Buddha serves as king/prince after enlightenment

IOTL, Buddha started out as a prince but he renounced his claim to the throne so he could pursue his spiritual career.

What would have happened had Buddha returned to the throne and decided to rule as an enlightened monarch? He could try to spread his discoveries throughout his kingdom and gain more followers that way.
 
I would argue that a major challenge would be in getting the Buddha, propounder of losing all attachments to temporal being, least of all not power, to be even remotely interested in such a position.
 
I agree. However, perhaps he felt he had a responsibility to rule his people and although he ideally would have lived life as a monk, he could have at least supported monks and taught everyone how to live life as householders.
 
That's a totally different religion, basically. Which raises a lot of questions about how successful it's preaching will be. You might see any number of other religious movements in India be more successful.
 
He would have to be so different that the butterflies would be far too huge.

First of all, it would be beneath him and sort of stupid even in regards to power.

If he is Buddha, he teaches others that they may reduce suffering. His ability to do that would be greatly diminished when he is required to be in one place, cannot publicly challenge the Brahminical and Jainist philosophers, can't give advice to and inspire his rival kings and other limitations. It would also be a little weird when he argues that a common man can become greater than Brahma to then remove himself from that example.

For the time he was in, he was living the optimal life for an enlightened one. Kingship would diminish everything he stood for.
 
Kapilavastu, the kingdom where Siddhartha was a prince was in fact a small mountainous and insignificant place and by becoming the king of such a small backward, tribal kingdom Buddha would have reduced himself to a very insignificant position. Remember that as a religious leader he had Bimbisara and Prasenajit, kings of Magadha and Kosala, two of the most powerful kingdoms in India, as his devotees, ready to carryout any of his orders. There were several other kings and princes, rich merchants and traders among his followers.
Further abandoning the simple robes of a monk and donning the royal dress of a king would have made him an object of ridicule and contempt. In ancient India, the priests and monks, received more respect and adulation than royals, generals and rich merchants. There are several stories from ancient period which tell about kings and princes trembling in front of monks and falling at their feet, if they are displeased even slightly. From the earliest Vedic Period down to the present, Brahmin, the priestly caste, is considered to be the highest in Hinduism. Buddha, though his mission was to challenge Brahminical authority, he was considered to be someone who possessed such an authority as a preacher.
 
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