Utopian ahiṃsā and the violence inherent in food in early Buddhism: Pāli texts vis-à-vis early Upaniṣads and Aśoka edicts

Abstract

The present contribution aims to analyse some early Buddhist tenets in the Suttanipāta (verses: 220-221). According to this text, the layman cannot fully practise ahiṃsā (non-violence / non-harmfulness) while, in contrast, the monk always protects animals; the layman never being equal to a monk due to the latter’s meditative practice. The study will explore how violence is inextricably connected with food through the analysis of some of the stages presented in the Sāmaññaphalasutta’s Buddhist path of liberation and the foundational myth in the Aggaññasutta. These two texts will be confronted with Upaniṣadic evidence to contextualise these ideas in a broad Indian ascetic milieu. Finally, we will investigate how the Suttanipāta’s principle, according to which the monk always protects animals, has been assimilated and utilised by King Aśoka Maurya, with a particular reference to the Rock Edict 1.