The feudal Buddha

But in the 8th Century, we see a dramatic shift in Buddhist iconography. The old kings were primarily toll tax collectors. But the new kings control lands and we see the emergence of a feudal idea even in the artwork of the Buddha. We find, especially in the eastern part of India, the stronghold of Tantric Buddhism, paintings of one Buddha sitting in the centre, surrounded by many Buddhas around him. They face the four directions. So there is a senior Buddha and a junior Buddha. The senior Buddha lives in his own world in his own kingdom. He towers over the junior Buddhas, who also have worlds of their own. These are the Buddha Kshetras (territories). In another circle around these five Buddhas are the Bodhisattvas who engage with humanity and help reduce suffering. This circle of Buddha mirrors the circle of kings (Raja-mandala) described in the dharma-shastra texts, where the further away you move from the capital city of the king, modes of extraction of wealth shifts from rental income, to tax income, to tributes by feudal lords, to gifts from allies. Here, instead of a single king controlling the whole ecosystem for administrators, we now have various smaller kingdoms, who pay tribute to a dominant central Chakravarthi, who power extends to the circular horizon.

The third thing which started emerging from the 10th Century onwards was the images of giant Buddhas. These are especially popular in Central Asia and China. Here, you find these giant Buddhas standing or seated, especially overlooking trade routes. This is the primal Buddha, the Adi Buddha, appearing as a substitute to the idea of God, who dominates the vista. The images is sometimes identified as Maitreya, the future Buddha, or Vairochana, the transcendent Buddha, who permeates the whole universe. It mimics the idea of the Chinese Emperor, to whom everyone is beholden to. Buddhism played a key role after the Tang dynasty to overpower the stranglehold of the Confucian and Taoist courtiers. Buddhist monasteries emerged, after much struggle, as a key player in Chinese affairs. These monasteries introduced banking practices hitherto unknown in China, and perhaps played a key role in the emergence of paper currency. Before China, Buddhist monks had introduced metal currency along Indian trade routes.

Buddha – popularised in the early 20th century as a symbol of renunciation – was in fact a symbol of mercantile and political power in its long history of over 2500 years. His image was favoured by kings who collected toll tax, feudal lords who collected tributes and emperors who loved to dominate the landscape. That is why Buddha was visualised on pagodas, in mandalas and finally as giants looming over trade routes. Wherever Buddhism went, mercantile networks followed and currency usage spread. Performative spirituality is always an indicator of material abundance. For the rich fear losing their wealth to the hungry poor. And are grateful when Buddha prevents them from stressing too much about it.