Demons, Morality, and an Allegory for Buddhist “Religious War”

The relationship between Buddhism and war has long been a topic of research, yet most scholarship has focused on human-centered warfare. This paper examines an exemplary war narrative in Buddhist literature: the god–Asura war described in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra. The text adapts a pan-Indian myth into a distinctly Buddhist reflection on violence, morality, and cosmic order. Drawing primarily on Abhidharmic cosmological literature, the authors/compilers of the Sūtra reinterpret the bellicose Asuras, demonic rivals of the gods, within a framework of recurring cosmic struggle. Meanwhile, the narrative incorporates moral instruction through the “sixteen human norms,” using this moral framework to justify the violence and victory. Rather than functioning as a political allegory, the god–Asura war narrative reflects broader Buddhist concerns with existential anxiety and moral conduct. Thereby, this narrative presents a Buddhist imagination of “religious war,” where cosmic conflict becomes a vehicle for ethical instruction and cosmological reflection.