Buddha and the Indian Empire

What Makes an Empire?

Empires throughout human history have been diverse and unique, but some common elements make them recognizably imperial. The Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires all exercised hegemony over vast areas for long periods of time, relying on military might to maintain control. Their centers of political power were strong and centralized, not only allowing them to apportion resources effectively but also to communicate the unifying laws and principles that defined their rule. Moreover, these three empires often used both religious authority and cultural practices to legitimize their power and make it harder for subject peoples to challenge them—the ancestor worship of the Persians, the legends of divine origin amongst the Greeks, and shared gods large parts of the Roman world all served this purpose.

While there are many other factors that separate or distinguish different empires from one another, a combination of military strength, strategic centralization and ideological framework appears essential for an imperial formation. Yet, as Xuanzang shows in his ancient records and documents regarding his visit to India in 629 BC, there is more to empire than military, strategy, and ideology. One other aspect is culture. Culture must also be at the heart of empire—and it was certainly there at the heart of the Persian (intensely nationalist), Grecian (intensely democratic and philosophical), and Roman (intensely liberal). What Xuanzang reveals is that culture can manifest itself in innumerable ways, such as through heritage—like the preservation of where the Buddha received enlightenment in the Indian Empire, or like the record of epic battles as in Homer’s Iliad, or epic settlements as in Virgil’s Aeneid.

Homer’s Iliad begins with epic words: “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles.”[footnoteRef:2] These words launch the listener into a world of epic warriors, where gods and goddesses vied with human beings for the outcome of destinies. It was recited by Greeks for centuries—a spoken history of their heritage—before finally being recorded in printed word on paper. Likewise, Virgil’s Aeneid begins with a similarly epic introduction, depicting how a Trojan warrior brought his “banished gods” to Italy where he reinstituted the religious rites that the Greeks had destroyed in the Battle of Troy, and which served as the foundation for the future Roman Empire.[footnoteRef:3] Or as Huili notes of his master Xuanzang in the latter’s travels, wherever there is a great concentration of learning and a repository of heritage and knowledge, there is the epicenter of Empire: in India, he and Xuanzang saw firsthand the might of the Indian Empire, resting in the place where the Buddha had once dwelled: “Ten thousand monks always lived there, both hosts and guests. They studied Mahayana teachings and the doctrines of the eighteen schools, as well as worldly books such as the Vedas.”[footnoteRef:4] There in a nutshell are the components of Empire—in the cultural expressions that sing and work and labor together to create an idealized expression of greatness that is eventually communicated in political, military, and economic forms. [2: Homer, The Iliad (University of Michigan, 2007), 1.] [3: Virgil, The Aeneid (Collector’s Library, 2004), 1.] [4: Huili, “A Biography of the Tripitaka Master,” Considering the Evidence: Documents, 345.]