Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s3: Section 4. The Politics of Ecclesiastical Bodies (Samghas)

The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c9.s3

Language
English

Section 4. The Politics of Ecclesiastical Bodies (Samghas)

c9.s3.2

As embodiments of Hindu institutional life we have to mention also the *vihâras* or monasteries of ancient and mediæval India. These were *samûhas* i. e., public bodies and were bound by definite rules and regulations as to election, quorum, voting, and business procedure. Students of European polity are aware that on various occasions in the West the church and the state have borrowed from each other the methods of internal administration. It would appear that in the Orient also common principles of organization have been followed by religious associations and secular institutions alike. The ecclesiastical bodies of Buddhist Asia should have thus to be treated as quasi-political corporations, even independently of the fact that in certain regions, e. g. in Tibet and Mongolia, as in Catholic Europe the spiritual head has claimed also temporal dominion over his flock.

c9.s3.3

The origins of all this institutionalism are of course to be sought in the publicity work and propaganda methods of Sâkya the Buddha himself (B. C. 623—543). Sâkya’s father and brother were *râjâs* or archons i. e. presidents of the Sakiya Republic in Eastern India. It was natural, therefore, that when he fled the world and founded a *Samgha* (Order) of monks, the only constitution that he could conceive for it was that with which he had been familiar at home and in his own state. And as a matter of course he made no distinction between his own ecclesiastical order, the *Samgha*, and the contemporary republican Confederacy of the Vajjian States, when called upon to enunciate the “seven conditions of the welfare for a community”.

c9.s3.4

Of these seven conditions three may be regarded as directly constitutional or political. “So long, O medicants”, said Sâkya, “as the brethren meet together in full and frequent assemblies, — so long as they meet together in concord and rise in concord, and carry out in concord the duties of the Order, \*\*\* so long as the brethren honor and esteem and revere and support the elders of experience and long standing, and hold it a point of duty to hearken to their words, — so long may the brethren be expected not to decline but to prosper.”¹

c9.s3.5

¹ *Mahâ-parinibbâna-sutta*, Ch. I, 6, in Rhys Davids’ *Buddhist Suttas*, Vol. II, pp. 6—7. The subject was discussed for the first time by Jayaswal in the *Mod. Rev.* 1913.

c9.s3.6

In this Sâkyan constitution, defining, as it did, the type as much of an ecclesiastical society as of a secular state, e. g. a clan-republic, there are emphasized, as we see, the importance of the assembly, the need of unity, and the authority of age and experience. This last feature is such as was embodied in the primitive Indo-Aryan, Teutonic and Hellenic polities or is in evidence today in the Japanese *Genro* (“elder statesmen”). These and other principles of Śâkya’s politics have all been codified in the *Chulla-vagga* and the *Mahâ-vagga*, both of which treatises may be regarded as statute-books laying down the fundamental laws and constitutions (*Vinaya*) of Asian ecclesiastical bodies.

c9.s3.7

The following is a typical picture of the method of deliberations generally observed in the Buddhist monasteries and conferences of ancient India: “Then the venerable Mahâ Kassapa laid the resolution before the *Samgha*: ‘Let the venerable *Samgha* hear me. If the time seems meet to the *Samgha*, let the *Samgha* appoint that these five hundred *bhikkhus* (monks) take up their residence during the rainy season at Râjagaha. \*\* This is the resolution. Let the *Samgha* hear. The *Samgha* appoints accordingly. Whosoever of the venerable ones approves thereof, let him keep silence. Whosoever approves not thereof, let him speak. The *Samgha* has appointed accordingly. Therefore is it silent. Thus do I understand.’”¹

c9.s3.8

¹ *Chulla-vagga*, XI, i, 4.

c9.s3.9

An important feature of these monastic institutions was that no business was held valid without quorum. “If an official act, O *bhikkhus*,” as we read Śâkya saying in the *Mahâvagga*,² “is performed unlawfully by an incomplete congregation, it is no real act and ought not be performed.” Along with this caution against incomplete congregations went the injunction against “unlawful acts.” In the following extract the *Mahâvagga*³ mentions some of those acts that have to be ruled out as unconstitutional: “They performed unlawful acts before an incomplete congregation; they performed unlawful acts before a complete congregation; they performed seemingly lawful acts before an incomplete congregation; they performed seemingly lawful acts before a complete congregation; a single *bhikkhu* pronounced expulsion against a single one; a single *bhikkhu* pronounced expulsion against two; a single *bhikkhu* pronounced expulsion against a number of *bhikkhus*; a single *bhikkhu* pronounced expulsion against a *Samgha*”. As no unlawful acts were to be permitted within the church or among the church members, Śâkya definitely laid down the rule: “Therefore, O *bhikkhus*, you ought to train yourself thus: Lawful acts which are performed by complete congregations—such acts we will perform.”⁴

c9.s3.10

² IX, iii, 2.

c9.s3.11

³ IX, ii, 1.

c9.s3.12

⁴ *Mahâ-vagga*, IX, ii, 4.

c9.s3.13

A breach of this ruling appears to have been committed by the monks at Vesali in 443 B. C., about a century after the death of Sâkya. They ordained, for instance, that it is permitted to a *Samgha* which is not sufficiently numerous to accomplish an ecclesiastical act by saying 'we will make the other *bhikkhus* consent when they come.' This ruling called *anumati-kappa* was challenged as illegal by the *bhikkhus* of other centres, and the case was submitted to a jury for trial. The jury decided against it.¹

c9.s3.14

¹ Poussin's "Buddhist Councils" in the *Ind. Ant.*, 1908, p. 89.

c9.s3.15

In order to ascertain the opinions of the members in regard to the topics discussed the ecclesiastical organizations made use of coloured *salâkâs* (or pins) of wood. These were the voting tickets. A *salâkâ-gâhaka* ("taker" or collector of pins) or teller was appointed by the association to explain the significance of the colours to the voters and then take the votes. In the *Chulla-vagga*² we find Sâkya describing the ballot and other kinds of voting. "I enjoin upon you, *bhikkhus*", says he, "three ways of taking votes, ** the secret method, the whispering method, and the open method." The secret method of taking votes is then described. "The *bhikkhu* who is the teller of the votes is to take the voting tickets of different colors and as each *bhikkhu* comes up to him he is to say to him thus, 'This is the ticket for the man of such an opinion, this the ticket for the man of such an opinion. Take which ever you like'. When he has chosen (he is to add), 'Do not show it to anybody." The *Chulla-vagga* enumerates also ten cases of "invalid" voting.³

c9.s3.16

² IV, xiv, 26.

c9.s3.17

³ IV, x.

c9.s3.18

As conflict of opinions is inevitable in democratic deliberations, the rule of the majority was accepted by the *Samgha* as the regular procedure. "By that *bhikkhu*, the taker of the voting tickets", we read in the *Chulla-vagga*,⁴ "are the votes to be collected. And according as the larger number of the *bhikkhus* shall speak, so shall the case be decided".

c9.s3.19

⁴ IV, xiv, 24. Re the principle of majority *vide infra*, p. 82.

c9.s3.20

All this points to the highly developed institutional sense and corporate consciousness among Hindus. And these principles of *samûha* (or public associations and corporations) were not the patents of Buddhist, Jaina or any other religious bodies but were held in solution in the general socio-economic and civic life of ancient and mediæval India. These quasi-political institutions were only drawing upon and contributing to the same stream of national experience as did the economic *śreṇîs* (gilds) and the political *gaṇas* (republics) or constitutional *sabhâs* and *samitis* (assemblies).¹

c9.s3.21

¹ For analogies and interactions between civil and religious societies in the West see Guizot's *History of Civilization in Europe*, Lectures V, VI, XII. Vide Möller's *History of the Christian Church*, pp. 235—242, 328, 337.

Linked texts (3)