RT Article
T1 War as a Backdrop for Legislation: Stories of Ajātaśatru’s Warfare in Indian Buddhist Monastic Law Codes
JF Indo-Iranian journal
VO 62
IS 4
SP 293
OP 339
A1 Wu, Juan
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1698656645
AB While the story of the Magadhan king Ajātaśatru’s seeking the Buddha’s advice on attacking the Vṛjis is well known and much studied, rather less known and little studied are stories of his war or conflict with the Vṛjis embedded in Indian Buddhist monastic law codes. This paper explores these lesser-known stories of Ajātaśatru’s warfare, primarily focusing on their function as narrative frames for monastic rules or exceptions (anāpatti) that have no necessary relation to war. It investigates the rationale behind Indian Buddhist jurists’ utilization of these stories to account for monastic legislation, and discusses the perceptions of war reflected therein. Moreover, the paper shows that Indian Buddhist jurists of different sects or schools do not seem to have shared the same stance on predicting warfare, some arguably more ambivalent than others, especially when a prediction proves wrong and is thus liable to shake the laity’s faith and/or harm the mutual trust between monks themselves.
K1 Ajātaśatru
K1 Maudgalyāyana
K1 Vinayas
K1 anāpatti
K1 monastic legislation
K1 pāyantikā
K1 War
DO 10.1163/15728536-06204003