Page 250 - Proceedings book

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even a greater extent than the Brahmana priest, the Buddhist monks initially placed

themselves at a distance from the affairs of the political realm. This comment is
equally applicable to the Jainas, the Ajivikas and some other ascetic groups as it is to

the Buddhist monks and nuns. In a sense they all tend to represent an attempt at
voluntary withdrawal from the prevalent political and economic order. One may even

suggest that it is possible to trace within their common approach an attitude of

suspicion toward political power which they understood as being based on violence.
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.

However, this did not mean there were to be confrontations between the early
community of monks and the polity. The theoretical ideal of withdrawal was not often

observed in practice. In fact, it is clear that the sangha carefully sought to avoid
possible situations of friction. Buddhism recognized the importance of the king as a

lay exemplar in society. It was the prevalent order of things for the ruled lay
population to be influenced by the ways of their rulers. Hence the conduct of the king

affected the functioning of the entire social order. Perhaps there was a preference in

early Buddhism for the non-monarchical governmental form over the monarchical
form. However, the monarchical form had been gaining dominance. And Buddhism

appears to have shared with other strands of South Asian thought in general with a
profound fear of anarchy. Anarchy was perceived as a state in which the weak, the

common folk, suffered most and were oppressed by the mighty. This is a theme which

finds recurrent emphasis in Sri Lankan writings. Hence, while the early Buddhist
religieux were conscious of their separate identity and of the shortcomings in the

political order, their attitude toward the polity was more one of cooperation than one
of confrontation. The monks avoided admitting into their order men wanted by the

king and offenders trying to avoid judicial punishment. Monks were advised not to

ignore or disregard the legal enactments of the king. Reciprocally, kings extended
their support to the monks and were among their most generous patrons and even

helped to maintain the unity of the order. (Gunawardana, 1979)

This tradition of close cooperation between the king and the sangha continued in Sri
Lanka, and, in fact, it may be said that points of contact between the two institutions

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