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KPI Congress 15 th 4

The wheel-turning monarch does not resort to violence. Buddhist texts, however,
give lengthy descriptions of his fourfold army. It might surprise anyone if the wheel-
turning monarch does not resort to violence, why he has to maintain the fourfold
army (D.II.178; Rhys Davids 1989: 209; D.III.62; Rhys Davids 1991: 63; M.III.172).
The reason may be by definition the wheel-turning monarch requires the fourfold army
as his retinue denoting his accomplishments as a wheel-turner monarch. Maintaining
an army with multiple regiments thus can be seen as of paramount significance for
the wheel-turner monarch. In practical terms of governance, the interdependence
between temporal wheel and the spiritual wheel may have been taken into account
here. In many occasions, the Buddha stressed superiority of the ‘right’ over ‘might.’
At the same time, the Buddha may have recognized that the ‘might’ be required in
order to maintain the ‘right.’ For any kind of healthy governance, proper measures and
devices are required to maintain law and order.

IV
Initiatives
to
Create
Dharmarãjya
(Just
State)
in

Buddhist
Societies

The notion of dharmarãjya undergoes chronological, historical and doctrinal
developments over many centuries long after the Buddha’s passing away. At the
Buddha’s time, though there may have been notions of justice and righteous kingship,
the idea of the existence of a dharmarãjya (Just State) may not have been
conceptualized. The reason also might have been that Buddhism had not been
developed extensively to deal with matters related to politics and the state. By and
large, Buddhist communities were operating outside and beyond the secular concerns
of the state and affairs of this worldly life. As a renunciant movement, most members
of the Buddhist community, neither monastic nor lay, perhaps were interested in
political matters and issues of governance.

As historical evidence suggests Buddhists in South Asia, East Asia as well as
Southeast Asia have been interested in the notion of dharmarãja for several centuries.
In several Buddhist lands including China, there are stories of kings who attempted to
get closer to the ideal of Buddhist kingship as narrated in Buddhist texts.

(a) Early Developments of the Dharmaraja Concept: Emperor Asoka’s

Projection as a Dharmaraja in Ancient India

Buddhist concepts of good governance and just ruler as envisaged by modern International panel discussion
Buddhist thinkers have their incipient and humble origins in the reign of Emperor
A oka (c. 300-232 BCE; r. 268-232 BCE), the third ruler of the Mauryan dynasty and
the first builder of an empire in ancient India. In his inscriptions, Emperor A oka
introduced himself as “King Priyadar ĩ, Beloved of the Gods.” Both inscriptions of
Emperor A oka and records of the Sri Lankan Pãli chronicles support that Emperor
A oka adopted the dharmarãja concept as the foundational principle of politics and
good government.