Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009 DOI: 10.

1163/156852708X373276
Numen 56 (2009) 91117 www.brill.nl/nu
Historio-Critical Hermeneutics in the Study of
Women in Early Indian Buddhism
Alice Collett
Department of Teology and Religious Studies, York St John University
Lord Mayors Walk, YO31 7EX York, United Kingdom
a.collett@yorksj.ac.uk
Abstract
Modern scholarly study of women in early Indian Buddhism began over a hundred
years ago, towards the end of the nineteenth century. In this article, I assess strategies
that have been prominent in scholarly engagement with the texts from the period
that are pertinent to this debate. Te article is focused around discussion of four his-
torical-critical hermeneutic strategies which either have gured within the debate or,
as is the case in the nal section, are suggested as pertinent to the debate. Te four
strategies are: a hermeneutics of resonance; gender-construct hermeneutics; compara-
tivist hermeneutics; and nally revisionist hermeneutics. Te rst three comprise strat-
egies which have featured signicantly in the debate, from its origins to changes that
have arisen particularly during the last two decades. Te nal strategy is, essentially,
my own assertion.
Keywords
Early Buddhism, women, texts, hermeneutics
In this article, I look at four historical-critical hermeneutical strategies
which have been, are or could be utilized in our assessment of early
Buddhist texts concerned with women and issues of gender.
1
Te four
1)
Although other evidence, such as archeological evidence and eyewitness accounts,
are important for our assessment of sex and gender in early Indian Buddhism, the
debate has been conducted largely through assessment of texts. Whilst certain scholars,
particularly Gregory Schopen, have drawn our attention to the value of other sources,
recourse to the epigraphic, archeological and other evidence has, unfortunately, g-
ured infrequently in the debate.
92 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
strategies are: a hermeneutics of resonance; gender-construct herme-
neutics; comparativist hermeneutics; and revisionist hermeneutics.
2

Hermeneutics is concerned with the construction of meaning within
the relationship between author/text/reader, and whilst this is the over-
arching paradigm for the paper, there are shifts in focus between the
dierent strategies discussed. Te rst section, hermeneutics of reso-
nance, focuses on the author and construction of meaning within a
particular historical-political milieu. Te second section, gender-
construct hermeneutics, looks at the relationship between author and
text and the way in which the signicance of the text is understood
through a reading of female-as-construct, and how the notion of female-
as-construct comes to be broadly applied to the tradition as a whole.
Te third section, comparativist hermeneutics, focuses on patterns of
meaning drawn out from one text (and part of this is an examination of
the way a group of texts come to be considered as one). Lastly, the sec-
tion on revisionist strategies look at what the text has come to be for
the debate on sex and gender in early Indian Buddhism and at certain
readings of its signicance that have come to dominate.
Hermeneutics of Resonance
I will begin with a prominent gure in the history of Buddhist studies
scholarship in the west: Caroline Rhys Davids. I will discuss the herme-
neutic of resonance in relation to Caroline Rhys Davids rst article
published in 1893.
3
Tis was Caroline Rhys Davids very rst article
(published under her maiden name Foley). Te year following the pub-
lication of this article saw Caroline Foley become Mrs Rhys Davids
and, soon after her marriage she gave birth to three children and did
not publish again for some time. In looking at the evidence from Caro-
line Rhys Davids diaries and personal correspondences, it seems clear
2)
A fth strategy, hermeneutics of value, I omit here as I have discussed it previously.
See Collett 2006.
3)
Foley 1893. My discussion is focused on one period of Caroline Rhys Davids life.
From her diaries and personal correspondences, it is evident that she goes through
signicant changes during her lifetime; from the youthful devout Christian to the
emerging feminist and spiritual humanist, to wife and mother and, eventually,
renowned scholar.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 93
that Caroline Rhys Davids found her own values and aspirations, which
reached beyond limitations placed on women by Victorian society, res-
onant with those of the early Buddhist nuns. As her diaries and letters
make clear, Caroline Rhys Davids was an intelligent, independent and
adventurous woman she enjoyed travel, in particular mountaineer-
ing expeditions in the Alps, which is not an activity we might usually
associate with Victorian ladies. Prior to her marriage to Tomas, Car-
oline Rhys Davids struggled with the very idea of marriage, acutely
aware of the loss of freedom often suered by women upon marriage.
In a letter to Tomas, written a few weeks after his marriage proposal
she writes of a conversation she had with Tomas mother elaborating
in the letter on her own feelings about the institution of marriage:
She thinks I ought to go down on my knees and thank heaven . . . for a good mans
love . . .
And she looked quite severe when I suggested it was rather premature to hazard
any such statements and thought me . . . without judgment when I maintained that
married life would not easily form a compensation for what I was giving up.
4
Caroline Rhys Davids makes clear what she believes she is giving up in
another letter, in which she says, writing about her own mother:
But married life, both in her own life and that of all her sisters but one, has [not]
resolved itself into something most worthy of the name, but rather into reckless,
perpetual childbearing with of course much domestic management and the odi-
ous nothings called social duties thrown in.
5
Although Caroline Rhys Davids did accept Tomas proposal, it was
obviously with some reticence. Tis personal struggle of hers, to not be
bound down and curtailed by a life of domesticity, Caroline Rhys
Davids found reected in the struggles for liberation of the bhikkhuns
in the Tergth and Tergth commentary, the Paramatthadpan-
thergthatthakath, the subject of her article. Whilst it is of course
apparent that the struggles for liberation in the Tergth and Tergth
4)
Rhys Davids Family, Cambridge University Oriental Library Archive Collection
(CUOLAC), RD T/21/4/1 letter dated 9th May 1894.
5)
CUOLAC, RD T/21/4/1 letter dated 28th Feb. 1894.
94 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
commentary are of a dierent order to those that are the concern of
western women at the time of rst-wave feminism in Europe, neverthe-
less both are struggles and both have liberation as their goals. But it
is in her universalising of her own idealisation of and denition of what
it means to be an emancipated and liberated woman that Caroline Rhys
Davids political and intellectual a liations come into play in her herme-
neutics. On the level of theory, Caroline Rhys Davids feminist engage-
ment with the text can be seen as a liberal feminism fashioned after
Western intellectualism. She writes,
Everywhere as women look, it is man imposing his own views, his own interests,
and crying out at our selshness if we carve out a little scope for ours.
6
Caroline Rhys Davids, whilst she struggles to be accepted herself, ideal-
izes the (theoretical) intellectual, independent women of Western intel-
lectualism, and, in reading the stories of the women in the Tergth
commentary, women who renounce domesticity and their lives as wives
and mothers, she extrapolates from the textual evidence and imagines
them as, not just accepted into the early Buddhist male world of
religious renunciation, but accepted as mens intellectual and rational
equals. She imagines that, in the ancient dispensation of the Buddha, a
gure she greatly admires, women became as she wishes to be
considered as intellectually on a par with their male counterparts. Of
the Indian female Buddhist renouncer in the Tergth commentary,
she writes:
. . . she . . . laid down all social prestige, all domestic success, as a mother, wife,
daughter, queen, or housekeeper, and gained the austerer joys of an asexual ratio-
nal being, walking with wise men in recognized intellectual equality on higher
levels of thought. . . . (Foley 1893:348)
Whilst it is true that some of the women described in the Tergth
commentary can be seen to engage their intellect in their religious
endeavours, this is not so for each case recorded. As well as stories of
women with highly developed intellect, there are other stories of par-
ticularly emotional women, alongside others which have recourse to
6)
CUOLAC, RD T/21/4/1 letter dated 6th March 1894.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 95
events we might call supernatural or supernormal. In the chapters on
Bhadd Kundalakes and Nanduttar we nd two instances of a story
concerning a branch of a rose-apple tree.
7
Both women are described as
having left home to go forth as Jains. In each case, the woman proved
herself to be in possession of a sharp, skilled intellect which enabled her
to triumph in debate. In both cases, the point came at which each
woman was so skilled in debate that they each put a standing rose-apple
tree branch in the ground, near the village they are visiting, indicating
their preparedness to debate with anyone who wanted to take up the
challenge. Although in each case, these events took place prior to them
joining the Buddhist community, it is easy to see how recounting of
such stories in the Tergth commentary caused Caroline Rhys Davids
to consider women of early Buddhism to be walking with wise men in
recognized intellectual equality.
In the above cases, it is not di cult to understand Caroline Rhys
Davids suppositions about the women of the Tergth commentary.
In other instances, it is perhaps less obvious, such as with women who
express a strong degree of emotionality (Kisgotam for example), or
others who talk of or are described as (formally) obsessed with their
own beauty, such as Khem.
8
However, it seems quite possible here that
Caroline Rhys Davids saw the instances of religious realization and sub-
sequent changes of behaviour in the developed narratives addressing
such issues as the adoption of a kind of rationalism. For a reasoning
feminist, learning to deal with life in ways other than conditioned emo-
tionality, and learning to see beyond and live beyond societal obsessions
with female beauty are simply natural and pragmatic inclinations.
As well as the above, the freedom from the domestic responsibilities
expressed by the women of the Tergth commentary appears to reso-
nate strongly. Te nuns do often speak of their release from domesticity
as a freedom, and their expressions can be conated with feminist con-
cerns. A hermeneutic of resonance, in recognition of their struggle, reads
into these stories of female renouncers, tales of sisters who have broken
the chains of domesticity. Women who have redened the female as
agentive and non-domestic, have transcended the social construction of
7)
See Pruitt 1997: Bhadd Kundalakes 13243 and Nanduttar 11417.
8)
Pruitt 1997: Kisgotam 22232 and Khem 16476.
96 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
the female and domestic as identical and/or interchangeable. And
such a reading is not without substance. Although it is a religiously
motivated separation of woman from domestic, nevertheless, with,
historically, such a paucity of cases of such separation being made, the
new woman embraced by, engendered by and indeed known because of
early Buddhism is politically signicant for feminists.
Te apparent emphasis on intellect, along with the separation of the
social construction of woman from roles of domesticity obviously reso-
nates with Caroline Rhys Davids personal struggles, in this period of
her life, to be an independent woman with little need for a man to sup-
port her, and little desire to be married and swallowed up by the duties
incumbent in socially constructed female roles.
Gender-Construct Hermeneutics
Tis sections begins the elucidation of a central dichotomy between, on
the one hand, hermeneutics circumscribed around gender constructs
and hermeneutics which focus on female experience, or the idea of
female experience. Tis is a point I return to more fully in the nal sec-
tion. Tis section is concerned with the dynamic between author and
text more concretely, both with regards to construction of meaning
from the content of the text and, more implicitly than explicitly in this
section, in relation to (more broadly) choice of texts to be studied.
Liz Wilsons book Charming Cadavers focuses on representations of
women in Post-Aokan Buddhist hagiographic literature, although she
does also make use of a broader range of texts, both early and Mahynist.
Wilson argues that textual expressions concerning the female body
demonstrate an intense misogyny meted out towards women, as women
are viewed more as object/body than as subject/self. One example she
uses is the story of one ubh from the Tergth and Tergth com-
mentary in which ubh removes her eye to give it to a stranger who
has become enamoured with her and does not listen when she attempts
to teach him about the dangers of sensual pleasure. Wilson uses exam-
ples such as this story to highlight what she considers to be gender
constructs which delimit women, their bodies (and body parts), as vile,
decaying, septic, skeletal, carnal, or corpse-like. Other examples she
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 97
uses include rotting female corpses that are used as heuristic devices to
teach (men) about the dangers of infatuation. Wilsons work can be
situated within a sub-eld of feminist studies which focuses on dis-
courses and disclosures concerning the body as a measure of womens
place within a community/culture/tradition. With regards to ubh, a
story from the Tergth commentary, rather than focusing here on
the female as agent, ubh as an active participant in the narrative dem-
onstrating to the youth who approaches her doctrinal teaching about
worldly beauty, sensual pleasure and attachment (things the youth real-
izes as a result of her act), Wilson concentrates rather on female-as-
construct and concept. ubhs removal of her own eye is a symbol
of her deleterious relationship to her body/self. ubh represents the
concept of the female, the construct of female-as-body/female-as-vile.
Extraction of meaning from the text is cemented, by Wilson, around
representation of women rather than around exposition of doctrine or
dramatization of experience. Also, Wilson rather overemphasizes the
apparent negative portrayals of women she nds and essentially extrap-
olates from her sources to construct an overarching view of women in
early and medieval Buddhism that is one-sided and unbalanced. Wil-
son says, it is always the man who sees and the women who is seen, the
man who speaks and the woman who is spoken about (Wilson 1996:4).
Countering this, the mere existence of the Tergth, a text she uses,
should in itself preclude such statements from being made about early
Buddhism, leaving aside for a moment other texts in the same or a
similar vein. Wilson also notes that her book
suggests that Buddhist women living in South Asia in the rst millennium of the
Common Era were subordinated to men not so much by rules that enshrine male
privilege and circumscribe womens rights but representational practices that would
make it di cult for a woman to imagine herself following in the footsteps of the
highly revered Buddhist saints. (Wilson 1996:4)
Wilsons positioning of women as disenabled by the literature occludes
the evidence of the broad range of available source materials that posi-
tion some women, either through their status as disciples or nuns or by
their communities, as capable, competent, and able to practice and
attain high states of religiosity. In texts other than those studied by
98 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Wilson, there is evidence that many women, in the early period at least,
did indeed follow in the footsteps of the Buddha (even if not of later
Buddhist saints).
9
Serinity Young, in a similar vein, in her book Courtesans and Tantric
Consorts (2004), suggests that certain descriptions of women in texts
which recount the life story of the Buddha function to cast women as a
synonym for the conditioned world.
10
In discussing gender issues in the
life story, Young can be positioned within an ongoing debate. Certain
events within the life story have attracted the attention of feminists;
particularly Prince Siddhrthas abandoning of his wife and child, and
elements of the episode known as the eve of departure. In chapter one
of her book, Young discusses the eve of departure. Young divides her
discussion largely between Avaghos as Buddhacarita and the Lalita-
vistastra. Te eve of departure, in both texts, is focused around the
women in the inner chambers (antam pura) or, as Young terms them,
harem women. On the eve of his departure from the palace, in the
Buddhacarita, Prince Siddhrtha is caused, by the gods, to see through
the beauty of the harem women, who here function, argues Young, as
an expression of the conditioned world; beautiful and seductive yet
illusory and transient. Te women fall asleep and fall into distorted and
contorted poses, in which they reveal themselves to be in reality hid-
eous and unsightly. In discussing this episode, Young notes that, [w]hat
began as a symbolic use of women to represent the worldly life and
sexuality actually perpetuated the prevailing negative views about
women. . . . (Young 2004:5). In accord with the crucial role of renun-
ciation within the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha-to-be is portrayed
several times in the life story as the quintessential renouncer. In turning
away from his worldly life, the young prince renounces both his wife
(and newborn) and the beautiful female artisans and dancers of his
court. As Young notes, this appears primarily as an expression of the
central doctrine of renunciation and may have been meant to inspire
men to imitate the Buddha and turn away from the average woman.
9)
See below for a list of texts which record accounts and stories of such women.
10)
Youngs book in not primarily concerned with women in early Indian Buddhism,
although she does, at certain points, discuss texts from this period. In the rst part of
chapter one she gives over some space to a discussion of Avaghos as Buddhacarita.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 99
Although, she goes on to say, it carried with it the seeds of a wholesale
rejection of women (Young 2004:5).
Tese seeds of the wholesale rejection of women, in texts that recount
the life story, manifest, according to Young, in the way in which these
events (as recorded in the texts) project attitudes and assumptions about
women into the tradition which function to both perpetuate traditional
societal negative views of women and engender what we might want to
term a Buddhist view of women. According to Young, the Buddhas
biographies use womens bodies to represent that which opposes salva-
tion (Young 2004:89). Women are equated with sexuality, and seen
as objects to the path of liberation, as they pull men back from the
path. Women are equated with the conditioned world and not seen
as subjects who are enabled to tread the path to liberation, but as
hindrances to the male adept. Within this purview, texts such as the
Buddhacarita function to promote disgust in the female body, and
emphasize that Buddhist teachings are directed towards men.
Whilst there is undoubtedly some truth to Youngs claims, she rather
tends to present the situation as bleaker than is actually the case. Per-
haps obviously, other texts counter this Buddhist view of women as
hindrances to the male on the path by recounting the lives and experi-
ences of women who walked in the footsteps of the Buddha. To estab-
lish her point, Young talks at some length about the namelessness and
facelessness of the harem women, and the impact of the promotion
of woman as (unnamed) object rather than agentive subject. In a note,
she quotes Mieke Bal who says that namelessness eliminates them [the
nameless ones] from the historical narrative as utterly forgettable
(Young 2004:18). However, although it is the case that in the Buddha-
carita passage we do nd a group of unnamed harem women, it is also
the case that, from Indian Buddhist history we have extant the names
of many women. For example, authorship is attributed, by name, to
most of the Tergth poems. Tere are extant forty apadnas which
tell the stories of named female disciples of the Buddha. Tere are, in
the An guttara Nikya, two lists of pre-eminent women, one of lay
women and one of nuns, all of whom are named. Te Sam yutta Nikya
contains a chapter devoted to a group of nuns, again, each one of whom
is named. Te Avadnaataka contains more than ten stories which
have eponymous female protagonists. Tus, whilst it is the case that, on
100 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
some occasions, the literature does describe groups of unnamed women
(and, incidentally, groups of unnamed men), this is certainly not always
the case. Te textual record holds the names of many women from early
Buddhist history. While Wilson and Young aim to present their own
ndings, borne from the study of certain texts, as broadly applicable
such broader application is not altogether appropriate. Indeed, the fact
that so many texts bearing womens names have come down to us from
Buddhist history is itself quite remarkable.
Comparativist Hermeneutics
Tis section deals with the generation of meaning through comparative
analysis, which there has been, historically, rather a lack of. In this sec-
tion I focus on vinaya literature. With regards to vinaya literature there
has been a signicant shift in the last two decades towards a more com-
parativist approach.
Although (usually the Pali) vinaya literature is perhaps the most
referred to set of texts within the debate on early Indian Buddhism and
gender, much of the work, until recently, was not comparative in nature.
A signicant amount of the writing on the vinaya in the eld would
be of the nature of assessing (or attempting to assess) the validity of
the (Pali) passage on the garudhammas/gurudharmas, and its meaning
for the debate. However, in these cases, the garudhammas/gurudharmas
would usually be understood to be standard, that is, there was one list
of eight special rules that applied to all potential nuns. However, both
with regards to the garudhammas/gurudharmas and other sections of the
vinaya which focus on rules for members of the female sangha, there is
variation within the tradition, and this is something that has been com-
ing to light more and more over the last two decades, through com-
parative work.
Te 1970s and 1980s saw a resurgence of interest in the Buddhism
and gender debate as a result of second-wave feminism. Certain scholars
publishing in the eld during this period, many of whom were femi-
nists, approached the study of sex and gender in Buddhism from a broad
interdisciplinary humanities background, which informed both theo-
retical perspectives and methodologies. Tis work appears to have been
happening in isolation from the work of philologists and textual schol-
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 101
ars of Indic languages. As early as 1920, textual scholars would publish
editions and translations, with comment, of nuns vinaya texts, or frag-
ments of such texts, from dierent traditions. However, those publish-
ing in the eld in the seventies and eighties would discuss the eight
rules recorded in vinaya literature for nuns as if they were somewhat
invariant. Nancy Auer Falk, for example, writes in 1989:
Te monastic Rule became one of the most stable features of the Buddhist tradi-
tion: although Buddhism developed many dierent sects and sometimes very
dierent interpretations of the Buddhas teaching, the provisions of the Rule
remained basically constant. (Falk 1989:15859)
Following this she introduces and records the eight rules for nuns from
the Pali Cullavagga and presents them as the list rather than a list. She
makes no mention of any variation to the list. Also, Rita Gross, in her
book Buddhism After Patriarchy (1991), presents the eight rules as one
constant list and she discusses the implications and ramications of this
list. In her footnote she does acknowledge that this is the list as it
appears in the Pali and, as an alternative, she directs her reader to the
list in a Sanskrit vinaya (Gross 1991:36 and 320 n.11).
Te list in the Sanskrit vinaya that Gross points her reader to is
Wilsons translation of Riddings and la Valle Poussins edition of a
Sanskrit fragment of a bhiks un vinaya text published in 1920.
11
Along-
side this edition are other editions, sometimes with comment, which
were published either prior to or during the seventies and eighties.
Tese include Waldschmidts publication of fragments of the bhiks un
vinaya of the Sarvstivdin school (1926), Gustav Roths publication
of a Sanskrit edition of the Mahsm ghika-Lokottaravdin bhiks un
vinaya (1970), De Jongs Notes on the Bhiks un -Vinaya of the
Mahsm ghikas (1974) and Hirakawas English translation of the Chi-
nese Mahsm ghika bhiks un vinaya (1982).
12
Had those working in
the humanities on Buddhism and gender been aware of this textual
scholarship, their discussions could have been greatly enhanced by, for
11)
Ridding and la Valle Poussin 1920. Te translation is in Paul 1979:8094.
12)
As well as these, published in Varanasi in 1984, was Kabilsinghs comparative study
of nuns ptimokkhas. Tis is both a translation and also includes some (feminist)
analysis.
102 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
example, knowing that in Roths Sanskrit edition of the Mahsm ghika-
Lokottaravdin bhiks un vinaya (as he notes in his introduction) the
section on Mahprajpat and the eight gurudharmas is placed just
before the nuns prtimoks avibhan ga, not, as it is in the Pali vinaya, in a
quite dierent section (Roth 1970:xxix). Also, the work of the theorists
could have been augmented not only by broader knowledge of the eight
special rules as expressed in other vinayas, but also by work on other
aspects of vinaya literature. In a very short section of a longer article on
the prtimoks a published in the 1970s, Charles Prebish exposes poten-
tial variation of views about women through analysis of the variant use
of one word within a rule. He highlights how the inclusion or exclusion
of this word dr s tv in expressions of the rule in dierent vinaya
texts could suggest diering views about female upsiks within four of
the early Indian schools.
13
In his discussion, which is detailed below,
13)
Prebish 1974. Prebishs observation is as follows: Coming now to the second topic,
that of the upsik, we must examine the aniyata dharmas. Both of these rules are
similar so I shall reproduce the critical passage only from the rst. Te translation for
the Mahsm ghika and the Teravdin text is as follows: Whatever monk, should sit
down with a woman, one with the other, in secret, on a concealed, convenient seat,
and a trustworthy upsik, having seen that one should accuse him according to one
or another of three dharmas: (either) with a prjika, sam ghvaes a, or pyantika
dharma. . . . For the Sarvstivdin and the Mlasarvstivdin versions, the gerund
dr s tv, having seen, has been deleted, otherwise reading identically. Te remainder of
the rule in each version goes on to explain that the monk should be dealt with accord-
ing to the dictate of the upsik in question. Te intention of the rule is clear enough:
the seat is convenient and suitable for sexual intercourse, and should the monk indulge,
he is charged with a prjika dharma; if he remains chaste, he is charged with one of
the lesser oenses. However, the substance of this rule is not the issue on which we
should focus our attention. Te Buddhas publicly announced distrust of women is
widely acknowledged, and that such a rule exists at all is truly remarkable. Te key
point is that in the Mahsm ghika and Teravdin versions, the upsik, no matter
how trustworthy, must bring her charge only on the basis of personal, eyewitness tes-
timony. Anything short of that seems not to be admitted as su cient grounds for such
an accusation. Te Sarvstivdin and Mlasarvstivdin versions have nothing to say
with regard to the oense being witnessed. Te upsiks charge against the bhiks u is
accepted simply on the basis of her word, trustworthy though it may be, laying open
the very real possibility of the admissibility of hearsay evidence, a notion strongly
deprecated by the Buddha himself. Can the omission of drs tv in the versions noted
be an oversight or error on the part of the respective compilers? Perhaps, but I think
not. Rather, it seems to indicate, and further research will be necessary to validate this
thesis, a gradual upgrading of the status of upsiks, a process which puts considerable
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 103
Prebish argues that the exclusion of the word drs tv (having seen) in
two of the vinayas suggest that the word of the female upsik, in these
instances, is worth more. When drs tv is included, the upsik needs to
have personally witnessed the event which appears as a transgression by
the monk. Te exclusion of the word suggests more trust in the word of
the upsik; it does not matter whether she has seen the event or not, if
she accuses a monk of such behaviour, her word is taken seriously.
Prebishs observation of the variant use of one word and its potential
implications for views of women demonstrates well the potential
insights that can be gained from such analysis. Tus, the construction
of meaning through comparative analysis that yield such potential fruits
easily abates many of the primary concerns of those who, in the seven-
ties, eighties and early nineties, aspired to challenge the perceived hege-
mony of the vinaya. Te non-application of comparative hermeneutics,
in this instance, contrary to the perceived desires of those publishing in
the seventies and eighties, many of whom were feminists, resulted in a
reinforcement of the very thing they sought to challenge- the authority
and inuence of the vinaya.
Te last two decades have seen a renewal of interest in both bhikkhun/
bhiks un vinayas and in comparative study of them. From the nineties
onwards, more work has been published that both makes some of the
bhikkhun/bhiks un vinaya literature available for the rst time in Euro-
pean languages and includes detailed study and comparative analysis of
the various vinayas.
14
Such work includes, for example, comparisons
between Pali and extant Sanskrit vinayas, as well as comparisons between
Pali, Sanskrit and vinayas extant only in Chinese or Tibetan. Some are
primarily translations with selected analysis, others focus on comparing
vinayas of dierent schools, whilst others compare the rules for nuns
with rules for monks. Two examples of such work are In Young Chungs
comparative study and Ann Heirmanns comprehensive and systematic
translation of the Chinese Dharmaguptaka bhiks un vibhan ga. In Young
time between the nalization of the two sets of Prtimoks a Stras: the Mahsm ghika
and Teravdin being early and the Mlasarvstivdin and Sarvstivdin being late
(176). Tis article re-appears more recently in Williams 2005:25771.
14)
Such work includes Nolots French translation of Roths edition of the Mah-
sm ghika-Lokottaravdin bhiks un vinaya (Nolot 1991) and Wijayaratnas (1991),
Hskens (1997a and 1997b), Clarkes (2000) and Shihs (2000) comparative studies.
Also see Kabilsingh (1991) and Tsomo (1996).
104 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Chung, in a long article in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, compares the
Pali with the Chinese prtimoks a (Chung 1999). In her article, Chung
challenges assumptions about the garudhammas/gurudharmas. She begins
with a review of views concerning the eight special rules for prospective
nuns of those writers of the seventies and eighties mentioned above. In
Young Chung consolidated the position of certain of these writers that
the rules may have interpolated at some time during the history of the
tradition giving reasons, borne out of her comparative study, that sup-
port the argument for interpolation. Te most obvious reason for this
assertion being that the garudhammas/gurudharmas mention the proba-
tionary period for noviciates wishing to join the Order, which had not
come into eect during the life of the Buddha.
Heirmann, in her translation and accompanying study of the Chi-
nese Dharmaguptaka bhiks un vibhan ga, by including partial compari-
son with other sets of garudhammas/gurudharmas, reveals something of
the variation between traditions (Heirmann 2002). Heirmanns work is
on the Dharmaguptaka vinaya translated from the Chinese. Heirmann
records the eight rules as stated in the Dharmaguptaka bhiks un vibhan ga,
and in endnotes records variation in the rules between dierent schools.
For example, according to the Chinese Dharmaguptaka bhiks un vibhan ga,
the third rule is as follows:
A bhiks un may not punish a bhiks u, nor prevent him from joining the ceremonies
of the order (such as the pos adha or pravran a). A bhiks un may not admonish a
bhiks u, whereas a bhiks u may admonish a bhiks un . (Heirmann 2002:64)
Heirmann notes that this rule does not appear in other vinayas in this
same form. She notes that the Pali vinaya, the Mahsm ghika-Lokottaravdin
and the Sarvstivdin vinaya have the following variations:
Pali vinaya: Nuns should ask for the date of the pos adha ceremony; they should
also ask the monks for instruction.
Mahsm ghika-Lokottaravdin vinayas: Nuns should not receive gifts before
these gifts have been presented to the monks.
Sarvstivdin vinaya: Nuns must ask the monks for instruction in stra, vinaya
and abhidharma.
15
15)
Heirmann 2002:96. For the Pali Vinaya, Heirmann uses Oldenbergs edition, and
the translations by Rhys Davids and Oldenberg and Horner. For the Mahsm ghika-
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 105
Although this one example indicates a fair amount of dierence between
traditions, it must be noted that this is sometimes because the rules
appear in a dierent order.
Chungs and Heirmanns work provide examples of some of the prof-
its of detailed comparative study. Although this is an area that in the
last two decades has attracted the attention it deserves, there has not yet
been a detailed comprehensive study of the implications for sex and
gender in early Buddhism of the dierences either within the content
of the list of eight rules between Sanskrit, Pali and other versions and,
more broadly (as highlighted by Prebish), of both minor and major
variation within the vinaya literature concerned with women. Obvi-
ously more such analysis is needed, however, comparative study of this
literature to date has certainly contributed greatly to advancing our
understanding of women in early Indian Buddhism.
Revisionist Strategies
Hermeneutics per se, the construction of meaning and signicance of
the text, is conditioned by choice: the choice of which texts to study.
Tat choice is itself conditioned by many other factors, one of which
being the way meaning has been constructed around the idea of a text.
Tus, if value has been accorded certain texts, and not others, this can
aect the extent to which texts are studied. So this last section, then, is
not simply about the hermeneutics of texts, but also about the construc-
tion of meaning, signicance and value in relation to individual texts.
Aecting the choice of texts to be studied, we see emerging through
the debate, as it proceeds over the last hundred or so years, the same
issues that have aected our engagement with the Buddhist tradition
more generally. Terefore, orientalism, the emphasis on Pali, Protes-
tant-inuenced perspectives, etc. are all party to and at times aecting
which texts are chosen to be studied with the aim of contributing to
the gender debate.
16
Here, a taxonomy of value can be seen emerging
Lokottaravdins she uses Roth 1970 and the French translation by Nolot 1991 and for
the Sarvstivdin she uses the Chinese Shih-sung Lu.
16)
For further discussion of the inuences on the Buddhism and gender debate (per-
taining to early Indian Buddhism) see Collett 2006.
106 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
by which some texts have been overvalued and other sidelined or
ignored.
17
Te (Pali) vinaya and the Tergth have, historically, received most
attention, and became the textual centre of the debate. To date, there
have been many books and articles on the Tergth, both academic
and popular, and, as we have seen, a great deal of work both specically
on the vinaya, and also discussion of the vinaya (particularly the Pali
Cullavagga) has been central to the debate on sex and gender in early
Indian Buddhism.
18
In contrast, other texts have been either wholly or
partially ignored. Apart for Caroline Rhys Davids 1893 article, there
are no others exclusively on the Tergth commentary. Also from the
nineteenth century, an article by Mabel Bode (1893), which is, in eect,
a translation, prefaced by a short introduction, is the only writing on
the lists of pre-eminent women in the An guttara Nikya which are
expanded into stories of womens lives in the Manorathapran . Tere
are no books or articles on the bhikkhun chapter in the Sam yutta
Nikya (although a brief introduction to the online translation by Bhik-
khu Bodhi), only one on a story from the Avadnaataka and one that
is a partial discussion of certain of the women in the text, none on the
stories of women in the Divyvadna and only two articles (one discur-
sive article and one translation with an introduction) on one of the
forty bhikkhun Apadnas (Walters).
19
As well, there are four general,
more wide-ranging books on the debate (Horner, Gross, Wilson,
Young).
20
Of the four books, Horner focuses on the Pail literature, Rita
Gross does not conne herself to early Buddhism, Wilson concentrates
on later hagiographic literature, and Serinity Young focuses in on the
17)
My use of the word texts here needs to be understood to sometimes be referring
to sets of texts and at other times to sections of texts.
18)
See for examples of discursive analysis on the Tergth: Sharma 1977, Miller
1981, Lang 1986, Murcott 1993, Lienhard 1975, Rajapakse 1995, Ratwatte 1983,
Blackstone 1998, and Banks Findly 2000; on the vinaya: Talim 1965, Falk 1974, Willis
1985, Shih 2000 and on both: Church 1975, Sharma 1978, Barnes 1987 and Falk
1989.
19)
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/nunsuttas, Durt 2005, Skilling 2001a, and
Walters 1994 and 1995.
20)
Horner 1930, Gross 1991, Wilson 1996, Young 2004. Tere are also articles such
as Sponberg 1992 and Skilling 2001(a and b) which discuss a range of textual material,
Sponberg focusing on Pali sources, and Skilling drawing from a range of sources.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 107
theme of sexuality particularly in tantric and Tibetan Buddhism. Some
of these lesser-known texts from the early Indian period are briey dis-
cussed or referred to in the four books, however there remains an imbal-
ance with regards to simply which texts have been studied.
Not only have certain texts, historically, been over-emphasised and
over-studied but, alongside this, certain themes have also prevailed.
Interestingly, although the vinaya and Tergth have formed the tex-
tual centre of the debate, it is the attitudes to women of the vinaya that
have prevailed on the level of theory. If we focus in with the vinaya on
the infamous passages in the Cullavagga, as is most often done, these
two centrepoints the Cullavagga and Tergth could be pre-
sented as opposite ends of a spectrum, with regards to standpoint on
gender. Te Pali Cullavagga advances, in its present form, an undeni-
able subjugation of the female to the male, whilst the Tergth must
undoubtedly be read as the opposite, accounts of capable, independent
women who attained to advanced states of religious experience within
the dispensation of the Buddha. Te Cullavagga is comment about
women, and perhaps we can assume comment made by monks, the
Tergth, on the other hand, is, potentially, womens own experience.
21

On the level of theory, the conceptualisation of a non-agentive, con-
trolled and subjugated woman has prevailed historically in scholarly
discourse on women in early Indian Buddhism, and this over and above
arguments for agentive, active, religiously capable and adept women.
When more agentive women are acknowledged, this has often been
only with an accompanying understanding that women were allowed
some freedoms within their connement. Tat is, women existing
under the overarching view of women as naturally of a lower order to
men could and did exercise a certain degree of initiative and religious
aptitude. Tus, the themes in the Cullavagga have prevailed, either as
axiomatic or by being assumed to override other/lesser assertions. As a
general trend, there has been more weight given over to attitudes towards
women (and this most likely being male attitudes to women) than to
womens own experience (or the recounting of womens own apparent
experience). Not only has this been the case with regards to texts that
21)
Blackstone makes a convincing argument for female authorship of the Tergth
in Blackstone 1998.
108 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
have been studied, but also certain of the texts mentioned above that
(apparently) detail womens lives and female experience appear to have
been sometimes passed over in the debate in favour of discussions of
attitudes to women.
I will give an example of this through a brief look at the issue of
female sexuality. A general theory of female sexuality seemingly encased
in early Indian Buddhism is advanced along the lines that women are
positioned as sexual predators, existing in their tempting and tempestu-
ous forms to lure men away from the good path through their some-
times insatiable sexual appetites. Such a theory is advanced by Gross, in
order to critique it, by Sponberg, in order to nuance it, and by Serinity
Young, in order to develop it. However, what is found in the Sam yutta
Nikya chapter on Buddhist nuns, by way of example, a chapter not
mentioned by Gross, Sponberg or Young, countervails the prevailing
view. In this chapter, Mra approaches certain women, and, on each
occasion, the nun successfully recognizes Mra and defeats him. On
three occasions, Mra tries to tempt the female through sexual seduc-
tion, either directly oering himself, or, as in these verses to l avik,
through exhortations to her to avail herself of lifes pleasures whilst she
is still able:
Tere is no escape from the world,
so what will you do with your solitude?
You should enjoy the delights of sensual pleasure,
do not be remorseful later.
And l aviks terse reply begins:
Sensual pleasures are like sword stakes,
the aggregates the executioners block.
What you call delight in sensual pleasure
has become non-delight for me.
22
In another story, Mra, disguised, approaches the nun Vijay. He says
to her:
22)
Sam yutta Nikya 5.1.162 Natthi nissaran am loke kim vivekena khasi bhujassu
kmaratiyo mhu pacchnutpin ti . . . sattislpam km khandhsam adhikuttan
yam tvam kmaratim brsi arati mayha s ah ti.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 109
You are young and beautiful,
and I a young man.
Come, noble woman, let us rejoice
with the music of a vefold ensemble.
Vijay begins her reply with these words:
Forms, sounds, tastes, scents, and tactile objects
that are pleasing to the mind,
I give them back to you, Mra,
I am not in need of them.
23
Within the Buddhism and gender debate there has been much discus-
sion of the issue of female sexual seduction and of the portrayal of
women as seductresses. We nd many examples of women who try to
seduce or lure men away from the path in the early literature. Perhaps
the best-known example of this are the daughters of Mra who, accord-
ing to many versions of the life story, attempt to seduce Prince
Siddhrtha seated in meditation under the bodhi tree. Peppered
throughout the literature are accounts of women using their womanly
wiles (itthikutta) such as the wife of Vra in the Teragth commen-
tary, who initially attempts to lure him back from going forth, but is
soon persuaded to go forth herself.
24
Also, we nd many examples in
the Teragth in which men position women as the snare of Mra, as
temptresses attempting to seduce them away from their chosen path.
As Lang summarizes of some such verses in the Teragth:
[Certain] verses share the same cluster of images: man as the hunted prey, Lord
Death as the hunter, and a woman as the baited snare. Wife, dancer, or harlot- each
woman is condemned in the same terms: Lord Deaths Snare. (Lang 1986:71)
Alongside this we see women also referring to themselves in these same
terms. Te former courtesan, Vimal, for example, in the Tergth
describes her earlier life:
23)
Sam yutta Nikya 5.4.165 Dahar tvam rpavat ahaca daharo susu pacaan gikena
turiyena ehayyebhirammase ti . . . rp sadd ras gandh photthabb ca manoram
niyyataymi tuyheva mra nham tenatthik.
24)
Teragth commentary as cited in Horner 1930:182.
110 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Intoxicated because of my complexion, form, beauty and fame
and proud due to my youth, I despised others.
Having decorated this body, well painted, enticing fools,
I stood at the brothel door as a hunter having laid out a snare.
25

In the Tergth Vimal is describes as a gan ik. Gan iks were the
highest class of courtesans, often skilled in the arts, wealthy and able to
set their fee so high that many could not aord them (Bhattacharji
1987). Also, gan iks often had servants and would entertain kings.
Despite Vimal potentially having some control and certain freedoms
within her life of sexual prostitution due to her status, nevertheless, she
dened herself not in relation to her own sexuality, but in relation to
that of her male clients. She is a temptress seeking to entrap men, essen-
tially a manipulator; one who manipulates the sexual desires of the men
she entices. In the Tergth commentary, it is suggested that Vimal
is led to the view she expresses by the harsh teaching of an unnamed
monk, who convinces her that the human body is nothing but a heap
of sores and a bag of dung (Pruitt 1997:1004). In the story, Vimal,
as the women in the examples above, is positioned as the quintessential
female temptress, becoming enamoured with the monk, going to his
dwelling place and attempting to seduce him.
Stephanie Jamison makes a convincing argument as to the socio-
religious origins of the view of women as sexual aggressors within the
Brahmanic tradition. Jamison suggests that such view arose as a resolu-
tion of tension born from conicting expectations placed on the twice-
born male. She argues that a system that expects males to actively
uphold ascetic ideals whilst as the same time requires them to produce
ospring generates consternation about male sexuality. She says:
Te ideal situation for a man who has both goals is to practice his asceticism (an
individual and private pursuit) actively, as it were, but to acquire sons from sexual
activity in which he is a passive and accidental participant. Tus, this ideal male
gure is the victim of sex, never seeking it or even welcoming it when it is oered.
But, then, for sex to take place at all, we need an aggressor, and who is left?
(Jamison 1996:16)
25)
Tergth 5.2 Matt van n ena rpena sobhaggena yasena ca yobbanena cuppatthaddh
asamatimaiham vibhsetv imam kyam sucittam blalpanam atthsim vesidv-
ramhi luddo psamivodiya.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 111
Whilst it may be the case that Jamisons insightful assertion for the
unusual positioning of women as sexual aggressors within the ancient
context of the Brahmanic tradition could be considered (more broadly)
to have had some inuence on the acceptance of such views within
early Buddhism, it can be seen only as a general rule, to which there are
obvious exceptions.
26
Within the context of early Buddhism, Sponberg notes that the posi-
tioning of women as sexual aggressors can be seen as an aspect of vari-
ous views expressed about women, some more positive than others. He
makes a case that the idea of women as sexual predators can be juxta-
posed with other similar expressions pertaining to the monks wrestling
with their abstention from engagement in sexual activity. He draws out
this point with the following passage from the An guttara Nikya:
Monks, I see no other single form so enticing, so desirable, so intoxicating, so
binding, so distracting, such a hindrance to winning the unsurpassed peace from
eort . . . as a womans form. Monks, whosoever clings to a womans form infat-
uated, greedy, fettered, enslaved, enthralled for many a long day shall grieve,
snared by the charms of a womans form. . . .
Monks, a woman, even when going along, will stop to ensnare the heart of a
man; whether standing, sitting, lying down, laughing, talking or singing, weep-
ing, stricken or dying, a woman will stop to ensnare the heart of a man. . . . Verily,
one may say of womanhood: it is wholly a snare of [the Tempter] Mra. (Spon-
berg 1992:20, translating An guttara Nikya III 6768)
Sponberg draws out the nuances of dierence between the two para-
graphs, which he describes as a move from psychological astuteness
to psychopathological misogyny (1992:20). Whilst the rst paragraph
situates the basis of the problem within the male psyche, and warns
monks against becoming intoxicated, in the second paragraph, women
themselves have become the problem; they have become (again) the
snare of Mra. Te Sam yutta Nikya verses, however, turn all this on
its head. Far from women being themselves the snare of Mra, instead,
26)
Tis is the case both within Brahmanism and outside of it. For example, the con-
doning of sexual assault in the Br hadran yakaupanis ad dismisses the possibility of such
a view as all encompassing. In the Br hadran yakaupanis ad it states that the best time
to have sex with a woman is following her menses, and, if she is not amenable to it,
that one should beat her with a stick or ones sts and overpower her. Br hadran ya-
kaupanis ad 6.4.12.
112 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Mra is himself attempting to ensnare them. In contrast to the general
trends in the literature described above, in the Sam yutta Nikya Mra is
representative of male sexuality, which is positioned as a potential dan-
ger for the women he approaches. Appealing to (what in the verses is
portrayed as) their natural female sexual desire, Mra is attempting to
seduce the nuns away from the good path. It could be argued that the
verses are as they are because of the view of insatiable female sexuality,
that is, women are sexual aggressors with voracious appetites and as
such, in such a context, enticement to sexual pleasures would be a t-
ting ruse for Mra. However, this is in no way implied by the verses,
especially as the women give such immediate and unremitting rebukes
to the evil one. Instead, in an instance of the sort of similitude that
would be expected under a purview of sexual equality, as the female
form is seen as a snare of Mra for men, so a sexual male is a snare of
Mra for women.
Engaging with a text that includes one of the rare examples of wom-
ens experience of their own sexuality, rather than being concerned with
how women stand in relation to male sexuality (whether this is expressed
by men or women) can highlight otherwise occluded aspects of female
experience. l avik and Vijay express their relationship to their own
sexuality, a relationship which they seek successfully to transcend.
Re-engaging, then, with the texts that highlight womens experience
adds, as this example shows, dierent dimensions to the debate.
Tis brief discussion of some of the verses of the bhikkhun-sam yutta
of the Sam yutta Nikya demonstrates how detailed study of the named
women from the history of early Indian Buddhism can contribute to
our understanding of women in early Indian Buddhism. A focus on
female experience can enable a eshing out and fuller envisaging of
the women known of from early on in the modern scholarly debate,
but not studied individually. Many of these women are mentioned
by Horner, and stories of certain of them were published in translation
by Bode over a hundred years ago. However, detailed and comparative
study of their individual stories has yet to begin in earnest. Even the
story of the well-known Dhammadinn has received little attention.
Tese stories, such as, for example, the story of Bhadd Kundalakes
provides grounds for further investigation.
27
Bhadd Kun d alakess story
27)
Tere are verses attributed to Bhadd Kundalakes in the Tergth (4.9) and her
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 113
challenges ideas about womens right to choose (outside of the svayam vara)
whom they marry. Bhadd Kundalakes demands that she is allowed to
take the hand of a thief she becomes enamoured with, a wish granted
by her parents. Secondly, the story reveals female initiate, in Bhadds
outwitting of her husband as he attempts to rob her. Wise to his inten-
tion, she conspires to throw him o a cli. Further to this, as men-
tioned earlier, Bhadd later renounces the household life to go forth as
a Jain, during which time she becomes highly skilled in debate. Tis
aspect of her story is pertinent to the issue raised within the study of
not only early Indian Buddhism but contemporaneous traditions as
well; the issue of womens engagement in intellectual debate. Shifting
attention to the, often detailed, accounts of the lives of these women,
and by so doing drawing attention to (potentially) female experience
can add new dimensions to the debate. A focus on texts which recount
such stories can provide new ground for interpretation.
In conclusion, this article has attempted to present hermeneutical
strategies that have been utilised in our engagement with issues of sex
and gender in early Indian Buddhist texts and to suggest others for the
future. Certain strategies are highlights with regards to one particular
author, whilst others are advanced through a study of the relationship
between author/text/reader, and, more broadly still, concerning the con-
struction of meaning around texts. I conclude with revisionist strategies
and on the advocacy of a shift in focus with regards to both texts that
have been considered to be central to the debate on women in early Indian
Buddhism and themes that have been considered as centrally important.
Much good work has been done in the eld, but there is still much more
to be done, and it is certainly possible to write something more of a wom-
ens history from this period which has not, as yet, been done.
References
Apadna. Sally Mellick (ed. and trans.). A Critical Edition, with Translation, of
Selected Portions of the Pali Apadna. Ph.D. Tesis, Oxford University 1992.
story is told (with variations) in the Tergth commentary (Pruitt 1999:13243), in
the Manorathapran (Bode 1893:77185), and in the Dhammpadattakath (trans.
Burlingame 1979:22732). Tere are also stories with similarities to Bhadd
Kundalakess story in the Jtakas and the Petavatthu-atthakath.
114 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Avadnaataka. J. S. Speyer (ed.). Avadnaataka: A Century of Edifying Tales belonging
to the Hinayna. 2 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 19061909.
Banks Findly, Ellison. 2000. Women Teachers of Women: Early Nuns Worthy of My
Condence. In Ellison Banks Findly (ed.), Womens Buddhism, Buddhisms Women:
Tradition, Revision, Renewal, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 133155.
Barnes, Nancy S. 1987. Buddhism. In Arvind Sharma (ed.), Women in World Reli-
gions, Albany: State University of New York Press, 105133.
Bhattacharji, Sukumari. 1987. Prostitution in Ancient India. Social Scientist 15(2):
3261.
Blackstone, Kathryn R. 1998. Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for
Liberation in the Tergth. London: Curzon Press.
Bode, Mabel. 1893. Women Leaders of the Buddhist Reformation. Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 517566, 763798.
Br hadran yakaupanis ad. Patrick Ollivelle (tr.). Upanis ads. Oxford: Oxford University
Press 1996.
Burlingame, Eugene Watson. 1979. Buddhist Legends, translated from the original Pali
text of the Dhammapada commentary: Part 1: Introduction; Synopses; Translation of
Books 1 and 2. London: Pali Text Society reprint.
Chung, In Young. 1999. A Buddhist View of Women: A Comparative Study of
the Rules for Bhiks un s and Bhiks us based on the Chinese Prtimoks a. Journal
of Buddhist Ethics 6:29105.
Church, Cornelia Dimmit. 1975. Temptress, Housewife, Nun: Womens Role in
Early Buddhism. Anima: An Experiential Journal 1(2):5358.
Clarke, Shayne. 2000. Te Existence of the Supposedly Non-existent iks datt-
rman er: A New Perspective on Prjka Penance. Bukkyo Kenkyu 29:149176.
Collett, Alice. 2006. Buddhism and Gender: Reframing and Refocusing the Debate.
Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 22(2):5584.
De Jong, J. W. 1974. Notes on the Bhiks un-Vinaya of the Mahsm ghikas. In L. S.
Cousins et al. (eds.), Buddhist Studies in Honour of I. B. Horner, Dordrecht:
D. Reidel, 6370.
Durt, Hubert. 2005. Kacangala, Who Could Have Been the Last Mother of the
Buddha. Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies
9:6591.
Falk, Nancy Auer. 1974. An Image of Women in Old Buddhist Literature. In Judith
Plaskow and Joan Arnold Romero (eds.), Women and Religion: Revised Edition,
Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 105112.
. 1989. Te Case of the Vanishing Nuns: Te Fruits of Ambivalence in
Ancient Indian Buddhism. In Nancy Auer Falk and Rita M. Gross (eds.), Unspo-
ken Worlds: Womens Religious Lives, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 155165.
Foley, Caroline Augusta. 1893. Te Women Leaders of the Buddhist Reformation as
Illustrated by Dharmaplas Commentary on the Ter-gth. In Ed Morgan
(ed.), Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists: Indian and
Aryans Sections vol. 1, 344361.
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 115
Gross, Rita M. 1991. Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and
Reconstruction of Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Heirmann, Ann (tr.). 2002. Te Discipline in Four Parts: Rules for Nuns according to the
Dharmaguptakavinaya. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Hirakawa, Akira. 1982. Monastic Discipline for the Buddhist Nuns: An English Transla-
tion of the Chinese text of the Mahsm ghika-bhiks un -vinaya. Patna: Kashi Prasad
Jayasawal Research Institute.
Horner, I. B. 1930. Women Under Primitive Buddhism: Lay Women and Alms Women.
New York: E. P. Dutton.
Hsken, Ute. 1997a. Die Vorschriften fur die Buddhische Nonnengemeinde im Vinaya-
Pit aka der Teravdin. (Monographien zur Indischen Archologie, Kunst und
Philologie 11.) Berlin: Reimer-Verlag.
. 1997b. A Stock of Bowls Requires a Stock of Robes: Relations of the Rules
for Nuns in the Teravda Vinaya and the Bhiks un-Vinaya of the Mahsm ghika-
Lokottaravdin. In H. Bechert et al. (eds.), Untersuchungen zur Buddhistischen
Literatur II, Gustav Roth zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet (Sanskrit-Wrterbuch der
buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden, Beiheft 8), Gttingen: Vanden-
hoeck and Ruprecht, 201238.
Jamison, Stephanie W. 1996. Sacriced Wife/Sacricers Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hos-
pitality in Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kabilsingh, Chatsumarn. 1984. A Comparative Study of Bhikkhun Ptimokkha. Vara-
nasi: Chaukambha Orientalia.
. 1991. Bhikkhun Ptimokkha of the Six Schools. Bangkok: Tammasat Uni-
versity Press.
Lang, Karen Christina. 1986. Lord Deaths Snare: Gender Related Imagery in the
Teragth and the Tergth. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2:6379.
Lienhard, Siegfried. 1975. Sur la Structure Potique des Terathergth. Journal
Asiatique 263:375396.
Miller, Barbara Stoler. 1981. Ballads of the Early Buddhist Nuns. Zero 5:6877.
Murcott, Susan. 1993. Te First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentaries on
the Terigatha. Berkeley: Parallex Press.
Nolot, dith. 1991. Rgles de discipline des nonnes bouddhistes, le bhiks un vinaya de
lcole Mahsm ghika-Lokottaravdin. Paris: College de France.
Paul, Diana Y. 1979. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahyna Tradi-
tion. With contributions from Francis Wilson. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.
Prebish, Charles S. 1974. Prtimoks a Puzzle: Fact versus Fantasy. Journal of Ameri-
can Oriental Society 94(2):168176.
Pruitt, William (tr.). 1997. Te Commentary on the Verses of the Ters. (Paramatthadpan-
thergtha-atthakath.) Oxford: Te Pali Text Society.
Rajapakse, Vijitha. 1995. Tergth: On Feminism, Aestheticism and Religiosity in
an Early Buddhist Verse Anthology. Buddhist Studies Review 12:726, 135155.
Ratwatte, Damayathi. 1983. Selected Translations of the Ter Gth: Songs of Buddhist
Nuns. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Felix Printers.
116 A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117
Rhys Davids family. Cambridge University Oriental Library Archive Collection.
Ridding, C. M. and Louis de la Valle Poussin. 1920. Fragments of the Sanskrit
Vinaya: Bhiks unkarmavcan. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies 1(3):123143.
Roth, Gustav (ed.). 1970. Bhiks un -vinaya: Manual of Discipline for Buddhist Nuns,
including bhiks un -prakrn aka and a summary of the bhiks u-prakrn aka of the rya-
Mahsm ghika-Lokottaravdin. (Tibetan Sanskrit Works Series XII.) Patna: K. P.
Jayaswal Research Institute.
Sam yutta Nikya. Ed. Lon Feer. Vol. I. Oxford: Te Pali Text Society 1884, reprint
2006.
Sharma, Arvind. 1977. How and Why Did Women in Ancient India Become Nuns?
Sociological Analysis 38(3):239251.
. 1978. Can there be a Female Buddha in Teravda Buddhism? Bucknell
Review: Women, Literature, Criticism 24(1):7279.
Shih, Bhikkhun Juo-hsueh. 2000. Controversies over Buddhist Nuns. Oxford: Pali Text
Society.
Skilling, Peter. 2001a. Es Agr: Images of Nuns in (Mla-)Sarvstivdin Literature.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 24(2):135156.
. 2001b. Nuns, Laywomen, Donors, Goddesses: Female Roles in Early
Indian Buddhism. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
24(2):241274.
Sponberg, Alan. 1992. Attitudes toward Women and the Feminine in Early Bud-
dhism. In Jos Ignacio Cabezn (ed.), Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, Albany:
State University of New York Press, 336.
Talim, M. V. 1965. Buddhist Nuns and Disciplinary Rules. Journal of the University
of Bombay, 93137.
Tsomo, Karma Lekshe. 1996. Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic
Ethics for Women, A Comparative Study of the Chinese Dharmagupta and the
Tibetan Mlasarvstivda Bhiks un Prtimoks a Stras. Albany: State University of
New York Press.
Vinayapitaka. I. B. Horner. Te Book of the Discipline (vinaya-pitaka). Vol. 1 Sutta-
vibhan ga; vol. 5 Cullavagga. Oxford: Pali Text Society 1970 (1938); 1988 (1952).
Waldschmidt, Ernst (ed. and tr.). 1926. Bruchstcke des Bhiks un -Prtimoks a der
Sarvstivdin. Leipzig.
Walters, Jonathon S. 1994. A Voice from the Silence: Te Buddhas Mothers Story.
History of Religions 33(4):358379.
. 1995. Gotams Story. In Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Buddhism in Practice,
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 113138.
Wijayaratna, Mohan. 1991. Les Moniales Bouddhistes: Naissance et dveloppement du
monachisme fminin. Paris: ditions du Cerf.
Williams, Paul (ed.). 2005. Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies. London:
Routledge.
Willis, Janice D. 1985. Nuns and Benefactresses: Te Roles of Women in the Devel-
opment of Buddhism. In Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly
A. Collett / Numen 56 (2009) 91117 117
(eds.), Women, Religion and Social Change, Albany: State University of New York
Press, 5985.
Wilson, Liz. 1996. Charming Cadavers: Horric Figurations of the Feminine in Indian
Buddhist Hagiographic Literature. Chicago: Te University of Chicago Press.
Young, Serinity. 2004. Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narra-
tive, Iconography, and Ritual. New York and London: Routledge.