of South Asia.
(Tambiah, 1992) As we shall see, in certain respects, there is a specificity in the

development and the nature of religion and political institutions in Sri Lanka, which
distinguishes Sri Lanka from other parts of South Asia. Yet, as would be but natural

to expect, Sri Lankan society shared certain fundamental political concepts with

society in the neighboring subcontinent, and the impact of influences from the
neighboring subcontinent can be traced in certain parallelisms between the

development of institutions in Sri Lanka and that of certain parts of the Indian
subcontinent. (Tambiah, 1992)

The extensive modern literature on the problems of religion and political power in
ancient society in the neighboring subcontinent confronts the student with a

confusingly wide variety of theoretical interpretations, some of them so sharply
divergent that they even appear to be diametrically opposed. Let us begin with one

relevant example. A.M. Hocart, the distinguished archaeologist and anthropologist

who worked in Sri Lanka in the early decades of the twentieth century, propounded a
novel theory of the origin of the state. As Rodney Needham has pointed out, this

theory bears comparison with the classical theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and
Hume. (Hocart, 1950) Hocart believed that the origin of the state is traceable to ritual

organization. Ritual provided the elementary forms of organization in primitive
society. As society became more and more complex, the increasing social functions

were taken over by the organization that had met the needs of ritual. In doing so,

Hocart theorized, the organization initially associated with ritual underwent a process
of elaboration leading to the emergence of what he called the "vast central nervous

system" or the state (Hocart, 1950). According to this line of thinking, the ritual
organization and the state organization remained undifferentiated in premodern

society. In fact, Hocart argued that it was impossible to separate the church from the

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