While today, in India, Buddhism is strongly linked with social activism and anti-caste movements, the reason Buddhism thrived from the Ashokan period in the 3rd century BC to the Pala period in the 8th century CE is deeply linked to mercantilism. Buddha was even described poetically as the leader of a trade caravan, that is the Buddhist faith.
We are told that when the Buddha attained enlightenment, he was given food by two merchants. Pleased, he gave them a folded robe on which he placed the overturned bowl, and this inspired the stupa structures that we see all around. Another merchant donated the famous Jetavana Monastery, which was gifted to the Buddha by a merchant known for his generosity. Another monastery was gifted to him by a woman named Vishakha, who came from a merchant family. She was drawn to Buddhism and even converted her father-in-law from Jainism to Buddhism. Tamil epics written between 3rd and 6th century speak of rich Buddhist merchants and courtesans, who donated to Buddhist establishments.
When we talk about Buddhism, we often think of otherworldliness, yet the earliest grand architectures and sculptures in India were funded by Buddhist merchants. These are found along trade routes. For example, over 500 rock-cut caves of Maharashtra were located along highways that connected the ports on the Konkan coast to the rich agricultural belts of the Godavari and Krishna river basins. Other sites of Buddhist monasteries include coastal Andhra, coastal Odisha, and the northern trade route connecting Mathura to the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan. All these places are where we find Buddhist art and architecture, and they were also major trade routes through which luxury goods from India travelled to different parts of the world in exchange for gold. In fact, Tibet was a major source of gold and borax. Gold came via the highways that connected Nepal to Tibet, and it was through these routes that Buddhism reached Tibet.
Merchants played a significant role in the spread of Buddhism. Across Southeast Asia, wherever Buddhists travelled, we find Buddhism spreading along river routes frequented by sea merchants who took advantage of the monsoon winds. Buddhist sites were famous for collecting and exchanging valuable commodities. From Southeast Asia came aromatic trees and spices and gold and silver. This was exchanged for textiles of South Asia and horses that came from Persia through India. Nearly 10% of Jataka tales are about merchants who are Bodhisattva or Buddha-to-be. They seek to inspire fairness, shrewdness, risk appetite, resilience, and quick thinking, which are equalities of a successful merchant.
Sea merchants in Southeast Asia popularised the worship of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as a protector against the dangers faced by travelling merchants during their overland and sea journeys—such as fear of slavery, attacks by wild animals, ghosts, shipwrecks, accidents, and theft. Giant standing and seated images of Buddha were carved on trade routes of Central Asia making their way to China. This was done for the benefit of traders, by local kings, to provide a sense of protection as well as a sense of direction and hope.
Monasteries played a key role in providing shelter to merchants, offering medical care, translations, networking, maintaining balance sheets, and providing credit, thus becoming financial institutions. Buddhists texts are full of stories of how wealth and accounts of Buddhist monks were managed, especially after death. Buddhism was like prosperity theology. Buddhism was deeply connected with the rise and spread of trade-routes from Central Asia to Southeast Asia via South Asia. This aspect of Buddhism needs to be highlighted. The 19th-century assumption of the Buddha as a monk who gave up everything is not entirely true. In fact, Buddhist teachings spoke of karma, which was linked to a balance sheet. We were told that one should not merely enjoy the benefits of past achievements but also invest in the future. This investment was associated with generosity— establishing temples and monasteries as part of the future concept of endowments. Donating to the cause of dhamma helps merchants become rich. Helping merchants and monasteries makes a king powerful and successful.
These ideas later became part of temple culture as Buddhism waned and Hinduism rose. The goddess Vasundhara or the goddess of wealth first appeared in Buddhist art and later became part of Hindu traditions too, as the goddess Lakshmi. In her forms as Sridevi and Bhudevi, she sits with Vishnu. Sridevi refers to cash flow, while Bhudevi represents fixed assets.
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