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Millennialism in Relation to Buddhism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Kitsiri Malalgoda
Kitsiri Malalgoda
Affiliation:
University of Ceylon
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Extract

Weber, in his comparative studies of religion, characterized millennial eschatologies (embodying beliefs in a just redistribution of fortune through a future revolution in this world) as one possible type of solution to a problem of meaning which he considered central to all religious traditions—the problem of explaining the world's imperfections. Taking this type of solution as his point of departure, he arranged the other types in a logical order. Thus when the supervention of the messianic kingdom in this world appeared to be unduly delayed, a second type of solution became necessary and possible, a solution in terms of other-worldly expectations of heaven and hell. This second solution itself entailed difficulties of its own: when heaven and hell were conceived as intermediate realms of existence, there still remained problems regarding the eternity of salvation (and damnation); and, when they were conceived as eternal realms of existence, there arose, especially in the context of theistic beliefs, the difficulty of reconciling the punishment of human errors with the conception of a benevolent and powerful creator of the world who would ultimately be responsible for these human actions himself. The third, fourth and fifth types of solutions were seen as responses to this problem, a problem which in Christian theology came to be known as ‘theodicy’ or the problem of reconciling the two fundamental attributes of God, universal benevolence and omnipotence, in view of the existence of evil. The third type of solution, best exemplified in the Protestant doctrine of predestination, preserved God's omnipotence and resolved his lack of benevolence by placing him beyond the ethical claims of his creatures.

Type
Millennialism
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 1970 , pp. 424 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1970

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References

1 The first paragraph of this essay is a brief summary of Weber's discussion of these types in The Sociology of Religion, Fishcoff, E., trans. (London, 1965), pp. 139–47.Google Scholar

2 The relationships between these types, as Weber conceived them, were logical rather than historical. In some cases they could in fact be historical. It seems probable, for instance, that the dualism of later Zoroastrianism developed as a response to the theodicy which was inherent in early monotheistic Zoroastrianism. On the other hand, in taking the doctrine of karma as a (logical) resolution of theodicy, Weber did not imply that the problem of theodicy in its classical sense existed in Indian religions (historically) prior to the development of the doctrine of karma. Regarding Weber's use of the concept of theodicy, see Gananath Obeyesekere ‘Theodicy, Sin and Salvation in a Sociology of Buddhism‘ in Leach, E. R., ed., Dialectic in Practical Religion (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 7–40.Google Scholar

3 Weber, op. cit., p. 147.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Windisch, E., Māra unci Buddha (Leipzig, 1895).Google Scholar For a recent and comprehensive discussion of this subject see Ling, T. O., Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil (London, 1962).Google Scholar

7 Weber, Max, The Religion of India, Gerth, H. H. and Martindale, Don, trans, and eds. (Glencoe, 1958), chap. VII.Google Scholar

8 See Obeyesekere, Gananath, ‘The Great Tradition and the Little in the Perspective of Sinhalese Buddhism’, Journal of Asian Studies, XXII (1963), 139–53;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Michael M. Ames, ‘Magical-Animism and Buddhism: A Structural Analysis of the Sinhalese Religious System’, ibid., XXIII (1964), 21-52; Spiro, Melford E., Burmese Supernaturalism (New Jersey, 1967);Google Scholar and, Nash, Manning et al. , Anthropological Studies in Theravada Buddhism (Yale, 1966).Google Scholar

9 Weber considered this explanation closely related to the dualistic explanation. ‘In the last analysis’, he wrote, ‘dualism is only a direct systematization of the magical pluralism of the spirits with their division of good (useful) and evil (harmful) spirits which represent the preliminary stages of the antagonism between deities and demons’, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. W., trans, and eds., 1946 (New York, 1958), p. 358. The classification of certain supernatural beings as suras and asuras in the Indian tradition (see fn. 55 below) may be taken as a development in this direction.Google Scholar

10 Weber, The Religion of India, op. cit., p. 237. Common to both magical-animism and belief in a saviour is the exteriority of their points of reference. While animism explains fortune and misfortune in terms of external supernatural powers, a saviour is expected to achieve the salvation of others by the distribution of his own grace. Both these are in logical conflict with the doctrine of karma which lays primary emphasis on the inner disposition of the individual.

11 Bodhi means ‘enlightenment’, and sattva ‘being’ or ‘essence’. A Bodhisattva therefore is a person who in his essential being is motivated by the desire to win full enlightenment—to become a Buddha. Sufficiently equipped to gain his own salvation, he none the less postpones his entrance into Nirvana in order to gain full enlightenment: in order thereby to help suffering creatures.

12 Arhat, meaning one who is ‘worthy’, is used in the older Buddhist texts without great precision to refer to all ‘enlightened’ persons, i.e. those who have achieved nirvana. In this sense, it is a common epithet of the Buddha. In its later and more precise meaning however, Arhat refers exclusively to the Buddha's disciples (Srāvakas) who won enlightenment having, directly or indirectly, ‘heard’ the Buddha's doctrine. An Arhat's knowledge of the doctrine is not self-begotten (svayambhu): nor does he have the ability of a Buddha to help other beings. Thus while a Buddha's enlightenment is necessarily accompanied by the salvation of others, the enlightenment of a disciple is not. In addition to the Buddhas and Arhats, the Buddhists also believe in a third class of enlightened persons, the Pratyekabuddhas. The latter, in contrast to the Arhats, discover the path by their own efforts; but, in contrast to the Buddhas, they do not show the path to others. It was the individualist conception of salvation implicit in both the Arhat and Pratyekabuddha ideals that the Mahāyānists rejected. Hence their exclusive emphasis on the Buddhayāna (or Mahāyāna) as against the Pratyekabuddhayāna and Srāvakayāna.

13 Since salvation was all that mattered, the earliest Buddhists made no attempt to define Buddhahood; nor to preserve a unified biography of the Buddha. Oldenberg, who based his study of Buddhism primarily on the early suttas, was thus driven to the conclusion that in all its essentials the Buddhist doctrine would remain what it is, even if the concept of Buddha were eliminated. Oldenberg, Herman, Buddha: his life, his doctrine, his order (London, 1882), pp. 322–3.Google Scholar

14 See Thomas, E. J., The History of Buddhist Thought (London, 1933), esp. chap. XI.Google Scholar

15 Taking refuge with the Buddha and the veneration of places and objects connected with the Buddha were all part of this general process.

16 M. Winternitz, ‘Jātaka’ in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VII, pp. 491-4.

17 See The Jātaka or stories of the Buddha's Former Births. Translated from the Pali by various hands under the editorship of E. B. Cowell, 6 vols. (Cambridge, 1895-1907).

18 Samyutta Nikāya, Part III, Feer, M. Leon, ed. (London, 1890), p. 120.Google Scholar

19 See Edward Conze ‘Buddhist Saviours’ in Brandon, S. G. F., ed., The Saviour God (Manchester, 1963), pp. 67–82.Google Scholar

20 Under the influence of Mahāyāna, both Avalokiteśvara and Tārā gained adherents in Ceylon around the eighth century. But within the Sinhalese belief system they soon lost their saviour qualities and assumed functions akin to those of other gods in the pantheon, namely serving the Buddha and his religion—which indeed amounted to protecting the Theravada orthodoxy of Ceylon. While Tara has since gone into oblivion, AvalokitesVara is still wor shipped under the name of (Lokeśvara) Nātha. Yet, with his origins forgotten, Nātha is identified nowadays as Bodhisattva Maitreya. See Paranavitana, S., ‘Mahāyānism in Ceylon’ Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G, II (1928–33) 56;Google Scholar and ‘Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in Ceylon’ in Bhandarkar, D. R. et al. ed., B. C. Law Volume Part II (Poona, 1946), pp. 15–18. The identification of Natha with Maitreya illustrates the Theravāda tendency to minimize the number of Bodhisattvas.Google Scholar

21 That this belief was a later development has been shown with scriptural evidence by Thomas op. cit., pp. 148–50.

22 See Buddhavaihsa (One of the books of the Khuddaka Nikāya of the Sutta Pifaka), Pali Text, Richard Morris, ed. (London, 1882); English trans, by B. C. Law (London, 1938). Up to this day the Jātakas and the Buddhavaihsa provide the most favoured themes for temple paintings.

23 See the ‘Cakkavatti Sihanāda Sutta’ of the Dīgha Nikāya of the Sutta Pitaka, Pali Text, J. Estlin Carpenter, ed. (London, 1911); English trans, by T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (London, 1921); and ‘Anāgatavarhsa’. Pali Text, Minayeff, J., ed., Journal of the Pali Text Society (1886), 33–53;Google Scholar partially translated by I. B. Horner in Conze, Edward, ed., Buddhist Texts (Oxford, 1953) pp. 46–50. A Sinhalese version of the Anāgatavarhsa was prepared by Vilgammula Sarhgharāja at the request of King Pararhramabāhu IV in the fourteenth century. See Vataddara Medhānanda's edition of this work (Colombo, 1934). Shorter versions of the same story could be seen in popular Buddhist works like the Saddharmaratnāvaliya, Pūjāvaliya, and the Saddharmālamkāraya.Google Scholar

24 E. Michael Mendelson, ‘Religion and Authority in Modern Burma’, The World Today, XVI (1960) 110–18;Google Scholar‘The King of the Weaving Mountain’, Royal Central Asian Journal, XLVIII (1961), 229–37;Google Scholar‘A Messianic Buddhist Association of Upper Burma’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XXIV (1961), 560–80. See also Spiro, op. cit., chap. 13.Google Scholar

25 ‘Innovation’ as a form of ‘deviant’ behaviour has been analysed by Merton in relation to strictly secular behaviour. See Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe, 1957),Google Scholar chaps. IV and V. The paradigm suggested by Merton, however, is not without significance for the study of religious behaviour as well. Wilson, for instance, while making a classification of Christian sects in terms of their responses to the values of the wider society, has drawn attention to the comparability of these types of responses to the types of individual adaptation suggested by Merton. See Wilson, Bryan R., ‘An Analysis of Sect Development‘, American Sociologica Review, XXIV (1959), 5, note 8.Google Scholar

26 Spiro, op. cit., pp. 238-41.

27 Even the Gaing member aims to prolong his life indefinitely until the coming of Maitreya.

28 Weber, The Sociology of Religion, pp. 113-14. See also Ancient Judaism, Gerth, H. H. and Martindale, Don trans, and eds. (New York, 1959), pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

25 Paranavitana, S. ‘Two Royal Titles of the Early Sinhalese and the Origin of Kingship in Ancient Ceylon’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain (1936), 443–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Ibid.

31 See The Mahāvamsa or the Great Chronicle of Ceylon, Wilhelm Geiger, trans. (Colombo, 1950). Regarding the concept of Dhammadipa see Perera, L. S., ‘The Pali Chronicle of Ceylon‘ in Philips, C. H., ed., Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (London, 1961), pp. 29–43.Google Scholar The Ceylon chronicles had a direct influence on the writing of Burmese chronicles; with the result that the Burmese came to acquire a self-image very similar to that of the Sinhalese in relation to their connections with Buddhism. Its consequences on Burmese history have been remark ably similar to those which we discuss in the present paper with regard to the Sinhalese. For a study of Burma from this angle see Sarkisyanz, E., Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution (The Hague, 1965).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 Mahāvamsa, I: 19–43.

33 Ibid., I: 44–84.

34 The legendary founding father of the Sinhalese.

35 Mahāvamsa, VII: 1–4.

36 Ibid., VII: 5. Since the fifteenth century, Upulvan has been identified with Visnu. See Paranavitana, S., The Shrine of Upulvan at Devundara (Colombo, 1953).Google Scholar

37 ‘Jētavanārāma Slab Inscription (No. 2) of Mahinda VI’, Epigraphia Zeylanica, I (1904–12) 240.Google Scholar

38 Enclosure to Despatch, Wilson to Liverpool, February 26, 1812. CO. 54/42 (Public Records Office, London).

39 See Pieris, P. E., Tri Sinhala: the Last Phase, 1796-1815 (Colombo, 1939).Google Scholar

40 The king himself was sent into exile.

41 Enclosure to Despatch, Brownrigg to Bathurst, November 5, 1816, CO. 54/61.

42 The Diary of Mr. John D'Oyly, Codrington, H. W., ed. (Colombo, 1910), April 8, 1815.Google Scholar

43 See the typology of millennial movements suggested by Bryan Wilson in ‘Millennialism in Comparative Perspective’, CSSH, VI (1963–64), 93–114.Google Scholar

44 Brownrigg to Bathurst, February 28, 1817. CO. 54/65.

45 For a discussion of the symbolic aspects of kingship, see Beattie, J. H. M.'s essay on ‘kingship’ in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 8, pp. 386–9.Google Scholar

46 Davy, John, An Account of the Interior of Ceylon and of its inhabitants (London, 1821), p. 140.Google Scholar

47 These were the words spoken by them to Käppitipola, the Kandyan Chief who immedi ately afterwards joined them and became the champion of the new ‘king’. The statement continued, ‘… to whom if you be faithful, accompany us, if unfaithful, we shall here slay you and convey your head to him’. Evidence of the Mahabetme Rala of the Kataragama Devalaya. Enclosure to Despatch, Brownrigg to Bathurst, July 8, 1819. CO. 54/74.

48 Enclosure to Despatch, Brownrigg to Bathurst, July 24, 1818. CO. 54/71. The English translation, which alone has been preserved, is reproduced here with modernized spelling and transliteration.

49 Pieris, P. E., Sinhalē and the Patriots, 1815-1818 (Colombo, 1950) is a detailed historical study of this period.Google Scholar

50 Knox, Robert, An Historical Relation of Ceylon (1681), Ryan, James, ed. (Glasgow, 1911), p. 16.Google Scholar

51 Ibid.

52 Pieris, op. cit., p. 61.

53 Ibid.

54 Evidence of Tikiri Mallia of Passara, dated February 20, 1818; quoted in Pieris, op. cit., pp. 257 and 526.

55 The term asura was used in Vedic times to refer to certain gods (Varuna was the most important of them); but in (later) Hinduism, it is used to mean a group of demonic spirits who are in perennial conflict with the suras (gods) whose power they sometimes shake, but never conquer. It is noteworthy that the same term in its Persian form (ahura) is used in Zoroastrianism as part of the title of the great god of light, Ahura Mazda.

56 See K. M. de Silva, ed., Letters on Ceylon, 1845–50: The Administration of Viscount Torrington and the ‘Rebellion’ of 1848 (Colombo, 1965). Information regarding other millennial episodes could be found in CO. 54/Vols. 76, 77, 84, 86, 197, 199, 335.Google Scholar

57 R. W. levers, ‘Report on the Kegalla District for 1882’ (April 18, 1883), Ceylon: Administration Reports, 1882, p. 65A.Google Scholar

58 levers rather cynically explained away the whole movement as having been ‘originated by interested priests, who naturally hoped that increased offerings for gaining merit would benefit them, and by cunning Moorman and low-country traders, who relieved the credulous villagers of their sin of keeping fowl and pigs by removing these animals either for a nominal price, or for nothing, according to the more or less piety of the owners’, ibid. While there could well be something in the claim that the priests (monks), ‘cunning Moormen’ and the low- country traders derived benefit from this movement, it still seems difficult to explain its origins entirely in terms of such a simple conspiracy. And a very unlikely conspiracy at that: the monks could scarcely have had anything in common with the other two groups while the Moormen and the low-country traders would have had nothing but rivalry between them in their efforts to exploit the peasantry.

59 levers, op. cit.

60 Now at the Oriental section of the British Museum Library: Or. 6616(1). Nevill calls it Virapōgabrājitē Rajugī Pahalavīma (‘The Advent of King Vlrapōgabrājita’). Dharmarajapota, however, is the name given by the author himself at the end of the manuscript.

61 ‘Descriptive Catalogue of the Nevill Manuscripts’, Vol. II, No. 380.

62 The date refers to his birth and not to his arrival in Ceylon.

63 According to levers (pp. cit.), the movement arose in the Seven Kōralēs and gradually spread to the adjoining districts.

64 See fn. 36 above.

65 It should be noted that in the Sinhalese pantheon, Visnu occupies a position (as a guardian deity) that is very different from his position in the Hindu pantheon. Whereas in the present myth, Visnu acts purely as a supervisor, and a rather lethargic supervisor to boot (he remains inactive until he is reminded of his job by other gods), in Hindu mythology, he is depicted as an ever-active godhead who repeatedly incarnates himself in order to help the world. Hindus recognize ten major incarnations of Visnu: nine of them have already made their appearance and the tenth, Kalkin, is yet to come. It is possible that this doctrine of incarnation owes something to the Buddhist conceptions of former and future Buddhas.

66 Wickremasinghe, while discussing the manuscript at the British Museum (Or. 3228, 2) in his Catalogue of Sinhalese Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1900), pp. 152–3, has remarked that this work refers to the history of Ceylon up to the Dutch occupation (in the seventeenth century). In fact, the work makes reference to many subsequent events including the defeat of the Dutch (by the British in 1796) and the deposition of Śri Vikrama Rājasimha (in 1815). Quite clearly, the work belongs to the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

67 Pärakumba Sirita (circa 1460), D. G. Abhayagunaratna, ed. (Colombo, 1922).

68 No. 116. An English translation of this verse is given in Skeen, William, Adam's Peak (Colombo, 1870), pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

69 The epithet Diyanā meaning ‘leader of the world’ seems to have been transformed into the personal name Diyasena in subsequent times.

70 Post factum prophecies of this sort could be seen in the Mahavathsa as well. (The success of Buddhism in Ceylon for instance, was followed by the general claim that the Buddha had prophesied it to be so. At times, depending on the knowledge of the past, such prophecies have been formulated with greater attention to detail. See, e.g. the one attributed to Mahinda regarding the building of the ‘Great Thupa’ by Dufugämunu. Mahāvathsa XV; 55-173). Sumana Sutraya, however, goes one step further and supplements the ‘historical account’ with ‘genuine prophecies’.

71 Charles de Silva, in his edition of Pärakumba Sirita (Colombo, 1953), pp. 289–90, has quoted two of the pamphlets which were current at the time, i.e. three years before the expected date. One of them predicts the exact date on which Diyasena would arrive; while the other makes the prediction that he would arrive on the day the restoration work of the Cetiya at Mahiyangana is complete, in order to take part in its final consecration ceremony. The Cetiya at Mahiyangana, incidentally, stands at the spot where, according to a long-established myth, the Buddha began the task of preparing Ceylon to receive his doctrine. See the Mahāvathsa, I: 19-43.Google Scholar

72 See Cohn, Norman, ‘Medieval Millenarism: its bearing on The Comparative Study of Millenarian Movements‘ in Thrupp, Sylvia L., ed.,Millennial Dreams in Action (The Hague, 1962), pp. 42–3;Google Scholar and Talmon, Yonina, ‘Millenarian Movements‘, Archives Europe‘enes de Sociologie, VII (1966) 188.Google Scholar

73 George Shepperson, for instance, while discussing millennial movements in Nyasaland Buddhism, which perhaps presents the opposition to the spirit of politics in its most acute form, has, for this very reason, failed to attain any influence in the political sphere. It has remained merely one element in the national life of the countries into which it has penetrated; it has not become a ruling force among them.75 (‘Nyasaland and the Millennium’ in Thrupp, ed., op. cit., pp. 144–59), has recognized the possible importance of tribal and Islamic influences. Still, the scanty character of records relating to these compels him to examine in detail only the Christian influences.

74 Both Cohn (op. cit.) and Talmon (op. cit.) make such attempts: Cohn, with a lot of caution, suggests the belief in rebirth as the crucial factor (with reference to Hinduism); Talmon, more boldly, tries to give an explanation in terms of the cyclical conceptions of time and the ‘otherworldly’ conceptions of ultimate salvation. Regarding these ‘explanations’ see fn. 77 below and the text therein referred to.

75 ‘Politics, Patriotism, Religion’ in Christian Thought: its History and Application (New York, 1957), p. 152.Google Scholar

76 The Trumpet Shall Sound (London, 1957), p. 223.Google Scholar

77 This, quite apart from pointing to actual manifestations of millennialism in such a tradition, is the major theoretical objection that can be levelled against the sort of approach adopted by Cohn and Talmon (see fn. 74 above).

78 From Max Weber, op. cit., p. 291.