Dr. Ambedkar, in his "The Buddha and His Dhamma" (Part I, 15 --
Offer of exile) affirms that the Buddha's renunciation of his lay
life was motivated rather by social pressure, due to his opposition
to the war with the Kolyas, than by his quest for liberation from
suffering (the traditionnal explanation). Surprisingly, this point
of view seems to be prevalent among the Buddhist monks of India.
Does anyone knows if it has any canonical/commentarial basis, or is
it a pure fiction of Ambedkar's mind ?
With metta,
Ivan Pavlov
P.S. An electronic version of Ambedkar book may be consulted here :