Asoka’s Dhamma Policies and Buddhist Peaceful Means: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Peace in Contemporary Societies

Abstract

This qualitative documentary study examined sustainable peace through selected Buddhist peaceful means, Asoka’s Dhamma policies, and their possible relevance to contemporary peacebuilding. The study pursued three objectives: to analyze the Buddhist ethical and psychological foundations of sustainable peace; to examine Asoka’s Dhamma policies as a historical model of ethical governance; and to synthesize these perspectives into a conceptual framework for contemporary societies. Data were drawn from selected discourses in the Pāli Canon, English translations of Asoka’s rock and pillar edicts, and relevant scholarship in Buddhist ethics, ancient Indian history, and peace studies. The materials were examined through thematic coding, contextual comparison, and integrative synthesis. The findings indicate that Buddhist peaceful means emphasize inner cultivation and social responsibility through generosity (dāna), loving-kindness (mettā), wisdom (paññā), non-harming, and communal principles such as the aparihāniya-dhamma. Asoka’s edicts illustrate a complementary institutional dimension expressed through Dhamma-vijaya, interreligious respect, moral exhortation, welfare administration, restraint in the use of violence, and the appointment of Dhamma-mahāmattas. The study proposes an integrated Buddhist–Asokan peacebuilding framework in which bottom-up ethical cultivation and top-down welfare-oriented governance operate as mutually reinforcing conditions for positive and sustainable peace. Because the study is documentary and interpretive, the framework should be regarded as a conceptual contribution rather than an empirically validated policy model. Comparative and field-based research is required to assess its feasibility across different political, cultural, and institutional settings.