theravada buddhism gombrich, a leading authority on theravada buddhism, has updated his text and...

Theravada Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism is widely recognised as the classic introduction tothe branch of Buddhism found in Sri Lanka and parts of South EastAsia. The Buddha preached in north-east India in the fifth-century bce.He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation,and put forward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monasticOrder to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most ofits history the fortunes of Theravada, the most conservative form ofBuddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under thegreat Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Theravada reachedSri Lanka in about 250 bce. There it became the religion of the Sinhalastate, and from there it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.

Richard Gombrich, a leading authority on Theravada Buddhism, hasupdated his text and bibliography to take account of recent research,including his discovery of the date of the Buddha and recent social andpolitical developments in Sri Lanka. He explores the legacy of theBuddhas predecessors and the social and religious contexts in whichBuddhism has developed and changed throughout history. Above all,he shows how it has always influenced and been influenced by its socialsurroundings in a way which continues to this day.

Richard F. Gombrich is Academic Director of the Oxford Centre forBuddhist Studies, and one of the most renowned Buddhist scholars inthe world. From 1976 to 2004 he was Boden Professor of Sanskrit,University of Oxford. He has been President of the Pali Text Societyand was awarded the Sri Lanka Ranjana decoration by the President ofSri Lanka in 1994 and the SC Chakraborty medal by the Asiatic Societyof Calcutta the previous year. He has written extensively on Buddhism,including How Buddhism Began: the Conditioned Genesis of theEarly Teachings (Routledge 2005); and with Gananath Obeyesekere,Buddhism transformed: Religious change in Sri Lanka (1988).

The Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices

Series editors:

John Hinnells and the late Ninian Smart

This series provides pioneering and scholarly introductions to differentreligions in a readable form. It is concerned with the beliefs and prac-tices of religions in their social, cultural and historical setting. Authorscome from a variety of backgrounds and approach the study ofreligious beliefs and practices from their different points of view. Somefocus mainly on questions of history, teachings, customs and ritualpractices. Others consider, within the context of a specific region, theinterrelationships between religions; the interaction of religion and thearts; religion and social organisation; the involvement of religion inpolitical affairs; and, for ancient cultures, the interpretation of archaeo-logical evidence. In this way the series brings out the multi-disciplinarynature of the study of religion. It is intended for students of religion,philosophy, social sciences and history, and for the interested layperson.

Other titles in the series include:

Hindus

Their Religious Beliefs and PracticesJulius Lipner

Mahayana Buddhism

The Doctrinal FoundationsPaul Williams

Muslims

Their Religious Beliefs and PracticesAndrew Rippin

Religions of Oceania

Tony Swain and Garry Trompf

Zoroastrians

Their Religious Beliefs and PracticesMary Boyce

Theravada BuddhismA social history from ancientBenares to modern Colombo

Second edition

Richard F. Gombrich

First published in 1988by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd

This edition published in 2006by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canadaby Routledge270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1988, 2006 Richard Gombrich

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted orreproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafterinvented, including photocopying and recording, or in anyinformation storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataA catalog record for this book has been applied for

ISBN10: 0415365082 (hbk)ISBN10: 0415365090 (pbk)ISBN10: 0203016033 (ebk)

ISBN13: 9780415365086 (hbk)ISBN13: 9780415365093 (pbk)ISBN13: 9780203016039 (ebk)

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.

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Contents

Acknowledgments and recommendations for further reading ixPreface to the second edition xi

1 Introduction 1

A Introductory information 1B A social history of Buddhism? 5

The limitations of Marxist and Weberian views of religion 11

Unintended consequences 15

The Sangha 18

What inquiries will the evidence support? 19

Theravadin history: the uneven pace of change 22

Buddhist identity 23

2 Gotama Buddhas problem situation 32

A Vedic civilization 32The Vedic tradition 32

The early Vedic period 35

Later Vedic society 38

Religion in the later Vedic period 40

Karma and escape from re-birth 46

B The social conditions of his day 49To whom did the Buddhas message appeal? 56

3 The Buddhas Dhamma 61

The Dhamma in its context: answers to brahminism 67

Buddhism as religious individualism 73

An ethic for the socially mobile 80

The Buddha on kings and politics 83

4 The Sanghas discipline 89

General principles of the vinaya 90Dating and development of the rules 92

The middle way between discomfort and indulgence 95

The disbarring offences and enforcement of chastity 105

Hierarchies of age and sex 106

The formal organization of the Sangha 107

Sect formation: Theravada defined 111

Maintaining conformity 114

Relations between ordained and laity 115

5 The accommodation between Buddhism and society

in ancient India 119

A Buddhist devotion 119The Buddha as an object of faith and devotion 120

Pilgrimage 122

Relics 123

Mortuary rituals and transfer of merit 125

B Secular power: Asoka 128Asokas inscriptions 129

Asoka in Buddhist tradition 132

The missions: interpreting the evidence 135

6 The Buddhist tradition in Sri Lanka 137

The Sinhalese Buddhist identity 138

Periodization of Sinhalese Buddhist history 139

Sources 140

Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism 141

Cosmology 142

A Buddhist society 143

Worship of Buddha images 145

Role of the village monk 146

The achievements of Mahindas mission 148

Establishing Buddhism in a new country 150

The Sanghas duty to preserve the scriptures 151

The use of Pali: Buddhaghosa 153

Translation and popularization 155

Village dweller and forest dweller 156

The structure of the Sangha in Ceylon 157

vi Contents

Formal state control of the Sangha 158

Sangha and state in Anuradhapura 160

The Sangha as landlords 161

Decline . . . 165

. . . and revival 166

The character of Sinhalese Buddhist religiosity 168

7 Protestant Buddhism 171

The disestablishment of the Sangha 173

The British missions 175

Early Buddhist reactions 179

The rise of the Buddhist laity 182

The impact of the Theosophists 183

Anagarika Dharmapala 186

Lay religious activism 189

Other characteristics of Protestant Buddhism 192

Limited scope of Protestant Buddhism 194

8 Current trends, new problems 196

Religious pluralism 196

The new ethos 197

Unintended consequences of lay religious activism 198

Recent economic and social developments 199

The cultural effect of the war 201

Hinduizing trends 203

The decline of rationality 204

The crisis of authority 205

Altered states of consciousness 205

Using Buddhism for this world 206

Developments in the Sangha 207

The challenge 209

Works cited 211Abbreviations and primary sources 217References 219Index 227

Contents vii

Acknowledgments andrecommendations forfurther reading

There are two great pleasures in working on Theravada Buddhism: theprimary sources and the secondary sources. To praise the Pali Canonand its commentaries would be an impertinence. I hope it may not bethought impertinent, however, to say what admirable books modernscholars have written on the subject matter of this one. Very often Ihave found I could do no better than attempt to summarize the conclu-sions of my learned and lucid predecessors. I only hope that what isessentially a presentation of their work has not been too inept toencourage the reader to go back to their fuller accounts. Here arethe works I particularly have in mind; in brackets after each are thenumbers of the chapters which most heavily rely on them.

Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha taught (3)Walpola Rahula: History of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anuradhapura

Period (6)Mohan Wijayaratna: Le moine bouddhiste selon les textes du Theravda

(4)Michael Carrithers: The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka: An Anthropo-

logical and Historical Study (4)R.A.L.H. Gunawardana: Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic

Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka (6)Kitsiri Malalgoda: Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 17501900: A Study

of Religious Revival and Change (7)Heinz Bechert: Budd