[Buddha-l] Dharmapala

[JKirkpatrick]

Artur,
What, pray tell, is your *point*, at this point?  

Everybody knows that kings do as they please to ensure their power and glory, that they boast and kill with impunity while denigrating their enemies. Kings and propagandists of nationalism (e.g., the Mahavamsa), rhetorically reducing enemies to pasus or worse, is par for the course.  

It's already been pointed out that this text is not a teaching text. I would add that it is also a nationalistic spin text.

Joanna K.
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More on people-as-cattle --- in the Ceylonese "Great Chronicle".

Mahavamsa XXXVI, on the rule of Ilanaga (38-44 AD ?).

[Geiger] "As he had heard there the Kapi-jataka from the great thera, the preacher of jatakas, named Mahäpaduma, who dwelt in the (vihara) called Tuladhara, he, being won to faith in the Bodhisatta, restored the Nagamahavihara and gave it the extension of a hundred unbent bows in length, and he enlarged the thüpa even to what it has been (since then); moreover, he made the Tissa-tank and the tank called Dura.

When the king had raised an army he marched to battle; when the Lambakannas heard this they also prepared themselves for battle. Near the gate of Kapallakkhanda on the field of Hankarapitthi was waged the battle between the two (armies) that brought destruction to both.

Since their bodies were exhausted by the sea-journey, the king's men yielded their ground, therefore the king proclaimed his name and pressed forward. Terrified thereat the Lambakannas threw themselves down upon their belly, and they hewed off their heads and heaped them up high as the nave of the (king's) waggon-wheel, and when this had come to pass three times the king, from pity, said: 'Slay them not, but take them captive living.'

When then the king had come into the capital as victor in battle and had raised the parasol (of sovereignty) he went to a festival at the Tissa-tank.' And when he, fully arrayed in his ornaments and armour, had withdrawn from the watersports and reflected on the good-fortune that he had attained, and thought of the Lambakannas who had opposed his progress, he was wroth and commanded that they be yoked two and two behind one another to his car, and thus did he enter the city in front of them. Halting on the threshold of the palace the king gave the command: 'Here on this threshold, soldiers, strike off their heads.' 'These are but oxen yoked to thy chariot, O lord of chariots; therefore let their horns and hoofs be struck off,' thus admonished by his mother the king recalled (the order) to behead them and commanded that their nose and toes be cut off. "


30
Mahāpadumanāmassa tattha jātakabhāṇino
Tulādhāravhavāsissa mahātherassa santike
31
Kapijātakaṃ sutvāna bodhisatte pasādavā
Nāgamahāvihāraṃ so jiyāmuttadhanussataṃ
32
Katvā kāresi; thūpañca vaḍḍhāpesi yathāṭhitaṃ.
Tissavāpiñca kāresi, tathā dūravhavāpikaṃ.
33
So gahetvā balaṃ rājā yuddhāya abhinikkhami.
Taṃ sutvā lambakaṇṇā ca yuddhāya abhisaṃyutā
34
Kapallakkhaṇḍadvāramhi khette hiṅkārapiṭṭhike Yuddhaṃ ubhinnaṃ vattittha añaññamaññaviheṭhanaṃ.
35
Nāvākilantadehattā posā sīdantī rājino;
Rājā nāmaṃ sāvayitvā sayaṃ pāvisi tena so.

36
Tena bhītā lambakaṇṇā sayiṃsu udarena; so Tesaṃ sisāni chinditvā rathanābhisamaṃ karī.
37
Tikkhattumevantu kate karuṇāya mahīpati
"Amāretvā'va gaṇhātha jīvagāha"nti abruvī.
38
Tato vijitasaṅgāmo puraṃ āgamma bhūpati
Chattaṃ ussāpayitvāna tissavāpichaṇaṃ agā.
39
Jalakīḷāya uggantvā sumaṇḍitapasādhito
Attano sirisampattiṃ disvā tassantarāyike.
40
Lambakaṇṇe saritvāna kuddho so yojayī rathe; Yugaparamparā tesaṃ purato pāvisī puraṃ.
41
Mahāvatthussa ummāre ṭhatvā rājāṇapesi so "Imesaṃ sīhamummāre asmiṃ chindatha bho" iti,
42
"Goṇā ete rathe yuttā tava honti rathesabha; Siṅgaṃ khurañca etesaṃ chedāpaya tato"iti, Mātuyā atha saññatto sisacchedaṃ nivāriya
43
Nāsañca pādaṅguṭṭhañca tesaṃ rājā achedayi.


Goṇā ete rathe yuttā tava honti rathesabha - "These are but oxen yoked to thy chariot, O lord of chariots".


This time the enemies are not foreigners, the Lambakannas -  rivals to power, but co-Buddhists. And some time before the battle with them (after which the king's warriors "hewed off their heads and heaped them up high as the nave of the (king's) waggon-wheel") the king listens to a sermon based on the Mahākapijātaka, and, under its impression, he is "won to faith in the Bodhisatta"


Regards,


Artur K.

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