Monastic Investment Bootstrapping: An Economic Model for the Expansion of Early Buddhism

Abstract

This paper borrows from recent trends in business finance (namely venture capitalism) to begin theorizing a model for the spread of Buddhism outside of the Buddha's homeland in ancient Magadha. During the Early Historic Period (300 BCE-300 CE) in South Asia, dozens of new Buddhist pilgrimage sites emerged centered on stūpas, the relics of the Buddha and prominent Buddhist saints. At many of these sites, donor records were etched into stone, thus creating a roster of some of the earliest financiers to the burgeoning Buddhist monastic institution. I sifted through these donor records to examine just who these early patrons were, where they came from, and potentially what their aims were in funding a new religious movement. Not only did the donative investment records exist for posterity, meaning for the sake of future investors to the Buddhist saṃgha, but they also served as markers of ongoing financial success. If the old adage holds true, that it takes money to make money, then whose money did the early saṃgha utilize to create its image of success for future investors? My research reveals that a majority of the investors to the saṃgha were the monastics themselves.