The Buddhist Revolution

As a religious movement, Buddhism germinated in the Aryan hinterland but thrived in the native urban centers. It embraced the highest achievements of Aryan culture, at the same time as fomenting a widespread popular uprising against it. Indeed, Buddhism as a whole may be interpreted as a native revolt against the hierarchical and repressive Aryan order – with its patriarchal family, caste system, chronic male anxieties, sexual repression, and obsession with self-denial and asceticism.

This dual movement – embracing Aryan philosophy to foment revolt against the Aryan order itself – is recorded in the complex and rich heritage of Buddhist art and lore. The prophetic beauty Kisagotami foretells of the Buddha’s Enlightenment; the charming Sujata and her miraculous rice bowl heralds with divine Middle Way; and the rich and beautiful courtesan, Amrapali, mortifies the lofty Licchavi Lords by bringing the Buddha to her magic mango grove. Thus was the Aryan world overturned in Buddhist legends.

Elsewhere, the Buddha gives precedence to outcastes, ordaining the pious barber Upali before the caste-proud ksatriya; grants Enlightenment to the meek nun, Utpalavarna, shunning Aryan overlords; and, at the Last Supper, after falling desperately ill from a dish of pork, praises the host Cunda, a poor and lowly blacksmith, for his kindness and hospitality. And thus in Buddhist folklore does social progress march forward, the legions of the despised holding their heads high.

The mythic course of the Buddha’s life traces a great arc in the shape of a bell curve. The Buddha achieves the epitome of wisdom in the middle years under the spell of heavenly and earth goddesses who control the life-giving waters and bring fertility. But the years on either side of the bell curve are dominated by morbid themes of old age, sickness and death: first, in his youth as a young prince, when the bodhisattva is distraught by the discovery of these three sources of suffering in the world; and then, in his latter years as the Buddha, when he succumbs to each of the three in turn. Only in the Middle Years when he practices the Middle Way under the protection of the goddess does he conquer all. Let us see how.

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