46

THi

BUDDHIST T R AD I T I ON

attitude to th e state. T h e constitution of the Buddhist order,

in which each monastery was virtually a law unto itself, de
ciding major issues after free discussion among the assembled
monks, tended toward democracy, and it has been suggested
th a t it was based on the praetices of th e tribal republics of
the B uddhas day. Though Buddhism never formulated a
distinctive system of political ethics it generally tended to
mitigate the autocracy of the Indian king.
O n the question of war Buddhism said little, though a
few passages in the Buddhist scriptures oppose it. Like the
historical Ashoka, the ideal emperor of Buddhism gains his
victories by moral suasion. This did not prevent many Bud
dhist kings of India and Ceylon from becoming great con
querors and pursuing their political aims with m uch th e same
ruthlessness as their H indu neighbors. Two of pre-Muslim
Indias greatest conquerors, Harsha of Kanauj (606-647)
and Dharmapala of Bihar and Bengal (c. 7 7 0 -8 1 0 ), were
Buddhists. In fact Buddhism had little direct effect on the
political order, except in the case of Ashoka, and its leaders
seem often to have been rather submissive to the temporal
power. An Erastian relationship between church and state
is indicated in th e inscriptions of Ashoka, and in Buddhist
Ceylon the same relationship usually existed.
Early travelers have left a num ber of valuable accounts of
conditions in ancient India. Two of these, th a t of th e Greek
M egasthenes (c. 300 b . c . ) and th at of the Chinese pilgrim
Fa-hsien ( a . d . c . 4 0 0 ), are of special interest for our purposes,
for the first was w ritten before Buddhism had become an
im portant factor in Indian life, and the seeond when it had
already passed its m ost flourishing period and had entered
on a state of slow decline. Megasthenes found a very severe
judicial system, with many crimes punished by execution or
m utilation. T h e existence of such a harsh system of punish
m ent is confirmed by the famous H indu text on polity, the
Arthaiastra, the kernel of which dates from about th e same
time. U nder Chandragupta Maurya, the grandfather of
Ashoka, the state was highly organized and all branches of
hum an activity were hem m ed in by many troublesome regu
lations enforeed by a large corps of government officials. Fahsien, on th e other hand, found a land where th e deatn
penalty was not imposed, and m utilation was inflicted only