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การประชุมวิชาการ
สถาบันพระปกเกล้า ครั้งที่ 15

less and less) to one (man) only. The (king) spoke: ‘No other can I give up to
thee; take thou me and devour me.’ With the words: ‘That is impossible,’ the
other prayed him (at last) to give him an offering in every village. ‘It is well,’
said the king, and over the whole island he decreed that offerings be brought to
the entrance of the villages, and these he gave up to him. Thus by the great
man, compassionate to all beings, by the torch of the island was the fear
pestilence brought to an end (Mahãnãma Thera 1950: 262-263, ch. 36:
82-90).

The narrative of King Sirisangabo shows that he was not willing to commit any
violence to anyone by clinging into the throne when rebels revolted:

At the news: ‘Rebels are risen here and there,’ the king had the rebels
brought before him, but he released them again secretly; then did he send
secretly for bodies of dead men, and causing terror to the people by the
burning of these he did away with the fear from rebels (Mahãnãma Thera 1950:
262, ch. 36: 80-81).

The kind of royal ‘innocence’ visible in this narrative would be quite contrary to
Machiavelian theories of kingship and statecraft and today’s understanding of good
governance. Though the efficacy of his righteous actions and state policies inspired by
certain religious ideals may be questioned today due to fact of sheer complexity of
real politics of governance, as a religiously inspired narrative his lifestyle still has
significant influence and persuasion for the devotional public.

The Mahãva sa described King Sirisangabo as “rich in compassion” (36:94) who
exiled willingly himself into the forest rather than bringing any “harm to others”
(36:92) including his usurper Go hakãbhaya. It recorded further that as a compassion
ate act King Sirisangabo gave his head to the man who fed him so that he receives
gold from his aggressor, Go hakãbhaya (Mahãnãma Thera 1950: 263; chapter 26:
เอกสารประกอบการอภิปรายร่วมระหว่างผู้แทนจากต่างประเทศ
93-97).
The life and the reign of King Sirisangabo illustrates well that as the king he
tried to adopt Buddhist principles such as non-violence to statecraft but failed when
the aggressor was ruthless. This episode can be taken as an extreme case of passive
response from a righteous ruler. But it demonstrates rather than self-defence, in the
case of ancient Sri Lanka, a righteous and truthful moral life had taken precedence,
thus providing a model for a dharmarãja.

(c) The Dharmarajas in Southeast Asia

(i) King Kyanzittha (1084-1113 CE) as Dharmarãja

Several kings of Sri Lanka as well as in Southeast Asia, who attempted to
project in public a persona of the righteous king, seem to have adopted the righteous
principles of kingship as recommended by the Buddhist tradition.