ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 2 1995
The Kurudhamma: From Ethics to Statecraft
Andrew Huxley
University of London
Law Department, School of Oriental & African Studies
This article compares two literary treatments of a Buddhist ethical motif. In the prose sections of the Kurudhamma Jātaka the motif is expanded into a collection of ethical casuistry. In the Kurudhamma kaṇḍa pañho, it is expanded into a series of job descriptions for the king and ten of his subordinates. Description of these provokes discussion of the history of the practice of ethics by Buddhist monks and Buddhist courtiers.