Buddhism's Patrons

In The Golden Road, William Dalrymple mentions something strange - No Buddhist text or inscription survives from the times before Ashoka and Kalinga. (Dalrymple snarkily contrasts Ashoka’s “I am sorry” with other rulers from that time to present day, who will never acknowledge a mistake or express regret). But once Ashoka embraced Buddhism, a “waterfall” of records cascade from Kandahar to the Deccan. Ashoka was to Buddhism’s spread what Constantine was to Christianity’s, he writes.

 

But post-Ashoka, Buddhism never spread by any ruler’s recommendation or by the sword.

“Instead, perhaps counter-intuitively for a faith that embraced poverty and renunciation as an ideal, it was spread around the globe most effectively by wealthy merchants engaged in trade.”

For many Buddhists, wealth “could be taken as a sign of good karma” and “poverty could be interpreted as a sign of moral failure”!

 

At the famous caves of Ajanta, the Buddha is shown less in his “monastic milieu” and more in the “princely environment in which he grew up”. The “juxtaposition of monks and dancing girls, ascetics and princesses” posed no problem to the artists or Buddhist patrons. The murals include an international cast, from Persians to Ethiopians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, each with their distinctive clothes and skin colour. Who paid for these murals is often captured in inscriptions – the list included monks and nuns, merchant guilds and tradesmen.

 

Looks like Buddhism spread thanks to traders once Ashoka got it started. That is funny, because one never thinks of Buddhism (or anything about it) as having a baniya connection!