Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
SERIES EDITOR
Martha Selby
A Publication Series of
The University of Texas South Asia Institute
and
Oxford University Press
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1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Contributors vii
A Note on Non-English Words x
Abbreviations xi
Introduction—alice collett 1
1. The Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts: Mahāprajāpatī
Gautamī and the Order of Nuns in a Gandhāran Version of the
Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra—ingo strauch 17
2. The British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments: Behind the Birch
Bark Curtain—timothy lenz 46
3. Pāli Vinaya: Reconceptualizing Female Sexuality in Early
Buddhism—alice collett 62
4. Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya:
The Intersection of Womanly Virtue and Buddhist
Asceticism—amy paris langenberg 80
5. Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama: Outstanding Bhikkhunīs
in the Ekottarika-āgama—bhikkhu anālayo 97
6. Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama: Defying Māra—Bhikkhunīs
in the Saṃyukta-āgama—bhikkhu anālayo 116
7. Therīgāthā: Nandā, Female Sibling of
Gotama Buddha—alice collett 140
8. Apadāna: Therī-apadāna: Wives of the Saints: Marriage and
Kamma in the Path to Arahantship—jonathan s. walters 160
vi Contents
Bibliography 247
Index 267
Contributors
within this volume, with the exception of names and titles, non-
English words from the Indo-Aryan language group used in the text have
been standardized to either Sanskrit or Pāli. Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 9 have
been standardized to Sanskrit, and the remainder to Pāli. When a non-
English word appears in the plural, it is italicized, as is standard practice,
but with a non-italicized -s to follow—for example, therīs. When non-
English words are used with other English grammatical conventions (-ic,
-ship, etc.), the word appears with diacritical marks but without italics—
for example, dharmaśāstric, arahantship.
Abbreviations
AN Aṅguttara-nikāya
AN-a Aṅguttara-nikāya commentary
Ap. Apadāna
Avś Avadānaśataka
Be Burmese edition
BJTS Buddha Jayanti Tripiṭaka Series
BL British Library
Ce Ceylonese edition
D Derge edition
DĀ Dirgha-āgama (T 1)
DN Dīgha-nikāya
Dhp-a Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā
Divy Divyāvadāna
DS Dharmasūtra
EĀ Ekottarika-āgama (T 125)
GS Gṛhyasūtra
It-a Ittivuttaka-aṭṭhakathā
MĀ Madhyama-āgama (T 26)
MBh Mahābhārata
MDh Mānava Dharmśāstra
MN Majjhima-nikāya
Mp Manorathapūraṇī
MŚS Mānava-Śrauta-Sūtra
Ps Papañcasūdanī
PTS Pali Text Society
Q Peking edition
SĀ Saṃyukta-āgama (T 99)
SĀ2 ‘other’ Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100)
Se Siamese edition
xii Abbreviations
Skt. Sanskrit
SHT Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden
Sn Sutta-nipāta
SN Saṃyutta-nikāya
Sp Samantapāsādikā
Spk Sāratthappakāsinī
SR Saddharmaratnāvaliya
ŚSG Śrāvakabhūmi Study Group
T Taishō (CBETA)
Tha Theragāthā
Thī Therīgāthā
Thī-a Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā
Vin. Vinayapiṭaka
Vism. Visuddhimagga
Women in Early Indian Buddhism
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Introduction
Alice Collett
1. . . . sīho va pañjaraṃ hetvā pāpuṇissati bodhiyaṃ. Yasodharā Ap. at II, 588, v. 56, tr. Walters,
chapter 8, page 187. Pāli references appear in this volume with a citation of either one or
some of the book/chapter/section/verse numbers, whichever is appropriate, followed by the
PTS edition volume and page number. In places in which the text is discussed by name or
text number, only the PTS reference is given.
2. The word “nun” is used throughout as a translation of bhikkhunī/bhikṣuṇī and equiva-
lents, and at other times as a translation of therī.
2 women in early indian buddhism
3. Writing in the early nineties, Fussman notes that, due to Marshall’s extensive excavations
of Taxila between 1913 and 1934, and various other more recent digs, Taxila is “the town in
ancient India we know the best” (1993, 83). Kenoyer, more recently, surveys some of the ar-
cheological projects completed since then—at Charsada, Gor Khutree-Peshawar, and Hund,
Attock district, as well as one outside Greater Gandhāra, in Akra, Bannu District (2006,
33–49).
4 women in early indian buddhism
is not possible to know what the original to the list looked like; however,
what is strikingly clear from this evidence is that the extant Gāndhārī ver-
sion puts a more positive gloss on the nuns’ position within the early com-
munity than do the versions of the list extant in other traditions.
As well as potentially enabling us to identify regional differences in
relation to how women are perceived, revered, included, excluded, or have
some agency in the redaction process, comparative textual study also en-
genders the possibility for consideration of differences between the early
Buddhist schools in their view of or attitudes to women. This can be seen
in the present volume by the inclusion of two chapters that look at vinaya
literature of two different schools. Both chapters begin with some discus-
sion of the structure of the extant nuns’ vinayas of each school, and a
considerable difference is revealed between the two. In relation to the San-
skrit vinaya studied in this volume, Amy Langenberg’s first concern is to
inform us of the unique characteristics of this Vinaya. She says:
The structure of the extant Pāli nuns’ Vinaya has previously been the sub-
ject of some discussion. Unlike the Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī
Vinaya, which can be easily detached from the monks’, the Pāli nuns’
Vinaya follows the monks’ sequentially and includes within it only the
rules that do not pertain to both communities. Horner, many years before
the publication of Roth’s edition of the Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda
Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya, in her introduction to her translation of the Pāli Vinaya
suggests that the nuns’ Suttavibhaṅga may have, at some point, been sepa-
rate to that of the monks’ ([1942] 2004, 3: xxxi–xxxiii). She insightfully
adduces this from two things: first, a surviving fragment of a few lines
from a Sarvastivāda Bhikṣuṇī Prātimokṣa, and second, from the inclusion
of the indeclinable pi. The Sarvastivāda fragment, published by Finot and
Introduction 5
Huber (1913), “contains only the end of one article and the beginning of
another,” but these can be “easily identified” as saṅghādisesa rules for nuns
that in the Pāli, as they are also rules for monks, do not appear in the
nuns’ section. Horner’s second deduction is equally based upon slight
evidence. In the Pāli, the nuns have eight pārājikas, but only four are listed
in the nuns’ Suttavibhaṅga as the other four are shared with the monks.
However, in what is the first pārājika in the nuns’ section, the word pi
(“too, also”) appears in the phrase ayam pi pārājikā hoti, “she too becomes
one who is defeated.” The use of pi here suggests that this rule was not
initially the first in a list, but followed another, such that the use of “too”
was appropriate. Thus Horner suggests that this rule was formerly part of
a list, likely in the nuns’ Suttavibhaṅga, of the entire eight pārājikas to
which nuns should adhere.4
Whatever was originally the case with the Pāli Vinaya, the extant ver-
sions of two texts are organized quite differently. This may well be due to
differences in transmission and preservation processes, as well as tradi-
tional and/or regional differences. While it is not always possible to asso-
ciate texts with a specific region, the Mahāsāṅghika school is particularly
associated with the region of Magadha, and most especially with
Pāṭaliputra, as the Chinese pilgrim Făxiăn brought a manuscript of the
Mahāsāṅghika Vinaya back to China from Pāṭaliputra, from his travels in
Indian in the 5th century ce. This manuscript was translated into Chinese
and is believed to be the Chinese text still extant in the canon and trans-
lated by Hirakawa into English. The Sanskrit manuscript, however, dates
to a later time, the 12th century, although Roth notes that “both the ver-
sions are very closely related as far as the content and the sequence of the
cases is concerned” (Roth 1970, xll).
As well as the comparative textual study within this volume highlight-
ing potential regional or sectarian differences, other chapters illuminate
broader themes and issues in relation to women and raise challenges to
our understanding of pervasive social constructs. The theme of sexuality
is the focus of chapter 3, but also raised and discussed in chapters 2, 6,
and 10. This is a topic that has received detailed attention in the past, and
as I have noted elsewhere:
4. See the discussion in chapter 3 for more on the question of the structure of the extant Pāli
Vinaya, including a review of some other features of the extant bhikkhunīvibhaṅga that sup-
port Horner’s argument.
6 women in early indian buddhism
5. See Sponberg (1992), Gross (1993) and Young (2004). In the above cited article (Collett
2009a) are references to other works that look at or touch upon aspects of female sexuality
(Horner[1930] 1990, Wilson 1996, etc.). Since then, John Powers (2009) has produced a
volume on masculinity in early Indian Buddhism, and while his discussion is an important
and valuable contribution to a little-studied side of the debate—male sexuality—
unfortunately, his views on women in early Indian Buddhism are rather one-sided (see my
review, Collett 2010).
Introduction 7
6. This picks up on a theme Walters began developing some years ago (cf. Walters 1994).
8 women in early indian buddhism
Summary of Chapters
Chapter 1
Strauch’s chapter, chapter 1 of the volume, is a translation and study of
Fragment 01 of the Bajaur collection. The Bajaur collection is a collection
of nineteen birch-bark fragments that were discovered in 1999 in the
Bajaur agency of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Frag-
ment 01 is the Gāndhārī version of sūtra known in the Pāli as the
Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta (MN 142), which also occurs in the Chinese
Madhyama-āgama with a title that corresponds to a Sanskrit title of
Gautamīsūtra. As Strauch notes in his chapter, “(o)n the basis of the or-
thography of the Bajaur version, the reconstructed Gāndhārī title can be
established as *Dhakṣinavibhaṃgasutra” (Chapter 1, page 18–19). Strauch
assesses the manuscript fragment in relation to both direct and indirect
parallels. He provides detailed editions and translations of sections of the
manuscript set alongside other versions of the sūtra. Also included is
some discussion of the key features of the Gāndhārī version that set it
apart from other versions—most notably the new itemization on the list of
worthy recipients as discussed above, which is pertinent to the role of the
nuns’ community within early Buddhist traditions.
Chapter 2
In chapter 2, Timothy Lenz compares British Library fragments of
Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts with parallel texts. The British Library collection
contains seven or eight different scrolls with numbered series of avadāna,
which collectively contain approximately fifty-two different stories. Five of
10 women in early indian buddhism
these concern women, and it is these five that Lenz provides editions of
and translates. These avadānas reveal only a partial story or skeleton ac-
count of each of the women, as their author assumes that his readers will
be familiar enough with the summarized stories to be able to restore from
memory all the rich twists and turns of plot that the summaries lack. Typ-
ically, the extant Gandhāran avadānas contained in the British Library col-
lection conclude with an abbreviation formula, such as “Expansion. All
should be according to the model” (see for example chapter 2, pages 51, 53
and 54) that expressly directs the reader to flush out the skeleton narrative
by means of their own command of Buddhist lore. In his chapter, Lenz
compares the Gāndhārī fragments with Sanskrit, Pāli, and Chinese texts,
and while noting that there are some parallels, he also notes that in rela-
tion to women the fragments only enable us to “sketch faceless women
who lack any personality or obvious attributes that would clearly suggest
some motive for their inclusion in one or more of the Gandhāran avadāna
texts.” Nonetheless, from his survey of these fragments, alongside re-
course to the potsherds inscription in which the British Library manu-
scripts were apparently found, he concludes that the situation for women
in Haḍḍa in the first half of the 1st century ce appears to have been a rela-
tively positive one.
Chapter 3
The Pāli Vinaya is the subject of chapter 3. In this chapter, I address the
topic of female sexuality and present a revalorization of what has come
to be understood as a pervasive social construct of female sexuality in
early Buddhism as evident formally through, on the whole, Pāli sources.
The prevailing view, similar to Brahmanical ideation, understands
female sexuality as voracious. Women are conceptualized with a sala-
cious sexual appetite, and portrayed (at worse) as viperous enticers of
men, seeking to drag them back, unwilling, from the true path. Through
an assessment of the saṅghādisesa rules of the Pāli Vinaya, some of the
most elucidating on sex, I argue that differences between the rules for
monks and those for nuns reveal divergent sexualities; here it is the
monks and men who attempt to pursue, cajole, and manipulate women
into having sex with them, rather than the other way around. In the
chapter, I concentrate on seven different saṅghādisesa rules to illustrate
my point, the most poignant of which—saṅghādisesa no. 4 for monks—is
translated. The origin story connected to this rule features the monk
Udāyin who, when a beautiful laywoman asks him what she might offer
Introduction 11
in way of dāna, rejects her offer of the usual prerequisites and instead
suggests that she offer herself for sex.
Chapter 4
Amy Langenberg’s chapter is a study of the Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda
Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya. Langenberg’s focus in the chapter is on exploring the
question of the social identity of Buddhist nuns as expressed in the text,
and the way in which nuns appear to occupy a “frontier position at the
intersection of two well-established social identities, those of ‘virtuous
woman’ and ‘Buddhist ascetic’” (chapter 4, page 85). Langenberg argues
that as Buddhist nuns are “social hybrids,” defined neither by their sexual-
ity and fertility nor by relational status to male kin, it was necessary to
formulate a social and public identity for them such that they could con-
tinue to be considered women of virtue while the same time upholding
their renouncer status. She highlights these questions through detailed
study and translation of several rules—pācattika dharmas 79 and 84, and
bhikṣuṇī prakīrṇakas 15–18 and 31. Pācattika dharma 79 is an intervention
in a martial spat between a former husband and wife, now monk and nun,
and no. 84 is concerned with the domestic sphere, revealing a situation in
which nuns offer to do cleaning, carding, and spinning of raw cotton.
These two together, Langenberg notes, forbid nuns from playing the part
of wife or domestic worker. Bhikṣuṇī prakīrṇakas 15–18 are concerned with
menstruation, and in her elucidation of these rules, Langenberg reveals
how the provisions of these rules enable a management of the nuns’
bodily functions such that they continue to appear, to the external com-
munity, as pure, unsullied, and spotless. Lastly, bhikṣuṇī prakīrṇaka 31
allows a nun to don the dress of a female householder—that is, to discard
the physical indicators of monasticism—only in appropriate circum-
stances, such as when she considers herself under threat.
Chapter 5
This chapter is the first of two that compare Chinese and Pāli sources. In
this chapter, Bhikkhu Anālayo focuses on the Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-
āgama. There are two complete Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama texts
extant, one in Pāli and the other in Chinese, although the two versions
vary considerably. It has been established for some time that there are
several redactions of the text (see Waldschmidt 1980, 169–74) and as
noted by scholars previously, the extant Chinese Ekottarika-āgama shows
12 women in early indian buddhism
Chapter 6
There is extant a complete version of the Saṃyutta-nikāya in Pāli and two
substantial versions in Chinese. As well as this, and some other partial
fragments in Chinese, as Glass notes (2007, 26) in his volume on a
Gāndhārī fragment from the Senior collection, “we have other sūtras—in
sets, individually, or as fragments—belonging to the Saṃyuktāgama class
in Sanskrit, Gāndhārī, and Tibetan.”8 In this volume, the bhikṣuṇīsaṃyukta
in the complete Saṃyukta-āgama, Taishō 99, is translated. Bingenheimer
(2008; 2011) has previously translated the bhikṣuṇīsaṃyukta from the par-
tially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama, Taishō 100. The short discourses that
make up the bhikkhunīsaṃyutta are brief vignettes about nuns in their daily
lives. The picture painted of the nuns here is very positive, and as Anālayo
comments in his conclusion, in considering the strength of responses to
adversity between the genders, “the present set of discourses on challenges
to Māra is a clear instance where the bhikkhunīs are presented in a more
favorable light than their male counterparts” (chapter 6, page 137).
Chapter 7
The focus in this chapter is the relationship between the Therīgāthā and the
Pāli narrative biographical tradition. This relationship is explored through
an analysis of Therīgāthā verses and biographies of nuns with the name
Chapter 8
The subject of this chapter is the Apadāna, a text of biographies (or hagi-
ographies), based on the Theragāthā and Therīgāthā. The Apadāna in-
cludes past-life stories, and here we find accounts of women practicing in
the Buddhist past. Within the community of each of the previous Buddhas
mentioned in the text are female disciples. Thus, women were not only
allowed to commit to their practice and ordain within the community of
Gotama Buddha, but this also happened during the remote past, during
the aeons of previous Buddhas. Within his chapter, Walters takes up this
idea—of the text representing an attempt to establish and “write” women
into the Buddhist past—as the starting point for his discussion. Due to
extant colophons and the content of the Therī-Apadāna, Walters suggests
that it was composed in response to the monks’ Therāpadāna. Focusing
particularly on the apadānas of two former wives—Bhaddā-Kāpilāni and
Yasodharā—Walters argues that the nuns’ narratives attempt to reinsert
these women into the past-life narratives of their former husbands, re-
spectively Mahā-Kassapa and Gotama Buddha. Controversially, Walters
suggests a possible reading for Yasodharā’s apadāna as “a bold claim that
she has enabled the Buddha’s Buddhahood” (chapter 8, page 188). Walters
asserts that the content of the nuns’ biographies illuminates an insistence
that women are included in the narrative of Buddhist history and practice
that forms the bedrock of the monks’ biographies.
Chapter 9
This chapter also focuses on marriage. In this chapter, Karen Muldoon-
Hules discusses how “the Brahmanical system of marriage in northern
14 women in early indian buddhism
Chapter 10
The final chapter of this volume deals with commentarial literature and
a later text based upon a commentary. Buddhaghosa compiled commen-
taries relating to many major works of the Pāli canon, and included in
chapter 10 are extracts from and a discussion of a commentary, appar-
ently authored by him, on the well-known Dhammapada. Some of the
biographies and stories of women contained within commentaries of
Buddhaghosa and other well-known Pāli commentators can be sourced
from earlier literature. Some were drawn from the Pāli canon, from the
Apadāna, for example, while Buddhaghosa himself says that he relied in
part on older Sinhala commentaries, which are no longer extant, as Ran-
jini Obeyesekere notes. Certain of these commentarial stories about
women appeared to capture the imagination of the Sinhalese Buddhists
and were used as a basis for narratives within later Sinhala works. In her
chapter, Obeyesekere compares the Pāli stories from the Dhammapada
commentary with their counterparts in a 13th-century Sinhala text, the
Saddharmaratnāvaliya. In this chapter, as noted above, Obeyesekere
notes similarities and differences between the texts, composed in differ-
ent time periods, in different cultural contexts, and with varying agen-
das. The focus in the Saddharmaratnāvaliya is on adaptation, but Obeye-
sekere notes that issues such as acknowledgement of female intellect
Introduction 15
and education appear to have remained fairly static between the early
and later text. Other issues, such as the option of female seclusion, while
evident in early texts, appear to have become antiquated by the medieval
period. Elsewhere, in looking at the issue of divorce and remarriage, Ob-
eyesekere discerns a range of possible arrangements evident in the re-
framing of the narrative topography between the different stages of tex-
tual transmission.
New Perspectives
It is my hope that the present volume provides some fresh perspectives on
women in early Indian Buddhism through this standpoint of comparative
analysis. In the first two chapters, which deal with material that can be
dated and located within a specific region, we have an opportunity to
assess potential regional views/attitudes or modalities in relation to
women. Although both sets of fragments from both collections represent
only a paucity of evidence, from what is extant we can begin to consider
that perhaps women faired well in Gandhāran Buddhism. If the Bajaur
fragment attests to women writing themselves back into the picture, as
can be seen to happen from Walters’s assessment of the nuns’ apadānas,
this is significant. Nonetheless, even a more conservative appraisal of the
Gandhāran manuscript fragments attests to a positive situation for
women, in the articulated world of the texts at least.
This relatively positive situation identified in the Gandhāran manu-
scripts sets the scene for the rest of the volume. Although in the vinaya
rules we do come across women who appear to act out a pronounced, and
less than healthy, sexuality, within the broad purview of the rules studied
in chapter 3, some of the most salient in relation to sexuality, the blanket
application of a salacious social construct on female sexuality can be tem-
pered. Continuing in the same vein, of a re-ordering of our understanding
of women in early mainstream Buddhism, questions of the need to invent
a social identity for nuns emerge and sit alongside texts that establish (and
reestablish and maintain through the transmission and preservation pro-
cess) early nuns as an exalted and revered foundation for the continuing
nuns’ saṅgha. Further to this, in both the Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-
āgama and the Apadāna, we find discourses and narratives on women
who overcome adversity to flourish, and who through their stories then
act as exemplars for the community. The majority of the time, we do not
know who the authors of our Buddhist corpora are, but implicit in Walters’s
16 women in early indian buddhism
Ingo Strauch
the very rare presence of individual nuns in the suttanta texts and
the astonishing absence of any suttanta mentioning the Buddha
talking to an individual nun directly and personally, it is hard to
avoid the conclusion that during the lifetime of the Buddha the
Buddhists had an order of monks only and that is exactly the situa-
tion as reflected in the suttantas. (2008, 24)
Only few months later, this view was categorically refuted by Anālayo, who
criticized von Hinüber’s methodological approach, which is mainly based
on the Pāli Nikāya texts. He writes:
18 women in early indian buddhism
1. For more information regarding the Bajaur Collection see Strauch (2007/8) and Strauch
(2008). A more comprehensive evaluation of the contents of the Bajaur Collection in com-
parison with Buddhist Gāndhārī literature as a whole will soon be available—see Falk and
Strauch (forthcoming).
2. For a discussion of the various titles see Anālayo (2011b, 810, fn. 261).
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 19
1. The manuscript
The sūtra is preserved on the obverse of a relatively large birch-bark scroll
that is now kept in three different glass frames. Its last line is written on
the reverse of the scroll and thus shows that the end of the birch-bark
manuscript is completely preserved and that this sūtra was the only text
inscribed on it. Another scribe used the empty reverse to add another text
in large, carelessly written letters. Although some portions of the original
scroll are missing, its state of preservation is generally good (see Fig. 1.1)
and allows the reconstruction of large portions of the text. With the help
of image processing it is possible to establish the original size of the scroll,
which would have been 17.5 cm in width and 70.5 cm in length. The text
is written in 80 lines of about 42 akṣaras.
20 women in early indian buddhism
figure 1.1 Part of the scroll containing the Gāndhārī version of the
Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra (BajC 1) © The Bajaur Collection Project, Freie Universität
Berlin.
After Mahāprajāpatī repeated her request two more times and received
the same response, Ānanda intervenes. He reminds the Buddha of the
services done by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī to him and asks him to accept
her gift (§ 2.1). Although the Buddha acknowledges these services, he
points to his own services done for Mahāprajāpatī and adds a passage that
generalizes this reply by listing a number of persons to whom one owes a
debt due to their merits for one’s own spiritual biography (§ 2.1 + § 3). This
part of the sūtra forms the narrative core of the story.
Following this dialogue between the Buddha and Mahāprajāpatī, and
the intervention by Ānanda, the Buddha expounds two different lists,
which form the dogmatical core of the sūtra and are not particularly closely
related to the described event. The first of these lists enumerates fourteen
individual offerings, called in the Gāndhārī paḍipogaliga dhakṣina. The list
is arranged hierarchically and starts from gifts to animals, classified here
as the lowest recipients, and progresses upward in a chain of worthy re-
cipients that culminate in the Tathāgata Samyaksaṃbuddha (§ 4). A par-
allel list follows that describes the fruits of the respective gifts. This list is
arranged in the same sequence, beginning from gifts to animals (§ 5).
Both lists of individual offerings are followed by a list of gifts to the Bud-
dhist Order. The Gāndhārī text calls them saṃghagada dhakṣina. Seven
different items are mentioned (§ 6). This list is supplemented by a passage
that dwells on the merits that are to be expected from the offering of each
type of gift (§ 7). The Buddha’s instruction is concluded by a fourfold list,
which contains the kinds of purifying a gift (dhakṣinapariśodhi) (§ 8). This
is also the topic of the five gāthās, which conclude the whole sūtra (§ 9).
The five verses of the Gāndhārī version are by and large identical with
those of the Pāli text. If the sūtra is divided into parts, the Gāndhārī version
contains the following structural elements:
0. nidāna
1. The Buddha refuses to accept Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī’s gift
2. Ānanda’s intervention
2.1. The service done by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī
2.2. The service done by the Buddha
3. The persons to whom one owes a debt
4. The fourteen individual gifts
5. The fruits of the fourteen individual gifts
6. The seven gifts directed to the Order
7. The fruits of the seven gifts directed to the Order
22 women in early indian buddhism
3. The parallels
In general terms, the parallels of the Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra can be divided
into two major groups, which I call direct and indirect parallels. The direct
parallels comprise texts that represent complete or incomplete versions of
the same text. The indirect parallels consist of different sorts of texts,
which show more or less identical textual passages, which are due to a
parallelism in content or in structure. A complete survey of the parallels
with the exact bibliographical data will be provided in Table 1.1, below.3
Indirect parallels
The largest group of indirect parallels is associated with the foundation of
the nuns’ Order. This event is not only described in the vinayas of several
schools, but is also the subject of an individual sūtra which is usually
named Gautamīsūtra and is found in the Pāli Aṅguttara-nikāya
(Gotamīsutta) and the Chinese Madhyama-āgama (T 26, no. 116).4 The
narrative included in a second independent Chinese translation of a dis-
course (T 60) is, according to Analāyo, “in most aspects so similar to that
of MĀ 116 that it seems safe to conclude that this version stems from a
closely related line of transmission” (2011c, 270, fn. 8). The parallel pas-
sages in the Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra and the texts describing the foundation
of the Order of nuns usually cover the initial part (§§ 1–3) of our sūtra.5 The
3. The parallels and their main bibliographical data as well as references to their translations
are collected and described in the respective chapter of Anālayo’s outstanding work, “A Com-
parative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya” (2011b, 810–19, 1054). Anālayo’s analysis of the
Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta also considers the Gāndhārī version provided by the author in form
of a preliminary transliteration. The vinaya parallels are found in Heirman (2001) and
Anālayo (2011c). These three works form the basis of the bibliographical survey subsumed
in the table, especially with regard to the Chinese and Tibetan parallels. For a comprehen-
sive collection of parallels see now also Chung and Fukita (2011, 153–54).
4. The text of T 26, 116 is translated by Anālayo (2011c, 272–87).
5. The various texts concerning the foundation of the nuns’ order have been analysed by
Ann Heirman (2001) and Anālayo (2011c). I want to thank Bhikkhu Anālayo, who gener-
ously provided me with the interlinear translations of most of the vinaya passages.
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 23
Direct parallels
Two of the direct parallels of our sūtra are part of a Madhyama-āgama or
Majjhima-nikāya. The Majjhima-nikāya of the Theravāda canon contains
this sūtra under the title Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta in its vibhaṅgavarga sec-
tion (MN 142).9 The Chinese Madhyama-āgama, which was translated by
the Kashmirian monk Gautama Saṅghadeva at the end of the 4th century,
calls the same text 瞿曇彌經 qútánmí jīng, corresponding to the Sanskrit
Gautamīsūtra (MĀ 180). Currently, scholars attribute the Chinese
Madhyama-āgama to the Sarvāstivāda school of Buddhism (cf. Anālayo
2011b, 7, fn. 64. For an opposite view see Chung & Fukita 2011, 13–34).
6. A variant of this Maitreyan version of the robe gift episode is found in the individual
discourses T 202 and T 203. Here after the Buddha’s refusal Mahāprajāpatī continues to
look for a recipient of her gift among the monks of the saṅgha. Nobody dares to accept it,
until Maitreya finally took it (Lamotte 1988, 704; Anālayo 2011b, 812, fn. 268).
7. The works, which contain this story, are listed and shortly described by Lamotte (1988,
702–705). For the role of the robe gift episode in the Maitreyavyākaraṇa context see also Silk
(2003, 195–97).
8. As shown by Hüsken (2000, 46, fn. 9) and Anālayo (2008, 106–8), the Maitrisimit ac-
count does not refer to the foundation of the Order of nuns, but reports the robe gift epi-
sode, which is described in the different versions of the Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra.
9. The story of Mahāprajāpatī’s robe gift is also referred to in the paracanonical Milindapa-
ñha (ed. Trenckner 1962, 240f., tr. Horner 1964, 44–46).
24 women in early indian buddhism
10. Both Chinese versions (T 26, 180 and T 84) were translated by Tsukamoto (1985, 1093–
1100).
11. The exact parallel to the Chinese MĀ is: T 26, 722a4–19 (Chung and Fukita 2011, 153).
Table 1.1 The parallels of the Gāndhārī *Dhakṣinavibhaṃgasutra
Vinaya Non-Vinaya
(continued)
Table 1.1 (continued)
School affiliation Indirect Direct
Vinaya Non-Vinaya
In order to clarify how the position of the Gāndhārī version fits within
these various textual traditions I will next examine two significant pas-
sages of the sūtra. The first of them is taken from the narrative part, which
has a number of parallels in the vinaya material and can therefore help to
evaluate and place the Gāndhārī version within the group of the indirect
parallels and also ascertain its relation to the various reports about the
foundation of the Order of nuns. The second passage is taken from the
dogmatic core of the sūtra and will more precisely define its position
among the direct parallels. In the final section of the chapter, to conclude,
special attention will be given to an assessment of the delineation of the
nuns’ Order in the Gāndhārī version, as compared to other versions of
the text.
The argument used by Ānanda to “convince” the Buddha and his high-
lighting of the “mother service” done by Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī12 is
largely identical in all versions, which seem to go back to a common core.13
In the Pāli versions it is expressed with the phrase:
12. This subject has been extensively discussed—on the basis of texts in Indian languages—
by Ohnuma (2006).
13. According to the structural analysis provided by Ann Heirman (2001, 279–81) the par-
allel text portion of the versions of the Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra and that of the versions of the
ordination story as contained in the vinayas and the Gautamīsūtra would correspond to sec-
tions (c) “Ānanda acts as a mediator” and (e) “Ānanda refers to the extensive merit of
Mahāprajāpatī towards the Buddha. She nursed and raised him.”
28 women in early indian buddhism
14. Cf. the nearly identical text in the Gotamīsutta of the Aṅguttara-nikāya: bahupakārā,
bhante, mahāpajāpatī gotamī bhagavato mātucchā āpādikā posikā, bhagavantaṃ janettiyā
kālaṅkatāya thaññaṃ pi (AN IV 276).
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 29
The items included in this list vary in the different texts. Not all the ordi-
nation accounts contain this counter-argument of the Buddha. It is there-
fore possible that this element of the robe gift story was later interpolated
into the ordination narrative. If such an interpolation did take place, it
does not appear to have been dependent upon school affiliation.15 This
portion is only fragmentarily preserved in the Gāndhārī sūtra (§ 2.2). Only
the beginning and the reference to the five precepts survive in the pre-
served part of the manuscript:
15. Remarkably, the Pāli versions of the ordination account in the vinaya and in the
Gotamīsutta omit this passage. It is also missing in the Chinese vinayas of the Mahāsāṅghikas
(T 1425), the Sarvāstivādins (T 1435), and the *Haimavatas (T 1463), in the Tibetan vinaya of
the Mūlasarvāstivādins and in the Sanskrit Bhikṣuṇīkarmavācanā of the Sarvāstivādins. As
seen in Table 1.2, below, other versions of the Mahāsāṅghikas-(Lokottaravādins) and of the
(Mūla-)Sarvāstivādins do contain this passage. I am grateful to Anālayo who checked the
Chinese references for me.
16. For sake of coherence the terminology of the translation corresponds to Ñānamoli (2005,
1103).
17. This passage is closely related, but not identical with the list in AN 3,24, where three
bahukārā puggalā are enumerated (AN I 123). This parallel, which explicitly refers to attain-
ing stream-entry and full awakening among those acts, which characterize the merits of a
bahukāra- puggala-, is a further argument for the lay status of Mahāprajāpatī. As Anālayo
says: “From this listing it would seem that, had Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī already reached full
awakening by the time of the present discourse, this would merit explicit mentioning”
(2011b, 814, fn. 282). Anālayo’s suggestion, that Mahāprajāpatī’s “offering of a robe to the
Buddha could find a placing at some point during the time period between her going forth
and her attainment of full liberation” (2011b, 815, fn. 282) seems to me less straightforward.
30 women in early indian buddhism
When one person, owing to another, has gone for refuge to the
Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, I say that is not easy for the
former to repay the latter by paying homage to him, rising up for
him, according him reverential salutation and polite services, and
by providing robes, almsfood, resting places, and medicinal requi-
sites (tr. Ñānamoli 2005, 1103).
The same phrase is repeated three more times for the following persons:
Again the Gāndhārī scroll does not preserve the whole text, but allows re-
construction of at least its basic shape (§ 3):
3.4. yo ho anaṃda pugalo pugalo agamya) /// yig[i]ra ? ? ? /// (anaṃda tasa)
pugalasa na (sukaro paḍihato yam)[i](da) [civara-piṃḍava]do-
ś(e)nasano-gilana-pra[c](e)[a-bhe]ṣaja-parikha[rena] (BajC 1, lines 13–18)
3.1. (Ānanda, when one person,) owing to another, knows the Buddha,
(knows the) dharma (and knows the saṅgha,) (*this person, Ānanda,
is not easily rejected with regard to robes, almsfood, resting places
and medicinal requisites for the sick.)
3.2. (Ānanda, when one person,) owing to another, (. . .) this person,
Ānanda, is not easily rejected with regard to robes, almsfood, resting
places and medicinal requisites for the sick.
3.3. Ānanda, when one person, owing to another, is without doubt about
the Buddha, without doubt about the dharma and without doubt
about the saṅgha, this person, (Ānanda), is not easily rejected with
regard to robes, almsfood, resting places and medicinal requisites for
the sick.
3.4. (Ānanda, when one person, owing to another,) (. . .) this person,
(Ānanda), is not easily rejected with regard to robes, almsfood, rest-
ing places and medicinal requisites for the sick.
As we can see, two of the four elements in the Gāndhārī passage are
missing. However, we know from the preceding passage that the five pre-
cepts would have been part of this enumeration, thus only one element
remains unknown. If we compare this passage of the Gāndhārī version
with its direct and indirect parallels we get a list of doctrinal issues, which
are part of these various lists:
These Buddhist core doctrines are combined with the following elements:
1 “knows” ( jānāti)
2 “takes refuge” (śaraṇaṃ gacchati)
3 “has no doubt” (niḥkaṅkṣa-)
4 “has (unwavering) confidence” (Pāli aveccapasādena samannāgata-)
5 “believes in” (abhiprasanna-)
6 other verbal forms
32 women in early indian buddhism
Vinaya Non-Vinaya
Sarv—Turfan SHT III 979
Theravāda—Pāli MN 142
Dharmaguptaka (T 1428)
Mah-Lok (ed. Roth 1970)
* Sarv—T 26, sūtra 180
Mahīśāsaka (T 1421)
Gāndhārī—Bajaur 1
Mūl (T 1451)
T 60
T 84
A1 A2 A5 A5 A2 A2 A2 A1 A5 A1 A2 A2
*B B A3 A2 A+C3 B B A2 A2 A3 A+C3
A3 A4 A2 A3 D6 A3 D6 B B C3 D6
? C3 C3 C3 B C3 C1 C1 C3 D+B B
From the above tabulation, it is clear that nearly every version has its
own structure. All the versions agree in their inclusion of the three jewels
(A: triratna) in the list. Most add other items like the five precepts
(B: pañcaśīla), the Four Noble Truths (C: āryasatya) and the Five Noble
Treasures (D: āryadhana), while others repeat the already mentioned ele-
ment with other verbal forms. Among the different versions, the three
that stem from (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda sources (bold frame) are the most
similar to one another. But even here the texts are not identical. If the
Chinese Madhyama-āgama (T 26) does indeed belong to the Sarvāstivāda
tradition, it uses a completely different formula in this passage. It is pos-
sible that the textual variants represent rather different local or regional
traditions than formulae which are characteristic for a specific school.19
18. For the texts which do not contain this passage, see above fn. 15. In T 1421 only one item
is mentioned. The treatment of this passage in the Maitrisimit versions differs considerably
from that of the other texts and cannot be used for a comparison.
19. As indicated by Chung and Fukita (2011, 154), a part of this passage is quoted in the
Karmavibhaṅga 61.6–9 (ed. Kudō 2004, 122). The quotation is introduced by yathā cāha
*Bhagavān Dakṣiṇāvibhaṃgasūtre. It refers to triratna + śaraṇaṃ gam- (A 2) and to the
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 33
On the basis of this evidence alone it is not possible to make any reli-
able statements about a suggested affiliation of our text to any of these
versions or schools. Neither the Dharmaguptaka nor the Mahāsāṅghika
parallels as preserved in the vinayas of these schools are especially close to
the Gāndhārī text. The versions that most closely relate to, but are not
identical with, our Gāndhārī text are the Pāli version and the independent
Chinese translation of T 84 (grey shadow).
Table 1.3 The narrative part of the sūtra (§§ 4–9) and its parallels
Sarv—Turfan SHT III 979
TheravādaPāli—MN 142
Schøyen fragment
Maitrisimit
T 84
śikṣāpadas (B). The passage and its parallels are discussed by Kudō (2004, 265–6, fn. 40). A
nearly identical passage is quoted from a “Dadiṇāṃvibhaṃgasūtra”, probably corrupt for
Dakṣiṇāvibhaṃgasūtra (61.5, ed. Kudō 2004, 123).
34 women in early indian buddhism
The first group (A) starts the introduction with the enumeration of the
seven saṅgha-oriented gifts and continues with the 14 individual gifts.
This group consists of the following versions: the Chinese Madhyama-
āgama sūtra (T 26, no. 180), the Turfan fragment, and the Tibetan version
in Śamathadeva’s commentary. As far as we can judge, these versions
most probably belong to the Sarvāstivāda or Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition.
Accordingly, this feature can be regarded a peculiarity of this branch of
Buddhist textual tradition. The fact that the parallel text of the Maitrisimit
shares this sequence might give an indication of its source, which should
to be looked for in Sarvāstivāda circles. Our Gāndhārī sūtra obviously be-
longs to the second group (B), which shows the reverse order of these ele-
ments and is shared by all the remaining versions.
However, other differences can be observed that allow a further sub-
grouping: The first of these differences concerns the sequence of elements
in the list of individual gifts. As can be seen from the above table, this list
occurs twice in the sūtra: the first instance enumerates the gifts, and in the
second instance the enumeration is repeated for the sake of specifying the
reward that is to be expected from each respective gift. With regard to
these two subsequent lists, two subgroups can be distinguished: The first
of them (I) starts its enumeration with the highest recipient and continues
the subsequent list of rewards in the reverse order. This structure is found
in all texts of group A, but it is also found in some texts of group B. The
Pāli version begins its list of recipients with the sentence:
Its second listing—of the rewards—is arranged in the reverse order and
begins with:
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 35
The same structure is found in the Sanskrit text, which is preserved on the
fragment of the Schøyen Collection. The only texts that show a different
order and are therefore to be attributed to subgroup II are the separate
Chinese version translated by Dānapāla (T 84) and our Gāndhārī sūtra,
which begins its first chain with the lowest recipient:
In the subsequent list of rewards, the text begins again with the lowest
recipient:
6. The seven gifts to the saṅgha and the Order of the nuns
In all the versions the enumeration of the individual gifts is either pre-
ceded or followed by another list that contains the various kinds of gifts
directed to the Buddhist community. The term used for this category is
saṅghagatā dakṣiṇā (P. saṅghagatādakkhiṇā, G. saghag̱ ada dhakṣina). The
passage has provoked a number of comments with regard to its implica-
tions for the history of the nuns’ Order. As already mentioned, von Hinüber
briefly discusses Mahāprajāpatī’s robe gift as part of his argument that
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 37
there was no Order of nuns at the time of the Buddha. One of his main
pieces of evidence for this is the apparent lack of direct interactions be-
tween the Buddha and nuns in the first four nikāyas. The story of the
Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra does not negate von Hinüber’s assertion, since
Mahāprajāpatī is introduced here not as a Buddhist nun, but still seems to
be a laywoman.20 Nonetheless, the Pāli version of the sūtra enumerates,
among the communities that are the recipients of the gifts to the Order,
the bhikkhunīsaṅgha—which is clearly a contradiction to the narrative
frame, at least if we concede that the tradition according to which the
foundation of the Order of nuns goes back to Mahāprajāpatī is true. Von
Hinüber wants to explain this paradox by a kind of absentmindedness and
refers to L. Schmithausen, who drew his “attention to the remarkable fact
that some Chinese versions correctly preserve a most likely older version
of the text without any reference to the nuns” (2008, 21, fn. 59).21 How-
ever, von Hinüber does not exclude the possibility “that an attentive later
redactor removed the bhikkhunīsaṃgha from the text” in these versions
(2008, 21–22, fn. 59).
The existence, in this sūtra, of Mahāprajāpatī as a laywoman alongside
a mention of the Order of nuns does indeed present something of a
problem for how we understand the founding of the nuns’ Order, given
that the most common and accepted account gives her as the first woman
to receive ordination. Another solution with regard to this “anachronism”
was brought forward by Liz Williams. She argued that it is either “evi-
dence of the existence of bhikkhunīs before Mahāpajāpatī requested the
going forth” or that “this sutta may be an assimilation of one story with
another” (2000, 170). This second explanation, which regards the Pāli
version “as the outcome of a merger of two originally different texts”, was
also favored by Anālayo (2008, 110).22 I want to use this opportunity to
introduce here for the first time23 the respective passage of the Gāndhārī
20. Only one version (T 84) calls Mahāprajāpatī a bhikṣuṇī, but it also mentions her as taking
only the five precepts. The controversial issue of Mahāprajāpatī’s assumed lay status has
been repeatedly discussed by Anālayo, who does not exclude the possibility that the robe gift
episode falls within a time after her going forth (2008, 109; 2011b, 814–81).
21. In his criticism of von Hinüber’s article Anālayo rightly points out, that this omission is
only true for one particular phrase in the whole passage. Otherwise the Chinese versions
“refer repeatedly to the nuns” (2008, 114).
22. For more references with regard to this problem cf. Anālayo (2008, 136, fn. 23 + 24).
23. A short reference to the Gāndhārī version, “where the bhikṣuṇīsaṃgha is almost cer-
tainly mentioned”, is given by von Hinüber (2008, 22, fn. 59) on the basis of an oral
38 women in early indian buddhism
version of this sūtra and to discuss the role of the bhikṣuṇīsaṅgha in com-
parison with its parallels. For this purpose I will first cite the text as con-
tained in the Gāndhārī version (in an abbreviated manner). Although it is
not completely preserved, its coherent and repetitive structure allows its
reconstruction with a high degree of certainty:
6. “Ānanda, there are these seven kinds of gifts directed to the Order . . .
Which are these seven?
6.1. Here, Ānanda, as long as the Tathāgata is living, one gives a gift to the
Order of monks, headed by the Buddha. This Ānanda, is the first gift
directed to the Order . . .
6.2. And again, Ānanda, as long as the Tathāgata is living, (one gives a gift
to the Order of nuns), headed by the Buddha. (This, Ānanda, is the
second) gift directed to the Order . . .
communication with the author. The beginning of this passage and its relation to Pāli
parallels from the MN and AN are discussed in Strauch (2007/8, 21–2).
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 39
6.3. And again, Ānanda, if the Tathāgata has passed away, one gives a gift
to the Order of monks. This, Ānanda, is the (third) gift directed to the
Order . . .
6.4. And again, Ānanda, if the Tathāgata (has passed away, one gives a gift
to the Order of the nuns.) This, Ānanda, is the fourth gift directed to
the Order.
6.5. And again, Ānanda, if the Tathāgata has passed away, one gives a gift
to . . . This, Ānanda, is the fifth gift directed to the Order . . .
6.6. (. . .) if (the Tathāgata) has passed away, one says: May so many from
the Order of monks come forward (to receive the gift). This, Ānanda,
is the sixth gift directed to the order (. . .)
6.7. (And again, Ānanda, if the Tathāgata) has passed away, (one says):
May so many from the Order of nuns come forward (to receive the
gift). This is the seventh (gift directed to the order) (. . .).”
As we see, the first two items in the list are introduced by the phrase: “as
long as the Tathāgata is living”: tasagado tiṭhaṃti yave/(ta)[sa]g̱ ado tiṭhaṃto
yaveto. Accordingly, only these two items could signify the order as bud-
dhapramukha “headed by the Buddha.” The remaining five omit this at-
tribute and begin with “when the Tathāgata has passed away”: tasag̱ ade
parinivude. The same distinction is met in all other versions, although not
always expressed in this explicit way (see Table 1.4). Virtually all of the
texts start their enumeration from the perspective of the narrative, that is,
during the lifetime of the Buddha.
The first item of the Gāndhārī text—including the attributes “as long
as the Tathāgata is living” and “Monks’ Order headed by the Buddha”—is
matched exactly by the Chinese Madhyama-āgama sūtra (MĀ 180):
Gāndhārī *Dhakṣinavibhaṃgasutra:
Gāndhārī Bajaur 1 Pāli Theravāda MN Chin. T 26, 180 Chin. T 84 Tibetan D 253 Maitrisimit (Uighur)
142 (corrupt)
1 Buddha alive (*Buddha alive) Buddha alive (*Buddha alive) Monks’ order ???
Monks’ Order Both orders headed Buddha and monks’ Monks’ order in the Headed by the
headed by the by the Buddha order headed by the presence of the Buddha
Buddha Buddha Buddha
2 Buddha alive Buddha deceased 1. Buddha deceased Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) ???
*Nuns’ order Both orders Both orders Monks’ order Monks’ order
headed by the 2. (*Buddha deceased)
Buddha Monks’ order
3 Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) 3. (*Buddha deceased) Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) ???
Monks’ order Monks’ order Nuns’ order Nuns’ order Nuns’ order
4 Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) 4. (*Buddha deceased) Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) (*Buddha deceased)
*Nuns’ order Nuns’ order Group of monks Both orders Both orders Nuns’ order
5 Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) 5. (*Buddha deceased) Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) (*Buddha deceased)
*Both orders? Group of monks and Group of nuns Itinerant monks Group of monks Group of monks
nuns
6 Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) Non-vigorous monks Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) (*Buddha deceased)
Group of monks Group of monks gotrabhū, etc. Itinerant nuns Group of nuns Group of nuns
7 Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) Perfect monks Buddha deceased (*Buddha deceased) Undisciplined
Group of nuns Group of nuns Itinerant monks and Group of monks and monks
nuns nuns gotrabhū, etc.
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 41
Other versions, such as the text quoted by Śamathadeva, mention only the
attribute buddhapramukha (indicated below in bold print):
Śamathadeva (Tibetan)
saṅs rgyas la mṅon du phyogs te dge sloṅ gi dge ‘dun la sbyin pa byin na
dge ‘dun yon gnas yin no (D 4094 ju 255a)
1. Buddha alive
2. Buddha passed away
in all cases other than the Pāli this item is the Order of monks. As Scho-
pen’s analysis of different versions of a vinaya passage has shown (1985;
1997, 25–29), we can no longer assume that the simple fact of agreement
between the majority of sources attests to antiquity on the part of the pas-
sage in question. However, in this case it does seem probable that the ver-
sion in the majority of texts is the original. The version in T 84, which is
otherwise close to the Gāndhārī version, in this instance agrees with the
(Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda versions. It could well have been the case, of course,
following Schopen’s logic, that the redactive homogenizing of the passage
between traditions occurred after the 1st or 2nd century, thus T 84 was
altered and our Gāndhārī text was not. However, such an assumption
would hold more weight if the two alternative lists in the Pāli and Gāndhārī
were identical. In which case, it might seem reasonable to argue for a
cross-traditional redaction in all but two cases. Moreover, as the compara-
tive analysis above showed, the texts of the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda versions
and T 84 belong to completely different branches of transmission and do
not show any traces of having ever been subject of any kind of common
redaction. Given the available evidence, it is therefore hard to avoid the
conclusion that these two texts secondarily introduced this item into a
given list by disturbing its internal structure. If we consider all available
versions the initial list probably comprised the following items (Table 1.5):
Table 1.5
1 Buddha alive
Monks’ Order
2 Buddha deceased
Monks’ Order
3 (*Buddha deceased)
Nuns’ Order
4 (*Buddha deceased)
Both Orders
5 (*Buddha deceased)
Group of monks
6 (*Buddha deceased)
Group of nuns
7 (*Buddha deceased)
Group of monks and nuns
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 43
The Pāli version corrupted this order by replacing the original word
“monks’ Order” (bhikṣusaṅgha) by “both Orders” (ubhatosaṅghe). The
strategy of the Gāndhārī is different: it introduced an additional item—the
nuns’ Order headed by the Buddha during the Buddha’s lifetime—into
the list. Consequently it had to skip one of the original items. Which one
was left out is difficult to say due to the fragmentary state of the manu-
script, but according to the internal logic of the list it seems that the
Gāndhārī version skipped the last entry—“group of monks and nuns.”
The result of both modifications is the somewhat odd idea of a “nuns’
Order headed by the Buddha” (buddhapramukha- bhikṣuṇīsaṅgha-), which
is otherwise unattested in Buddhist literature, at least as far as I am able
to ascertain.
What can this evidence tell us about the textual history of this passage
and its implications for the history of the Order of nuns? The most prob-
able scenario seems to be: the original version of this sūtra contained a list
of gifts to the saṅgha, which did not contain any reference to the existence
of a nuns’ community during the Buddha’s lifetime. The fact that the list
knew the Order of nuns among the communities after the Buddha’s
parinirvāṇa shows, however, that it was composed after its foundation.
Some versions made independent attempts to revise this list and to
include the bhikṣuṇīsaṅgha among the communities that were active
during the Buddha’s lifetime.24 In revising the list, these versions did not
care for its seemingly anachronistic character within the narrative frame
of the robe gift episode. Two of the supposedly earliest versions, which are
transmitted in Indian languages, show clear traces of this process. If the
Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra is indeed the result of a merger of different tradi-
tions—combining the robe gift story with the various lists of gifts (as as-
sumed by Williams and Anālayo)—this process of revision obviously took
place after this merger. The preserved versions of the Dakṣiṇāvibhaṅgasūtra
clearly show that the lists were already part of the sūtra when the revision
was carried out.
What are the implications of this scenario for the history of the Order
of the nuns? Does it mean that this list contained a kind of “historical
24. A similar explanation was offered by Ñāṇamoli (2005, 1356, fn. 1291): “We might resolve
the discrepancy (unnoticed by the commentator) by supposing that the original discourse
was later modified after the founding of the Bhikkhunī Saṅgha to bring the latter into the
scheme of offerings to the Saṅgha.”
44 women in early indian buddhism
25. For this alternative explanation I am indebted to Bhikkhu Anālayo, with whom I had a
series of elucidating discussions during the XVIth conference of the International Associa-
tion of Buddhist Studies, held in Jinshan, New Taipei City, Taiwan in 2011.
Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhı̄ Manuscripts 45
when handling these texts. Repeatedly we face the fact that two of our sup-
posedly most valuable sources of early Buddhist literature—and valuable
because they are old witnesses—are characterized by obvious traces of a
later revision. Without consulting their parallels in other Buddhist tradi-
tions it is quite dangerous to draw any historically reliable conclusions on
the basis of the evidence of a single text, even one as old as a Gandhāran
sūtra.
2
The British Library
Kharoṣ ṭ hˉı Fragments
behind the birch bark curtain
Timothy Lenz
one question that has arisen during the study of the avadāna texts
contained in the British Library collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts,
namely, “Where are the women in Gandhāran Buddhist texts?,” has
opened up an especially interesting avenue of inquiry.1 This question, ini-
tially articulated by Sonya Quintanilla, curator of Asian art at the San
Diego Museum of Art,2 was raised several years before the recent prolif-
eration of Gāndhārī manuscripts available for examination by experts in
the fields of Gāndhārī language and literature.3 Thus when the question
was first entertained, the existence of Gandhāran texts especially associ-
ated with woman, such as the Bajaur fragment containing a Gāndhārī
version of the well-known story about Mahāprajāpatī’s robe gift to the
Buddha,4 was little on the minds of scholars examining Gandhāran liter-
ary documents. Accordingly no definitive answer was offered when the
1. An early version of this paper was presented at the XVIth conference of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies, held in Jinshan, New Taipei City, Taiwan in 2011.
2. This question was posed at the XIVth conference of the International Association of Bud-
dhist Studies, held in London in 2005.
3. For discussion of recent manuscript discoveries, see Mark Allon (2007, 131–41).
4. For a thorough description of the Bajaur collection, see Ingo Strauch (2008, 103–36); for
discussion of the Mahāprajāpatī legend, see Strauch’s chapter in this volume (chapter one).
British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 47
question was raised. But now, after carefully searching the British Library
collection for stories that primarily concern women and after significant
research on manuscripts in the British Library collection has been com-
pleted, it is possible to shed light on some women, both legendary and
historical, who might have made their mark in the Gandhāran Buddhist
milieu. The picture that has so far emerged is that women did play a fairly
prominent and noble role in Gandhāran Buddhism, at least in the avadāna
texts preserved in the British Library collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts
and in the pot inscriptions associated with these documents.
The now well-known British Library collection of Kharoṣṭhī manu-
scripts was acquired in 1994 with the generous support of an anonymous
benefactor. The collection itself consists of twenty-nine birch bark scrolls
containing texts written in Gāndhārī Prakrit using the Kharoṣṭhī script
(Salomon 1999, xv). The fragmentary scrolls differ widely in size and con-
dition of preservation, ranging from small pieces to fairly large sections of
scrolls as long as two meters (Salomon 1999, 17). The texts that comprise
the collection are varied, including sūtras, scholastic commentaries,
verses, and, of course, avadānas, the texts that are of immediate concern
here (Salomon 1999, 24–39). There are seven or eight fragmentary scrolls
in the collection containing avadāna texts. These documents consist of
sequentially numbered series of stories that are invariably the second text
on scrolls containing two texts. The avadāna texts are located immediately
after the conclusion of a primary text such as a sūtra or abhidharma-like
commentary, which is indicated by a large circular punctuation mark
utilizing the blank space on the recto and continuing on and presumably
filling all of the verso (Fig. 2.1). The individual avadānas are unfortunately
not extensive narratives such as those found in Sanskrit texts like the
Avadānaśataka or the Divyāvadāna.5 Rather, each Gandhāran avadāna is a
skeleton story, providing little more than a title or label, the identity of the
protagonists, and one or more key scenes that serve to define the plot,
provided the reader already knows the story.
The seven or eight different scrolls with numbered series of avadānas
collectively contain approximately fifty-two individual stories6 of varying
5. See chapter nine of this volume for a study of avadāna stories from the Avadānaśataka.
6. BL Fragment 1 contains 10 (= 1/10), 2/5, 3/3, 4/17, 21/1, Supplementary Fragments/1,
12 + 14/9, and 16 + 25/6. See Timothy Lenz (2003, part II, and 2010) for discussion concern-
ing all the fragments except 4 and 12 + 14, which are currently being editing in collaboration
with Jason Neelis.
48 women in early indian buddhism
figure 2.1 Transition between the Ekottarikāgama-type sūtra text and a series of
avadānas (BL Fragment 12 + 14). © British Library Board (detail of Or.14915. 28).
figure 2.2 Greater Gandhāra. From Richard Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls
from Gandhāra, map 1. © British Library Board.
figure 2.3 British Library pot D with manuscripts inside. From Richard Salomon,
Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra, pl. 5. © British Library Board.
50 women in early indian buddhism
figure 2.4 Comparison of handwriting: Big Hand on the left; Slanted Hand on
the right. © British Library Board (details of Or.14915.33 and 13).
It is not always clear what the agenda of these avadānists might have
been, as their avadānas are often quite brief and frequently fragmentary.
Thus, when attempting to use them to draw out images of women, it is
more often than not only possible to sketch faceless women who lack any
personality or obvious attributes that would clearly suggest some motive
for their stories’ inclusion in one or more of the Gandhāran avadāna texts.
And this is especially true for the two previously mentioned avadānas
concerning gaṇigas, as will be painfully obvious from the translations pre-
sented here. The two avadānas concerning prostitutes are drawn from
British Library Fragments 12 + 14, a series containing nine avadānas that
follows immediately after a triad of sūtras, dubbed the Three Gāndhārī
Ekottarikāgama-Type Sūtras by their editor, Mark Allon (2001):
Gaṇiga-avadāna 18
89. evo ṣuyadi nagare palaḍipu ? [tr. n.] ? ? ///
90. namo ganiga hovadi ◦ yavi ? ujani[ge] graha///(*vadi)
91. ca la ? ya muchido bh[u]mi parivartadi bhi ///
92. aryadharma praüṇ[idi vistare yas-a]///(*yupamano)
[89] Thus it was heard. In the city Pāṭaliputra . . . [90] . . . there was
a prostitute . . . by name. At that time, an Ujjaini householder
. . . [91] . . . fainted and rolled on the ground. [92] . . . attained the
noble dharma. The expansion (*should be) according to the
model.
Gaṇiga-avadāna 2
93. eva śruyadi [ga]niga [a] ? kṣo ? ///
94. ten[o] suta[ga]lo va matredi agaro [śa] ///
95. yadarthino nimatridago vistaro [ya](*s-a)y(*u) ///
[93] Thus it was heard. A prostitute . . . [94] . . . right at the time for
sleeping . . . said: “The abode . . .” [95] . . . then the suitor was
invited. The expansion (*should be) according to the model.
8. Line numbering here and elsewhere, unless noted otherwise, follows that assigned in
preliminary transcriptions produced but not previously published by Timothy Lenz and
Jason Neelis. The conventions of transcription are those used in the Gandhāran Buddhist
Texts series (University of Washington Press), which, as its name suggests, is dedicated to
the publication of Gāndhārī materials written in the Kharoṣṭhī script. The gaṇiga-avadānas
are currently being edited by Jason Neelis.
52 women in early indian buddhism
Mahakaṣava-avadāna
214. [ra]yagahami ṇagarami aïśpado mahakaśavasaśpasao ? ///
215. /// [pu]trago prio maṇa[vo] kṣati apaḍikulo darśaṇaā tasa
ṇacirajadasa pido kalagado ///
216. /// [uva]samada ṇa bahadi śi[kṣa]va〈*de〉ṇo yavi pramatro hodo
yavi sakṣiteno evo pramatro ///
217. /// ? ? ṇ. ? gami ramadi so avarakalami giriagrasamayi aramaṇo
año ga ? ///
218. /// ? ? [di a] ṇa bahiadi [va]raṇo yavi civaragami liṭhate mad(*o)
h(*o)do ///
219. (vi*)///praḍisari [hodo] so gado kaśavasa [va]di tado kaśave
dharmadeśaṇo kakarodi ///
220. /// ? + + + + + + + + ? [ma]geṇa ca kici dharm[i]-[ca] ? ? + + +.u
.o? ///
221. /// ? kilamehi abhavo aṣo pugalo dharmacakṣu upadaïdo ma[do]
///
222. /// .o ṣavagañaṇo ṇa asti ajanito asamav[a]jito ṣavagaso ñaṇo ṇa
vijadi ///
223. (*ṣa)///agoñaṇo vista[re] janidave siyadi ○ traya ◦ ◦ ◦ 3 ◦ ◦ (BL
Fragment 4)
[214] In the city of Rājagṛha, the venerable Mahakaṣava (*had) a
confidant. [215] The boy was dear, charming, patient, pleasant,
British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 53
and handsome. But not long after his birth, his father died. [216]
(*The boy) did not renounce his ordination, (*but) became care-
less with his moral vows. In short, he became careless (*with his
training). [217] . . . enjoyed. He enjoyed himself at a mountain
festival and (*partook of ) other (*pleasures). [218] (*Yet he did
not) renounce (*his monastic training). At another time then,
he met with misfortune on his monastic robe. He became sexu-
ally roused. (*Later), [219] he became remorseful. He went and
told Mahakaṣava (*everything). Then (*Maha)kaṣava gave a
lesson concerning the teachings of the Buddha. [220] . . . and by
the path some dharma . . . [221] . . . because of fatigue, it is not
possible for this person to generate the dharma eye. [222] . . .
(*And, therefore), the insight of a śrāvaka does not exist. It was
not produced. It was not attained. The insight of a śrāvaka is not
found. [223] . . . the insight of a śrāvaka. The expansion ought to
be known. (*Avadāna) three. 3.
Puniga-avadāna
73. puniga avadano vistara ka///(*ryamido)
74. evo śuyadi · anas-apiḍigasa grahavadisa puni[g.] ///
75. da bhagava rayeno p[r]asen[i]g[e]no matriadi budho [na uv](*e)
[ch]///(*adi)
76. ya sarv[e]ṣo grahavadino na uv[e]chadi puniga ? ? ///
77. vistare avadano ◦ 1 (BL Frag. 12 + 14)
[73] The Puniga Avadāna. The expansion (*is to be done thus) [i.e.,
according to the summary]. [74] Thus it was heard. Puniga (*was
the servant) of the householder Anāthapiṇḍika. [75] . . . the
Bhagavat was addressed by King Prasenajit. The Buddha did not
consider (*his request) [76] and he did not consider (*the re-
quest) of any of the householders. Puniga (*addressed the
Buddha) [77] . . . expansion . . . avadāna. (*Avadāna) 1.11
The Gāndhārī avadāna is obscure in its terseness, but since the legend
of Puniga is known from several other versions, the skeleton story con-
tained in the Gāndhārī manuscript can be securely expanded. In his
Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, Malalasekara summarizes the version
of the legend given in Buddhaghosa’s commentary on the Aṅguttara-
nikāya, and this story facilitates a complete understanding of the
Gāndhārī:
On one occasion, when the Buddha was about to set out on a tour,
Anāthapiṇḍika and the other chief patrons of the Buddha, loath to
lose him for several months, begged him to remain with them. But
the Buddha declined this request, and Puṇṇā, seeing Anāthapiṇḍika
very dejected and learning the reason, offered to persuade the
Buddha to stay. So she approached him and said that she would
take the Three Refuges with the Five Precepts if he would postpone
11. The line numbers correspond to those in his Allon’s edition (see n. 17). My transcription
follows Allon’s, with the exception of the reconstruction of (*ryamido) in line 73. The trans-
lation is my own, differing from Allon’s in minor respects.
56 women in early indian buddhism
his tour. The Buddha at once agreed, and Puṇṇā was freed and ad-
opted as Anāthapiṇḍika’s daughter.12
Close comparison of the Gāndhārī with the Pāli leaves little doubt that an
expanded version of the Gandhāran avadāna would be more or less the
same as the Pāli vignette and accordingly one underlying message of both
can be confidently proclaimed: “women have the capacity, and indeed the
ability, to be faithful and influential lay devotees.” And here as an aside, I
would hazard a guess that the previously mentioned gaṇiga-avadānas
would fall under this or a similar rubric, though only subsequent manu-
script finds will substantiate such a hypothesis. In any case, the message
espoused by both the Pāli and Gāndhārī legends is hardly a surprising or
radical one, for the Buddhist tradition lays claim to quite a number of ad-
mirable laywomen, Mṛgāramātā (Viśākhā) to name but one. Being a faith-
ful lay devotee is, however, not the pinnacle of Buddhist achievements for
either men or women, and the micro portion of the Gandhāran tradition
under examination here, namely, the Gandhāran avadānas from Haḍḍa,
do not maintain that it is. This is made especially clear in a Gandhāran
version of a legend about King Aśoka and the women of his harem:
12. In Malalasekara 1998, 227–28 (s.v. Puṇṇā Therī); see also Allon (2001, 303–4). The
legend as it appears in the Aṅguttara-nikāya commentary (Manorathapūraṇī) is as follows:
Rājā Pasenadi-kosalo Anāthapiṇḍiko gahapati Visākhā mahā-upāsikā aññe ca bahujanā
Dasabalaṃ nivattetuṃ nāsakkhiṃsu. Anāthapiṇḍiko gahapati “satthāraṃ nivettetuṃ nāsakkhin”
ti raho citayamāno sisīdi. Atha naṃ Puṇṇā nāma dāsī disvā “kin nu kho te sāmi na pubbe viya
indriyāni vippasannānī” ti pucchi. “Ama Puṇṇe, satthā cārikaṃ pakkanto, tam ahaṃ nivattetuṃ
nāsakkhiṃ; na kho pana sakkā jānituṃ puna sīghaṃ āgaccheyya vā na vā, tenāhaṃ cintayamāno
nisinno” ti. “Sacāhaṃ Dasabalaṃ nivatteyyaṃ, kiṃ me kareyyāsī” ti. “Bhujjassaṃ taṃ
karissāmī” ti. Sā gantvā satthāraṃ vanditvā “nivattatha bhante” ti āha. “Mama nivattanapaccayā
tvaṃ kiṃ karissasī” ti. “Tumhe bhante mama parādhīnabhāvaṃ jānātha, aññaṃ kiñci kātuṃ
na sakkomi; saraṇesu pana patiṭṭhāya pañcasīlāni rakkhissāmī” ti. “Sādhu sādhu Puṇṇe” ti
satthā dhammagāravena ekapadasmiññeva nivatti. Vuttaṃ h’etaṃ: dhammagaru bhikkhāve
Tathāgato dhammagāravo ti. Satthā nivattitvā Jetavana-mahāvihāraṃ pāvisi. Mahājano
Puṇṇāya sādhukārasahassāni adāsi. Satthā tasmiṃ samāgame dhammaṃ desesi. Caturāsīti
pāṇasahassāni amatapānaṃ piviṃsu. Puṇṇā pi seṭṭhinā anuññātā bhikkhunī-upassayaṃ
gantvā pabbaji. (AN-a IV, 34–35)
British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 57
13. The monk is identified by age in order to emphasize his elderliness against the presum-
ably young age of his female pupils. A thirty-rain-retreat monk would probably not be a
temptation to the young maidens in King Aśoka’s harem, and, therefore, Aśoka probably
would be confident that his prohibition of contact between the women and the monk pre-
ceptor (alluded to in line 228) would not be abrogated.
58 women in early indian buddhism
王聞是已於佛法中倍生敬心。而作是言。嗚呼佛法。大力世尊厭
生死道。嗚呼佛法。有信向者皆得解。何以知之。女人淺智尚
能解悟。過六師故。我今向阿耨多羅調御丈夫坊處生歸依心。南
無救一切眾生大悲者開甘露法。男女長幼等同修行。
若謂女人解 名為淺近者 諸餘深智人 敬尚方能悟 (T 4
no. 201 (大莊嚴論經) 286b)15
When he (*Aśoka) heard (*his concubine), he greatly increased his
respect in the teachings of the Buddha and said: “Oh, the teachings
of the Buddha. The Tamer of Men, the Bhagavan, detested saṃsāra
with great force. Oh, the teachings of the Buddha. Those who ap-
proach it with faith, attain deliverance. How does one know this?
Because even women whose intelligence is shallow can comprehend
it and because it has subdued the six heretical teachers. I now take
refuge in the abode of the dharma and in the hero without equal.
Homage to the compassionate one who saves all living beings, to the
one who has proclaimed the elixir of the dharma with which men
and women and elders and youths ought to practice these teachings.”
“If someone says that the dharma is shallow because someone says
that a woman can understand it, then people with deep profound
intelligence will only be able to realize the teaching with great re-
spect . . .”16
14. There are Sanskrit fragments containing some pregnant phrases such as yeṣāṃ su[bh]
(*āṣitarasā)yanabrṃhitāni striṇā(*m) = ma[hī]., but due to the poor state of their preserva-
̊
tion the precise nature of the conclusion in the Sanskrit version remains obscure. See
Lüders 1926, 153.
15. A French translation of this story can be found in Huber 1908, 150–57.
16. Thanks go to Lin Qian for improving the translation.
British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 59
Though there are only five Gandhāran avadānas concerning women, and
of those only two that are understood more or less completely, the image
of women that the group of stories as a whole projects appears to me to be
quite a favorable one, something that is made especially clear in the leg-
ends of Puṇiga and of Aśoka and the women of his harem. And this favor-
able depiction of women is, interestingly enough, mirrored in inscrip-
tions. There are five water pots (Fig. 2.5) associated with the British Library
figure 2.5 British Library pot B with inscription. © British Library Board (cf.
Richard Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra, pls. 24–25; figs. 24–27).
60 women in early indian buddhism
This water pot is the pious gift of Vasavadata [Skt. Vāsavadattā], wife
of Susoma, for the benefit of her own health. May it be for a proper
share on the part of (her) mother and father, for a proper share on
the part of [all beings], for a proper share on the part of her friends,
kinsmen, and blood relatives (Salomon 1999, 198).
This water pot [is] the pious gift of Viratata, wife of Srvahiama; [she]
presents [it] to the universal community at Rayagaha (Skt. Rājagṛha),
in the possession of the Sarvāstivādin teachers, who teach actions,
who teach energy, who teach causation . . . , (who teach karma), . . .
(Salomon 1999, 205).
Thus, it would seem that in ancient Haḍḍa women were actively deemed
capable of attaining the fruits of the Buddha’s teachings (e.g., the
dharmacakṣu) and were important and prominent lay supporters of the
monastic community. But curiously, the laudable Buddhist potential of
women and their important role as donors might not have led to vibrant
support for a community of nuns. In the micro world of Buddhist docu-
ments from Haḍḍa, nuns are mentioned only once. Hastadata, the afore-
mentioned donor of one of the water pots in the British Library collection
(pot E), saw fit to include one nun in the list of recipients mentioned on
her donated pot (translated above). But in any case, now that some depic-
tions can be made of laywomen peeking out from behind Haḍḍa’s “birch
bark curtain,” the significant role of lay women, if not of nuns, in one area
of Gandhāra can be highlighted with both inscriptions and texts in a way
that was not possible prior to the recent and prolific expansion of the once
meager collection of Gāndhārī literary documents that were available for
scholarly inspection (See Salomon 1999, 57–68; see also Allon 2007
131–41).
3
Paˉli Vinaya
reconceptualizing female sexuality
in early buddhism
Alice Collett
1. In the Aṅguttara-nikāya (4.80 at II 82–83), Ānanda asks the Buddha why women do not sit
on courts of justice, embark on business, or reach the essence of any deed. The Buddha replies
by listing certain negative characteristics of women such as that they are, by nature, weak in
wisdom, uncontrollable, greedy, and envious. In the Saṃyutta-nikāya (3.16 at I.86), the Buddha
is talking to King Pasenadi when the king hears his wife has given birth to a daughter. The king
is disappointed by the news, but the Buddha tells him that women too can be wise and virtuous.
The well-known verse attributed to Somā in the Therīgāthā (verses 60–62 at 129–30) raises the
question as to whether male and female nature is of any relevance to one treading the path.
2. Many of the Therīgāthā verses contain expressions that suggest the nuns—to whom the
verses are attributed—had attained Awakening. Also see the Mahāvacchagotta-sutta (MN 73 at
I 491), which reports the Buddha stating that he had far more than 500 arahant nuns and far
more than 500 laywomen followers who had become non-returners. The most quoted verse on
the topic of women’s inability is the verse connected with Somā (see chapter six of this volume.
The verse also appears in the Thī v.60). This assertion that women lack the ability to advance
because of their dull intellect is put into the mouth of Māra, who, Anālayo argues in chapter
six, may represent “challenges posed by outsiders to members of the Buddhist community.”
Pāli Vinaya 63
6. See the introduction to this volume, pages 5–6, for references to the history of the debate
in modern scholarship.
7. Saṃyutta Nikāya (5.1 at I, 128) sattisūlūpamā kāmā khandhāsaṃ adhikuṭṭanā yaṃ tvaṃ
kāmaratiṃ brūsi arati mayha.
8. The “man” is Māra, in the guise of a human male.
Pāli Vinaya 65
found that portrays men as sexual predators and women as either pas-
sively consenting or trying (and sometimes failing) to repel male advances.
Evidence of women as passive and responsive in sexual situations and
potential sexual situations can be found in the Pāli Vinaya. The present
study of the saṅghādisesa rules in the Pāli Vinaya highlights that the differ-
ences between the rules for monks and those for nuns, and the stories
behind each rule, indicate different sexual behaviors of monks and nuns
and men and women and allude to differences in male and female
sexuality. It can be ascertained from a study of these rules that, on the
whole, male sexuality is represented as aggressive, potent, and proactive,
while female sexuality is passive and responsive. While there are some
indications in other sections of the Pāli Vinaya that women did experience
sexual desire, such as in the pācittiya rules (3, 4, and 5) on female mastur-
bation, there are less instances of women actively seeking out sex than
there are of women responding to the sexual behavior of others. Rather
than the rules and origin stories revealing women with voracious sexual
appetites who are intent upon as much sexual activity as possible, when-
ever they can and with whomever they can, it is instead the men’s attempts
to persuade, cajole, and manipulate women into sex acts with them that
stand out.
-
Saṅghadisesa - Vinaya
rules in the Pali
Saṅghādisesa rules are the second group of rules in vinaya texts. The first
are the pārājikas, the most serious offences by which one is usually per-
manently expelled from the saṅgha.9 Breach of a saṅghādisesa rules is less
serious. The consequences of committing a saṅghādisesa offense is not
fixed. If a monk or nun commits such an act, a formal meeting of the
saṅgha must take place in order to determine what sort of consequences
would be most fitting in each instance. In the Pāli Vinaya nuns have sev-
enteen saṅghādisesa rules, ten of which are specific to them and seven of
which are the same as the rules for monks. Monks have thirteen, so not all
of theirs apply to the nuns. Of the nuns’ saṅghādisesa rules that- relate to
sex acts or sexuality, only one is shared with monks. There are four rules
9. See Clarke (2009a) on a pārājika story missing from the Pāli but in all other extant vi-
nayas. Clarke highlights that inclusion of this story can lead to a different, and lesser, form
of punishment for transgression of the first pārājika. According to this story, permanent
expulsion from the saṅgha is not the only result of committing the first offense.
66 women in early indian buddhism
for nuns that specifically relate to sex, although, as is the case with other
classes of rules, other of the rules can be applied to or come out of situa-
tions relating to sex. For monks there are five saṅghādisesa rules specifi-
cally to do with sex.
As noted in the introduction to this volume, the extant Pāli Vinaya is
structured so that monks’ rules and accompanying stories appear first,
and the nuns’ sections follows that. Any rules for nuns that apply to both
monks and nuns are not repeated in the nuns’ Suttavibhaṅga. So, for ex-
ample, in the nuns’ saṅghādisesa section there are only ten rules, as the
seven they share with monks are not repeated. As noted by Horner (see
the introduction to this volume, page 3–4), the extant structure to the Pāli
Vinaya, with the nuns’ rules after those for monks, may not have been the
original structure. Horner asserts this on the basis of two pieces of evi-
dence: a fragment of a Tibetan text and the (mis-)placement of the inde-
clinable pi. Further evidence for her argument comes at the beginning
and end of most sections of the extant nuns’ Suttavibhaṅga. With the ex-
ception of the first section on pārājikas, each section both begins and ends
with a summary line or passage which details the rules to be recited or
which have been told.10 For example, the concluding paragraph in the
nuns’ pārājika section—concluding the telling of four pārājikas, as the
four the nuns share with monks do not appear—the text reads: “Told,
Venerable Ones, are the eight offenses involving defeat” (uddiṭṭhā kho
ayyāya aṭṭha pārājikā dhammā, Vin. IV, 222). At the beginning of the sec-
tion on saṅghādisesa rules we find: “Venerable Ones, these seventeen rules
come up for recitation” (ime kho pan’ ayyāyo sattarasa saṃghādisesā dhammā
uddesaṃ āgacchanti, Vin. IV, 223), and to conclude that section, “Told,
Venerable Ones, are the seventeen saṅghādisesa rules” (udditthā kho ayyāyo
sattarasa saṃghādisesā dhammā, Vin. IV, 242), when, in fact, only ten rules
have been detailed, as the seven that apply to both monks and nuns have
not been repeated. In the extant Pāli Vinaya, it is not stated which of the
seven missing saṅghādisesa rules for nuns are the seven that they share
with monks, but Buddhaghosa does enumerate these in his commentary
to the Pāli Vinaya. According to Buddhaghosa, the monks’ saṅghādisesa
rules that also apply to nuns are rule number 5 and rules 8–13. Buddhag-
hosa’s commentary is obviously a late text, but if we compare his classifica-
tion with the full list of saṅghādisesa rules for nuns in the other extant
-
Saṅghadisesa - vinaya
rules for monks in the Pali
Saṅgha-disesa 3: Not to speak inappropriately about sex
This Suttavibhaṅga rule is said to have been made because of Venerable
Udāyin. His dwelling was particularly picturesque, and many women
came to Anāthapiṇḍika’s park to see it. It was while showing women the
toilets that he would speak inappropriately to them about sex, and engage-
in other reproachable speech. The text does not detail exactly what it is he
is supposed to have said and simply recounts that after showing them the
toilets, he “spoke in praise and spoke in blame, he begged and implored,
asked and inquired, related, exhorted, and abused.”12 It is initially the
-
Saṅghadisesa 4: Not to try to persuade a woman to engage in
sexual intercourse
This is perhaps the most illustrative of the rules under discussion on the
question of male and female sexuality. Udāyin is again the culprit here,
and in this case he speaks inappropriately to a laywoman when she asks
him what the monks need and offers the usual donations. He tells her
these items are plentiful and that a better offering would be to offer herself
to him for sex, as this is hard to come by for monks. The origin story for
this rule is as follows:
At one time the Buddha, the Blessed One, was staying at Sāvatthī in
the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika’s park. At that time the venerable
Udāyin was dependent on families in Sāvatthī [for alms], and he
approached many families. At that time there was a certain woman
who was a beautiful, good-looking, lovely widow. Then, the vener-
able Udāyin, rising in the morning and taking his bowl and robe, he
approached that woman’s dwelling, and having approached he sat
down on the appointed seat. Then the woman approached the
venerable Udāyin; having approached and having greeted the ven-
erable Udāyin she sat down to one side. The venerable Udāyin in-
structed, roused, enthused, and delighted with talk on dhamma this
woman who was seated to his side. Then this woman, delighted
with talk on dhamma, said to the venerable Udāyin:
“Do say, Venerable One, what [will be] of benefit? We are able to
give to the noble one the requisites of robes, alms-bowl, lodgings,
and medicines for illness.”
“Sister, these are not hard for us to come by, that is, the requisites
of robes, alms-bowl, lodgings and medicines for illness. You should
give us what is hard to come by.”
“What is that, Venerable One?”
“Sexual intercourse.”
“[Will it be] of benefit, Venerable One?”
“[It will be] of benefit, Sister.”
“Come, Venerable One”. Entering the inner room, she took off
her outer garment and lay back on the bed. Then the venerable
Udāyin approached her. Having approached, he said, “Who would
touch this foul-smelling wretch?” and he departed spitting.
Then this woman became enraged, angry, annoyed and said,
“These renouncers, sons of the Sakyan, are without shame, of low
morality, liars. They pretend to be dhamma-farers, possessing tran-
quillity, living a holy life, speakers of the truth, virtuous, of good
conduct. Among them, there is no renunciation, no leading of a
holy life. Among them, renunciation is lost, the holy life destroyed.
Where is renunciation among them? Where is holiness among
them? Fallen from renunciation are these, fallen from the holy life.
How can the wanderer Udāyin, having himself begged me for
sexual intercourse, say ‘Who would touch this foul-smelling
wretch?’ and depart spitting? What in me is evil? What in me is
foul-smelling? In what am I inferior to whom?” Other women
Pāli Vinaya 71
In the narrative on the origin of this rule, we can see that, although
the laywoman agrees to the monk’s request, they do not then engage in
the sexual intercourse. Udāyin has a sudden change of heart when the
moment comes, instead turning on the woman and verbally abusing her.
This event appears somewhat incongruent, given the foregoing intent of
the monk, and is not specified in the rule, which is simply that monks
should not manipulate women into having sex with them by telling them
that it is the highest gift they can give. However, although not specified in
the rule, it is necessary for the making of it. Each of the addenda that
follow are about a monk attempting to persuade a woman to have sex with
him by making this same claim, that offering sex is an exalted “gift.” But
in no case does sex ensue. If it did, of course, the issue at hand would not
be the attempted persuasion, but rather the question—dealt with already
in the Suttavibhaṅga—of sexual activity, which comes under pārājika of-
fences rather than saṅghādisesa. Thus, Udāyin’s sudden disgust for the
woman he had just attempted to seduce, a woman, it would appear, he had
Pāli Vinaya 73
his eye on for some time, helps the narrative polemic reach its goal: to
conclude with a rule about manipulation of women by monks swept up by
carnal urges.
There is no opposite of this rule in the nuns’ saṅghādisesa, a fact
which, while an argument ex silencio, suggests that nuns were not in the
habit of trying to persuade men to have sex with them. However, accounts
of laywomen—but not nuns—who appear to be sexual aggressors do
occur in some of the supplemental stories to the first pārājika rule on
abstention from sexual intercourse. These stories recount women accost-
ing monks who were sleeping or napping and sexually assaulting them.
In two of these instances, it is stated that the woman in question acted in
this way because she was of the view that offering sex to monks is the
highest gift to offer them. In the first of these two instances, the text
reads:
Now, at that time, in Rājagaha, there was a female lay disciple called
Supabbā, who had faith in the Buddha. She held this view: whoever
offers sexual intercourse [to a monk], she gives the highest gift.
(Vin. III, 39)18
It would seem, then, from the story of Udāyin above, that the reason cer-
tain women were of this view is because the monks were encouraging it.
In one other instance, when a group of women sexually assault a sleeping
monk, they are said to do so out of desire for sexual gratification. On one
other occasion, after sexually assaulting a monk, the woman in question
laughs at him. On this occasion, it would appear that the sexual assault
was an attempt to humiliate the monk. None of the other recounted epi-
sodes specify why it is that women sexually assault or accost the monks.
Therefore, it is not possible to ascertain whether the women acted in this
way maliciously, to humiliate monks, whether they did so out of sexual
desire, or whether they sat on top of the sleeping monks in order to per-
form sex acts because they believed that to do so was a way to offer monks
what they desired. As motive is only mentioned in four of the nine in-
stances recounted, and the latter motive is mentioned more than the
others—on two occasions rather than one—a conclusion that the outlined
18. Tena kho samayena rājagahe supabbā nāma upāsikā buddhappasannā hoti, sā evaṃ diṭṭhikā
hoti yā methunaṃ dhammaṃ deti sā aggadānaṃ detīti.
74 women in early indian buddhism
-
Saṅghadisesa 2: Not to engage in bodily contact with a woman
This rule is as follows:
This rule for monks is similar to a pārājika rule for nuns, as follows:
It also bears some resemblance to another pārājika rule for nuns, although
this one is closer to a pācittiya rule for monks:
Whatever nun, filled with desire, for the sake of indulging in that
which is not dhamma, should consent to holding the hand of a man
filled with desire or should consent to holding the edge of his outer
cloak or should stand with or talk to or should go for a rendezvous
with or should consent to a man’s approaching (her) or should enter
a concealed place or should dispose of the body for such a purpose,
she also becomes one who is defeated, she is no longer in commu-
nion, being a doer of eight things (Bhikkhunīvibhaṅga pārājika 4 at
Vin. IV, 220).
As pārājika rules are most severe for women who commit the transgres-
sion of intentionally coming into bodily contact with a man for the sake of
sexual arousal, that woman is to be, according to the text, permanently
Pāli Vinaya 75
expelled from the saṅgha. However, if a monk acts in the same way the
consequences for him are less. A monk is not expelled from the commu-
nity for such behaviour. Commenting on this situation, scholars such as
In Young Chung (1999, 34–7) and Juo-Hsüeh Shih (2000, 172–3) highlight
this as testimony to the harsher treatment of women as opposed to men
in Buddhist vinayas. In both of the pārājika rules, the causative of the verb
sad is used in the optative (sādiyeyye) meaning “to permit, yield, consent.”
In the first of the two pārājikās it is used once at the end of the rule, imply-
ing that the rule is to be enforced if the nun consents to being touched,
caressed, et cetera. In the second of the pārājikās it is used three times: in
relation to consenting to hand-holding, to consenting to touching the
clothes of another, and consenting to the man approaching her. Conversely,
there is no language denoting yielding or consent on the part of the
monks, suggesting instead that the monk is the active one in the interac-
tion—not simply one who is permitting or consenting to contact, but
rather one who is initiating.
Shih notes that this difference, the use of the word meaning “consent”
in the nuns’ versions of the rule, is particular to the Pāli. In the vinayas of
other schools the word for “consent” does not occur in either monks’ or
nuns’ rules; therefore Shih concludes that it is “of no significance” (2000,
214). I have, nevertheless, included mention of it for two reasons: first,
because the origin story in relation to this first pārājika rule in the Pāli is
concerned with the issue of consent. Although the two protagonists in the
story—the nun Sundarīnandā and the builder Sāḷha—fall in love, it is the
layman who conspires to get Sundarīnandā alone with him. Her offense is
simply that she consents. The second story, however, which is exception-
ally brief, is concerned with nuns who act out of their own sexual desire.
But the story is little more than a statement that a group of nuns were
behaving inappropriately, followed by the ruling. Further, in considering
the relevance of the use of the word for “consent,” recent comparative
study of vinaya and other literature is suggestive of some differences in
relation to views about or portrayals of women between the early schools
of Buddhism.19
19. See for example Anālayo (2008) and also his study of a Tibetan version of the story of
Dhammadinnā, in which Dhammadinnā herself approaches the Buddha, as opposed to the
Pāli version, in which her interlocutor, Visākha, reports their conversation to the Buddha
(2011a:17).
76 women in early indian buddhism
-
Saṅghadisesa - Vinaya
rules for nuns in the Pali
Saṅgha-disesa 3: Not to go to the village alone, cross the river
alone, stay away at night alone, stay behind in a group
In this nuns’ rule, four specific instances are recounted that lead to a four-
fold rule being made. First, an unnamed nun quarrels with other nuns so
goes alone to see her relatives in a neighboring village. The issue is with
her having gone alone. When the other nuns who have been dispatched
to find her come across her they ask if she was violated. She replies that
she was not but, nevertheless, a rule is made forbidding nuns to do this
due to an apparently strong possibility they will be sexually assaulted if
they travel alone. The next section concerns two nuns traveling together
and their experience of coercion by a boatman who tells them he cannot
take them both across the river at the same time; they must go one at a
time. Once separated, each nun is violated. A rule is made that not only
must nuns not travel to villages alone, but they must not cross rivers
Pāli Vinaya 77
alone. Third, a man conspires to get alone a certain nun, who is part of a
group staying overnight in his village. A rule is made that nuns must not
be away from the group overnight. Last, a nun stays behind from a group
to defecate. This very temporary separation was enough for her to be
accosted and violated, so a rule was made that nuns must not stay behind
a group.
The form of this rule is different from those discussed so far. With
the other rules, in each case the story is concerned with a monk or nun
behaving in a way considered inappropriate. In this instance, the obvi-
ous culprits are not the nuns who suffered abuse and mistreatment, but
rather the men who attempted to seduce, coerce, and manipulate in
order to either bring about situations of consensual sex or who sexually
assaulted the nuns. A superficial reading of this rule might suggest that,
as the nuns are the ones who are admonished for their actions, they are
being held responsible for the actions done to them—essentially, being
blamed for being sexually assaulted. However, this goes against the
grain of the majority of vinaya rules, which deem an action an offense if
it is intentionally done. In this rule, nuns are not being admonished for
engaging in sex acts, but rather for putting themselves in dangerous or
potentially dangerous situations. Other rules in the vinayas are preven-
tative and protective, and a similar rule for monks is found in pācittiya
10. In the story, the monk Anuruddha agrees to sleep on a couch in a
woman’s house alone with her, which results in him having to rebuff her
advances. The rule is made that monks should not, at night, lie down
near a woman. The punishment for transgression of this offense is
lighter than for the nuns in the saṅghādisesa rule, but this could be be-
cause the consequences of not adhering to the monks’ rule—having to
fight off amorous advances—is much less severe than in two of the cases
for nuns, which resulted in sexual assault. Although in the pācittiya rule
laywomen making sexual advances to monks is attested to again, the
nuns’ rule exposes an aggressive, and in two instances violent, male
sexuality.
This is the first rule specifically concerned with nuns rather than
monks, but here we do not see a reversal of the trend identified thus far.
So far, monks have acted and women responded, and here the change is
not in that sexual dynamic, but only in who is the ordained and who the
layperson. Here laymen act, and nuns attempt to respond or are subjected
to unwanted events, in two instances being subjected to sexual assault and
in the other having to fend off male advances.
78 women in early indian buddhism
20. Saṅghādisesa 5 and 6 have recently been translated by Shih (2000, 99–109).
Pāli Vinaya 79
instances at least, such behavior is again responsive; the women are re-
sponding to their perceived idea that offering sex to monks is the highest
gift they can give as laywomen.
Setting the above rules alongside each other, we can conclude the fol-
lowing: for monks, the basic admonitions are that they should not speak
inappropriately to women about sex, try to pursue women to have sex with
them, come into bodily contact with a woman, or act as go-betweens in
sexual encounters. For nuns, they should not come into bodily contact
with a man, put themselves in dangerous situations in which they might
be sexually assaulted, respond inappropriately to men who display sexual
intent, or act as go-betweens. Thus, in this set of rules the indicators are
clear—men actively seek sex and women need to be aware of the potential
danger of male sexuality, not encourage it, and ensure they keep them-
selves out of harm’s way. As mentioned above, in other parts of the Pāli
Vinaya there are examples of active and healthy male and female desire,
and other examples of mutual consent, but here the case is unequivocal—
men are the ones with the more potent and potentially dangerous sexual
appetites.
4
Mahaˉsaˉṅghika-Lokottaravaˉda
Bhikṣ uṇ ˉı Vinaya
the intersection of womanly virtue
and buddhist asceticism
1. I would like to sincerely thank Bhikkhu Anālayo and Alice Collett for their help with this
essay. In addition to detailed and patient editing, Professor Collett contributed a number of
substantive clarifications at key places in the text. Any mistakes are, of course, my own.
2. For a complete French translation, see Nolot 1991. Akira Hirakawa (1982) has translated
the entire Chinese nuns’ Vinaya of the Mahāsāṅghika school into English. There are many
differences in detail between this text and that of the Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravādin school,
but structurally, the two are very similar. See also J. W. de Jong (1974, 63–70), Hüsken
(1997b, 202–37), von Hinüber (1994, 109–22).
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 81
typically report to the monks, who bring the matter to the attention of the
Buddha. Although meetings between the Lord Buddha (bhagavān) and
Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī do occur in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the
monks often play an intermediary role.5 In the Mahāsāṅghika-
Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya, on the other hand, Mahāprajāpatī main-
tains her right of access to the Lord, bringing almost all matters of
discipline to his attention personally (Roth 1970, xl).
This vinaya text differs from others in another significant way: it con-
tains one gurudharma for nuns that does not appear elsewhere, except in the
Chinese Mahāsāṅghika Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya (Nolot 1991, 534–35, Roth 1970,
xxx–xxxi, Hirakawa 1982, 83–85). By combining the gurudharma that nuns
may not admonish monks with another that states that nuns may not rebuke
monks, the Lokottaravādins have made room for the new gurudharma while
still keeping the total number at eight.6 The additional dharma forbids nuns
from accepting donations of food, clothing, and shelter first from lay people
who have not yet donated anything to the monks. According to the exposi-
tion of the rule, the issue at stake is not the overall amount donated to the
monks’ versus the nuns’ community, but simply the order of giving. Thus,
the Lord assures Mahāprajāpatī that “If the assembly of nuns causes even as
much as one bowl of rice to be offered to the assembly of monks, then,
should it accept even hundred-flavor food, this does not constitute a fault.”
Similarly, if the nuns cause so much as a bamboo platform or cow-dung hut
to be donated to the monks, then should they accept even a bed of white
sandalwood or a seven-story monastic building, there is no fault.
5. According to Anālayo, the other vinayas resemble the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya in the
number of reported meetings between Mahāprajāpatī and the Buddha (Anālayo 2008,
116–17 n. 59).
6. Nolot (1991, 534–35) points out that this is done by attaching the commentary usually as-
sociated with the gurudharma forbidding nuns to abuse monks (ākroṣṭum) to the gurud-
harma forbidding nuns to admonish monks (vacanapatho).
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 83
7. Roth (1970), §90 antamasato khayu[?]kā maṃcaṃ. Em. antamasato khaṭvā maṃcaṃ.
84 women in early indian buddhism
8. See Tatia (1976, 5.26–6.4), Roth (1979, 321), Prebish (1996b, 48). This list is not unique
to the Mahāsāṅghika Lokottaravādin tradition. According to Anālayo, the different vinayas
“agree fairly closely on a listing of ten benefits to be expected from the rules” (Personal com-
munication, 3/8/2012). For the ten reasons in the Pāli Vinaya, see page 72 in the previous
chapter of this volume.
9. Staying very close to this traditional interpretation, Karma Lekshe Tsomo (1996, 4, 8)
suggests that vinaya recitation was for the purpose of “maintain[ing] the standards of behav-
ior and ethical integrity of the order” and also comments on the primacy of śīla as the basis
of concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā).
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 85
with realizing four aims, two of which (promoting the unity of the com-
munity and cultivating the spiritual life) concur with the traditional
explanation mentioned above. The third and fourth aims he mentions,
managing lay-monastic interactions and safe-guarding the community’s
reputation, offer more possibilities for interpreting vinaya rules like gu-
rudharma 4. Still, up to this point, many scholarly discussions of
lay-monastic interactions, including the one Gethin offers, have focused
on the need for Buddhist monks and nuns to be clean and neatly dressed,
conduct themselves with dignity, and refrain from offending the laity.
Here, I would like to suggest that, important as they are, something
beyond unity, spiritual cultivation, etiquette, dignity, and hygiene are at
play in certain nuns’ rules. The Lokottaravādin Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya demon-
strates an additional concern that is unique to the female monastic
community: their occupation of a social location at the intersection of
womanly virtue and Buddhist asceticism.
Technically, what makes a nun different than an ordinary laywoman
can be clearly defined in terms of Buddhist monastic ritual. The glosses
for many nuns’ rules inform us that “‘Nun’ means an ordained woman.”10
While fully adequate to the social organization of the ordained community
itself, Buddhist ordination may not always have carried monastic women
safely past the rocky shoals of public scrutiny. Mari Jyväsjärvi has recently
completed an excellent study of rhetoric about female asceticism in the
medieval Buddhist commentarial tradition of Guṇaprabha, as compared
with a Jain monastic commentary and Brahmanical dharmaśāstra and lit-
erary traditions. Jyväsjärvi argues that female ascetics were viewed gener-
ally as women of “fragile virtue,” in need of protection, chastening, and
oversight. The male community saw themselves as obligated to step in as
their guardians.11 Though we address different layers of the textual tradi-
tion and somewhat different historical periods, I see the present study as
complementing Jyväsjärvi’s insights by suggesting that the social
vulnerability of Buddhist nuns (perceived and actual) derived not simply
from their public image as unguarded females of questionable virtue, but
also more generally from the fact that they were attempting to occupy a
frontier position at the intersection of two well-established social identi-
ties, those of “virtuous woman” and “Buddhist ascetic.” By all available
in relation to one another. Interestingly, the story is not about sexual tempta-
tion. Rather it concerns an old married couple who have together committed
themselves formally to the spiritual life. At mealtime, the woman stands by
her former husband, fanning him and pouring his water. They squabble
and, angered, she overturns the water pot onto his head, beats him with her
fan, and abuses him verbally. This scenario leads to the rule.
12. I have supplied this phrase, which has precedence in this vinaya, in order to clarify the
transition.
13. This text uses the terms peyālaṃ and pe to indicate ellipses. It is typical of vinaya texts to
abbreviate in this way. In this case, the reader is to supply the following phrase: sūpasampannā
traivācikena karmaṇā jñapti-caturthena anāghāta-pañcamena samagreṇa saṅghena ubhayataḥ
saṅghena iyaṃ bhikṣuṇī (pārājika dharma 1, Roth 1970, §114, 76). This translates as, “One
who is well ordained by the entire monastic community, by the twofold monastic commu-
nity by means of the threefold speech with a formal monastic resolution as the fourth, [and]
not struck down as the fifth, this is a nun.”
88 women in early indian buddhism
The commentary informs us that the rule does not apply if a nun wishes
to fan and serve her father or brother, or a group of monks collectively.
Despite the introductory narrative, it seems likely that a former husband
and wife reverting to their customary relationship at mealtime is viewed
as a problem for reasons beyond the potential for disagreement and abuse.
In any case, nuns’ abusing and scolding monks is proscribed by Guru-
dharma 3 in the Lokottaravādin Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya. The casuistry associated
with this rule also makes it clear that a nun fanning and serving water to
monks is not itself the problem since she may legally fan or serve her
father, brother, or a group of monks. Sexual tension also is not implicated.
The problem seems to come, rather, when the nun behaves in the tradi-
tional manner of a wife at mealtime, fanning and pouring water for her
actual husband, or a solitary monk who might be “husband material.”
This is a problem for nuns and their lawyers because, while nuns should
display female virtue, their virtue should not resemble that of a wife.14
This point is somewhat obscured by the way the scene is played for
laughs (and it often is in Buddhist vinaya literature) (see Schopen 2007 and
Clarke 2009b). Gartodara’s mother does not suffer fools gladly. Though she
14. Several rules for monks also may be aimed at dispelling any marital overtones in monk-
nun interactions. One of the four praṭinideśanīya dharmas (faults to be confessed) found in
the Pāli, Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravādin, and Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhikṣu-Prātimokṣas says that
monks should gently admonish nuns if they attempt to direct the feeding of monks at lay-
people’s houses. Another of the praṭinideśanīya dharmas forbids monks to accept, eat, and
enjoy food from the hands of a nun who has begged alms and who is not related to him
(Prebish 1996b, 94–95; Oldenberg and Rhys Davids, tr. [1882] 1991, 37).
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 89
performs the ritual functions of a devoted wife, the sincerity of her devotion
is clearly (and appropriately—she is a nun, after all) in doubt. She neither
defers nor submits nor reveres. In short, she is not feeling like a devoted
wife, merely nominally acting like one. This distinction, subtly emphasized
by the addition of a bit of rather unsubtle schtick, underlines my point: nuns
must not engage in what might be interpreted by fellow nuns, monks, or
passing townspeople as wifely behavior. The role of “wife” has no place in
their social portfolio. While their subjective states are also of concern, as
will eventually be made clear when we turn to an analysis of bhikṣuṇī
prakīrṇaka 31, subjectivity is not what is at issue in pācattika dharma 79.
The introductory story to pācattika dharma 84 describes a group of
nuns who, invited for a meal by the devout laywoman Viśākhā, return the
favor by cleaning, carding, and spinning her raw cotton. Viśākhā scolds
them, expressing her preference that they behave as specialized religious
rather than ordinary women. This scenario leads to the rule: “Should a nun
perform work for a householder, it is a transgression requiring expiation.”
15. peyālaṃ.
90 women in early indian buddhism
16. Roth (1970), §198, 222 āryamiśrakāhi, so obviously just the female noble ones, i.e., the
nuns.
17. Pācattika dharma 84 also forbids monks to perform work for a householder, although if
a monk does so, this constitutes a minor offense, not a fault requiring expiation.
18. Gregory Schopen notes a Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya rule prohibiting nuns from standing
in the door of the nunnery, as this behavior was apparently associated with prostitution. It is
at Kṣudrakavastu, Derge ‘dul ba Da 151a.5 (Schopen 2008, 237 n.14). See also Jyväsjärvi (2011,
241). Schopen also notes a series of scenarios in the same vinaya in which the nun
Sthūlanandā sets herself up in business as a tavern keeper, brothel madam, and, pimp, re-
sulting in rules regulating such behaviors (Schopen 2009, 259–380).
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 91
Indian Buddhist menstrual rules also exist within a broader cultural con-
text that ascribes ritual significance to female blood. This broader context
is apparent in bhikṣuṇī prakīrṇaka rules 16–18, which proscribe the wash-
ing of nuns’ āṇicolakas at public washing and bathing areas (tīrthas).
Pra. 16. 269. The Lord was staying at Śrāvastī. At that time, the
nuns were washing their menstrual cloths in the bathing place for
women. The women looked upon them with contempt, [saying],
“This entire place has been made impure by [their] blood.” [The
nuns briefed Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī] on the matter. [Mahāprajāpatī
Gautamī told the Lord.]23 The Lord said, “Therefore, it is not suit-
able to wash menstrual clothes in the women’s washing place. Re-
garding women’s washing places, a nun who washes her menstrual
cloth in the women’s washing place transgresses against monastic
discipline.” This is said regarding the women’s washing place.
Pra. 17. 270. The Lord was staying at Śrāvastī. The Lord pre-
scribed a moral precept. At that time, the nuns were washing their
menstrual cloths in the washing place for men. And so forth.24 A
nun who washes her menstrual cloth in the men’s washing place
transgresses against monastic discipline. This is said regarding the
men’s washing place.
Pra. 18. 271. The Lord was staying at Śrāvastī. [The nuns were to
wash their menstrual cloths] at the launderer’s washing place [and
so forth].25 The Lord said, “Therefore, it is not suitable to wash [your
menstrual cloths] at the launderer’s washing place. Rather, having
fetched water, they should be washed together in a basin, a pot, an
22. Skt. vraṇamukha. This term refers to the mouth the vagina.
23. pelāyaṃ.
24. pelāyaṃ. Here, the reader is to fill in the complaints of the bathers, and the chain of com-
munication reaching up to the Buddha.
25. Here the reader is supplied with even less information, but the scenario is easily inferred
from preceding passages.
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 93
26. Other vinaya rules about menstruation were apparently influenced by brāhmaṇa custom.
See, for instance, Ute Hüsken’s study (2001) of pācittiya 47 from the Pāli Vinaya. I discuss
vinaya menstrual rules more fully in forthcoming works.
27. In other vinayas, Sudinna is the well-known monk whose sexual lapse occasioned the
establishment of the first pārājika rule for monks. In the Mahāsāṅghika tradition, he is
known as Yaśas (email communication with Anālayo, 3/8/2012).
94 women in early indian buddhism
Sudinna’s brother claims levirate rights to her and pursues her through
the streets. At the beginning of the passage, she has taken refuge in the
home of a wealthy laywoman (Hirakawa 1982, 403).28
The kind woman dresses and adorns Sudinnā as if she were an affluent
housewife and surrounds her with servants. In this disguise, she is able to
28. Hirakawa identifies the man in question as Sudinnā’s uncle, but the Zhalu text clearly
indicates that he is her husband’s brother or devaro (Skt. devṛ).
29. Here the text reads peyālaṃ yāvat etad eva.
Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya 95
escape from her brother-in-law and make her way safely back to the nun-
nery. There, she is seen and criticized for abandoning the deportment of a
nun. As a result, the Lord issues a rule that a nun who abandons the
proper deportment and dress of a nun out of ethical wantonness becomes
“not-a-nun” (abhikṣuṇī bhavati). Those who do so only out of a wish for
protection do not commit a fault.
Here, a nun is permitted to assume a social position that is specifically
forbidden for nuns, that of adorned and well-dressed housewife.30 She is
allowed to do so, however, only because it is a temporary disguise donned
for expedient purposes and not reflective of any unhealthy subjective state.
This is not an uncommon situation with regard to vinaya rules. Other
roles enjoined upon nuns by the vinaya are likewise essentially surface
disguises, designed to safeguard nuns’ public standing, that need not re-
flect an inner state of being. Examples of such roles include, as seen above,
observant menstruator and submissive woman. A nun might, for exam-
ple, follow aspects of dharmaśāstric menstrual custom, or at least give the
appearance of doing so, without subscribing to brāhmaṇa understandings
of female blood, female sexuality, and ritual cleanness. Likewise, she
might outwardly submit to monks, as was required by both the monks’
community and the greater social environment, without relinquishing her
own aspirations to ungendered spiritual perfection. Here we can see the
negotiation between public and “private” identity for Buddhist nuns. Be-
cause nuns’ public identities are patched together using social behaviors
chosen in some situations from those appropriate to women of virtue, and
in others from those appropriate to Buddhist renunciates, their outward
behavior may not always strictly align with their ascetic goals or values.
Other roles recommended for nuns, on the other hand, positively re-
flect rather than run counter to what we might reasonably assume is a
nun’s preferred subjective state. A nun might recite sūtras in the home of
a lay supporter, for instance, with all the piety, sincerity, and clarity of pur-
pose appropriate to an aspirant on the Buddhist path. Other roles for nuns
are disapproved of in the vinaya though they seem unlikely to reflect or
produce subjective states in conflict with the religious life. Examples of
these include the roles of herbalist healer or thread spinner. These are
censured, I would argue, because, for a variety of complex and historically
30. Bhikṣuṇī prakīrṇaka 4 and 5 (Roth 1970, §258, §259, 303–4). Pācattika dharma 112 forbids
nuns to carry umbrellas and wear leather sandals since to be so nicely outfitted might draw
criticism from the townspeople (Roth 1970, §226, 257–58).
96 women in early indian buddhism
specific reasons, the public display of such skills was deemed unbecoming
or weakening to the social fabric of an always vulnerable Buddhist nun-
hood.31 Still other roles proscribed for nuns both contravene commonly
held notions of female virtue and are unlikely to produce spiritually ben-
eficial subjective states. Examples of these include the roles of business
tycoon and brothel madam. In conclusion, the cultivation of properly
virtuous subjective states was obviously just one of several factors deter-
mining which behaviors were to be forbidden to nuns and which
permitted. Other factors included, of course, the unity of the saṅgha and
the dignity, safety, and health of its members. A further factor, the one
brought to light here, involved the need within Buddhist communities to
create a public identity for nuns that was readily recognizable and likely to
be accepted. In order to do so, nuns and monastic lawyers carefully se-
lected from the behaviors and roles appropriate for virtuous women,
excluding those that were deemed unmonastic. In this way, the Buddhist
community sought to embolden the outlines of a shadowy social identity,
that of Buddhist female ascetic.
Indian Buddhist nuns occupied a social position at the crossroads of
womanly virtue and female asceticism that, in the words of legal scholar
Kimberlé Crenshaw, “resist[ed] telling.” Here, the Mahāsāṅghika
Lokottaravādin Bhikṣuṇī Vinaya is read as a record of Buddhist monks and
nuns selecting from the roles and functions available to respectable
women in order to piece together a public identity for nuns that neither
resisted telling nor repelled the donations and good opinion of the laity.
Such an analysis allows us to appreciate the vast social intelligence at work
in this nun-centered vinaya. It also allows us to recognize its potential
usefulness as a guide for Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravādin nuns in their ne-
gotiation of a complex and sometimes hostile social environment.
31. All of the major vinayas include prohibitions against nuns and monks practicing and
teaching various healing or magical arts, especially for payment. See, for instance, Derge
Kangyur ‘dul wa Ta 302b.1–303a.6. See also Pāli Bhikkhunī Vibhaṅga pācittiya 49–50 and
Cullavagga V.33.2. The Brahmajāla Sutta from the Pāli Dīgha-nikāya also provides a list of
money-making occupations practiced by ascetics and brahmins but forbidden to Buddhist
monks. These include various sorts of divination and healing, as well as match-making,
Dīgha-nikāya 1.1.21–28.
5
Aṅguttara-nikaˉya/Ekottarika-aˉgama
outstanding BHIKKHUNIˉ S in the EKOTTARIKA - A
ˉ GAMA
Bhikkhu Anaˉlayo
I am indebted to Alice Collett, Friedrich Grohmann, Shi Kongmu, Giuliana Martini and Ken
Su for comments and suggestions on a draft of the present chapter.
1. For a survey of various aspects of the Ekottarika-āgama cf. Anālayo (2009a).
2. On the four assemblies cf. also Anālayo (2010a, 65–72).
3. This difference has already been noted by Skilling (2000, 55).
98 women in early indian buddhism
4. The following two bhikkhunīs are not mentioned in the Ekottarika-āgama listing: the
bhikkhunī Nandā, who is reckoned foremost among those engaging in meditation
( jhāyīnaṃ), AN 1.14.5 at I 25,23, and the bhikkhunī Sigālamātā (Be: Siṅgālamātā), foremost
among those of resolute faith or confidence (saddhādhimuttānaṃ), AN 1.14.5 at I 25,31. Al-
though the latter is absent from the Ekottarika-āgama listing, a reference to Sīgālakamāta
(following the identification in Akanuma [1930] 1994, 614) appears in another listing of
eminent bhikkhunīs, found in T 126 at T II 833c20, where she is reckoned outstanding for
having gone forth out of faith, aspiring to [the attainment] of great fruits. See chapter seven
of this present volume for a discussion of the bhikkhunī Nandā.
5. T 126 at T II 833c8 and von Gabain (1954, 55).
6. For a study of outstanding bhikkhunīs in Mūlasarvāstivāda literature cf. Skilling (2001).
7. MN 68 at I 466,10 and MĀ 77 at T I 545c29.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 99
-
Chapter five on bhikkhunıˉ s in the Ekottarika-agama, [Part] One
(1) Among my [ordained] disciples,11 the foremost of those bhikkhunīs
who have gone forth to train for a long time and are thus respected
8. SN 17.24 at II 236,15, its parallel EĀ 9.2 at T II 562b21, and AN 2.12.2 at I 88,16. The
Mahāvastu, Senart (1882a, 251,21), lists Kṣemā and Utpalavarṇā as the two chief female mo-
nastic disciples of the Buddha.
9. Tripāṭhī (1995, 198 [28, Z2]), parallel to AN 2.12.2.
10. The translated text is EĀ 5.1 to 5.5 at T II 558c20 to 559c7, which was previously translated
into French by Huyen-vi (1987). In my translation, I have at times followed what seem to be
preferable readings found in a recapitulation of the list of eminent bhikkhunīs in T 2040 at T
L 12a13 to 12c5. In order to facilitate comparing my translation with the Pāli parallel, I use Pāli
terminology in the translation and throughout the article, without thereby intending to take a
position on the original language of the Ekottarika-āgama or on Pāli terminology being in
principle preferable. In the notes to my study I do not attempt to cover information provided
in Pāli commentarial literature, or in the Pāli Apadāna collection. Information on bhikkhunīs
that includes Theravāda commentarial literature can be found in other chapters in this
volume, as well as s.v. in Malalasekera 1937/1995 and 1938/1998; for a translation of the com-
mentary on the list of eminent bhikkhunīs in the Aṅguttara-nikāya cf. Bode 1893; a rendering
of the commentary on the Therīgāthā can be found in Pruitt 1998/1999; cf. also Murcott 1991.
11. The translators of the lists in the Ekottarika-āgama introduce foremost bhikkhus and
bhikkhunīs in one way and foremost lay disciples in another. In the case of monastics, the
formulation uses a rendering of śrāvaka, while the expression employed for laity would cor-
respond to śiṣya, although both Chinese terms can be translated as “disciple.” In order to
honor the distinction that the Ekottarika-āgama translator(s) apparently endeavored to make
by using two different terms, I add “[ordained]” to the “disciple” in the present case, in-
tending this to stand in contrast to the “[lay] disciple” used in the subsequent part of the
listing of eminent disciples, which is, however, no longer part of the extract translated here.
100 women in early indian buddhism
12. The names of the bhikkhunīs in the Ekottarika-āgama are at times difficult to reconstruct.
When translating an Indic original into Chinese, a proper name was often represented by
Chinese characters that at the time of translation more or less approximated the sound of the
Indic original. Alternately, at times, parts of the name or even the whole name were instead
translated. The final result of this can occasionally be rather puzzling. This difficulty com-
bines with the fact that proper names generally do not fare too well in orally transmitted texts,
unless they refer to particularly well-known individuals. This is the case not only for personal
proper names, but also for locations, etc. Hence the proper names in my translation of the
Ekottarika-āgama list of outstanding bhikkhunīs are at times just tentative reconstructions
and should not be taken to represent certain biographical data. For ease of cross-reference, in
my translation I have introduced a number for each bhikkhunī, which is not found in the
original. Here and below, I list the bases for my identifications of the names of the bhikkhunīs
in order of reliability, beginning with the fairly certain identifications given in the Fóguāng
edition of the Madhyama-āgama. In the case of the names of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (1), Khemā
(2), Uppalavaṇṇā (3), Kisāgotamī (4), Sakulā (5), Sāmā (6), Paṭācārā (8) and [Bhadda]kaccānā
(9) I follow the indications given in the Fóguāng edition (for (9) Huyen-vi 1987: 47 instead
suggests Kātyāyanī, cf. also note 29 below), for Vijayā (10) I follow Huyen-vi 1987: 47 (here
and elsewhere, I replace Huyen-vi’s Sanskrit reconstructions with Pāli proper names). In the
case of Padumarañjanā (7), the first two characters employed are the standard rendering of
paduº in paduma, while the following three characters could be rendering a term like rañjana.
13. Here and below, the abbreviations are found in the original.
14. Here and below, the names of the bhikkhunīs are repeated, at times in an abbreviated
fashion, at the end of each part in a summary verse (uddāna), which I have not translated.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 101
15. AN 1.14.5 at I 25,18: rattaññūnaṃ. T 126 at T II 833c10 indicates that she had gone forth
long ago from a royal clan, without mentioning her being respected by the king. A detailed
study of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī can be found in Dash 2008; for stanzas attributed to her cf.
Thī 157–62.
16. A comparative study of the different canonical accounts of this event can be found in
Anālayo (2011c). A critical review of the suggestion by Williams (2000, 170) that Buddhist
nuns were in existence before Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī went forth—which would imply that
she could not be reckoned foremost in being of long standing—can be found in Anālayo
(2008, 108–10).
17. AN 1.14.5 at I 25,19 indicates that Khemā was foremost among those who are of great
wisdom, mahāpaññānaṃ, a rank similarly accorded to her in the Avadānaśataka (Speyer
1970, 50,9), which additionally also mentions her eloquence; a reference already noted in
Skilling (2001, 143).
18. In the introductory narration, SN 44.1 at IV 374,24 reports her being famous for her
wisdom and eloquence; for a study of Khemā cf. Krey (2010).
19. AN 1.14.5 at I 25,20: iddhimantānaṃ (Be and Ce: iddhimantīnaṃ); stanzas attributed to
her can be found in Thī 224–35, her being challenged by Māra is reported in SN 5.5 at I
131,26, SĀ 1201 at T II 326c26 and SĀ2 217 at T II 454b20. On Utpalavarṇā in the
Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition cf. Silk (2009, 137–63).
102 women in early indian buddhism
20. This tale can be found in the same Ekottarika-āgama collection, EĀ 36.5 at T II 707c4,
and in its commentary T 1507 at T XXV 37c29; cf. also, e.g., the Divyāvadāna (Cowell 1886,
401,24) or SĀ 604 at T II 169c25; for further references cf. Lamotte ([1949] 1981, 634 n. 1).
Bapat (1950, 42) in note 10 to his translation of a version of this tale in the Chinese counter-
part to the commentary on the Aṭṭhakavagga, T 198 at T IV 185c9, notes that in Thī 229
Uppalavaṇṇā proclaims to have magically created a four-horsed chariot and paid homage at
the Buddha’s feet. It is possible that this stanza could reflect a similar narrative; cf. also
Young (2004, 194), although Dhp-a III 211,21 (cf. also Mp I 356,13) only reports that at an
earlier moment in the narrative she volunteered to transform herself into a wheel-turning
king, which the Buddha declined.
21. Cf. Strong (2010, 974); for a study of this stipulation cf. Anālayo (2009c). The
*Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, T 1509 at T XXV 137a13, in fact indicates that she transformed her-
self into a wheel-turning king “wishing to get rid of the bad reputation of women” (my transla-
tion differs from Lamotte ([1949] 1981, 636: “pour dissimuler son sexe mal famé”), which could
be read as a challenge to the notion that women are unable to be wheel-turning kings.
22. AN 1.14.5 at I 25,30: lūkacīvaradharānaṃ; stanzas attributed to her can be found in Thī
213–23, her being challenged by Māra is reported in SN 5.3 at I 130,9, SĀ 1200 at T II
326b29, and SĀ2 216 at T II 454a27.
23. Another reference to eleven types of ascetic practices can be found in EĀ 49.2 at T II
795a26; cf. also EĀ 49.3 at T II 795c10 (which has a variant reading referring to twelve in-
stead). The listing of outstanding bhikkhus, EĀ 4.2 at T II 557b8, speaks of twelve types (al-
ready noted in Boucher [2008, 191 n. 8]). On variations in such listings cf. also Bapat (1937),
Ganguly (1989, 21–23), Dantinne (1991, 24–30), and Ray (1994, 293–323).
24. AN 5.182–86 at III 219,25; for the last type of ascetic practice a parallel can be found in
SHT III 820 bB3 (Waldschmidt 1971, 37).
25. AN 1.14.5 at I 25,25: dibbacakkhukānaṃ (Be gives her name as Bakulā); stanzas attributed
to her can be found in Thī 97–101, where stanza Thī 100 explicitly indicates that she had
well developed, sādhu bhāvitaṃ, this clairvoyant ability.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 103
[Part] Two
(11) Among my [ordained] disciples, the foremost of those bhikkhunīs
who recollect their own past lives for innumerable aeons is the
bhikkhunī called Bhaddhākapilānī;34
(12) . . . of those who are of upright countenance and thus respected and
liked by the people is the bhikkhunī called Himajātā;
(13) . . . of those who convert outsiders, establishing them in the right
teaching, is the bhikkhunī called Soṇā;
(14) . . . of those who analyze the meaning, widely discoursing on divisions
and parts [of the teaching], is the bhikkhunī called Dhammadinnā;
(15) . . . of those who are not ashamed of wearing rough robes is the
bhikkhunī called Uttarā;
32. A bhikkhunī by the name of Vijayā occurs in SN 5.4 at I 130,26 and its parallels SĀ 1204
at T II 327c17 and SĀ2 220 at T II 455b3; stanzas attributed to Vijayā can be found at Thī
169–74.
33. AN 4.173 at II 160,21 reports Sāriputta’s attainment of the four paṭisambhidās. According
to AN 5.86 at III 113,12, other bhikkhus will highly esteem a bhikkhu who possesses five
qualities, four of which are the paṭisambhidās. AN 5.95 at III 120,1 indicates that a bhikkhu
will quickly attain the highest if he is endowed with five qualities, which again include the
four paṭisambhidās. These passages reflect the high regard in which the four analytical
knowledges were held.
34. In this second part, for Bhaddhākapilānī (11), Soṇā (13), Dhammadinnā (14), Jentī (17) and
Dantikā (18) I follow the indications given in the Fóguāng edition, for Uttarā (15) and Pabhā
(16) I follow Huyen-vi 1987: 48, who differs from the above in suggesting Sūrā for (13) and
Dattā for (18). In the case of (12), I follow an indication given in T 2130 at T LIV 1001c5 that
this name translates the terms “snow” and “birth.” The rendering employed for (19) could
stand for Devadinnā (or else Devadattā). Judging from Akanuma 1930/1994: 214, the charac-
ters for (20) could intend Gopī or Gopikā, a name also found as no. 1071 in a list of Buddhist
disciples in the Mahāvyutpatti, Sakaki 1926: 82, although not given in the Chinese characters
used in the present instance; for other renderings of Gopī cf. also Peri 1918: 9 note 2.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 105
(16) . . . of those who have calm senses, being always with unification of
the mind, is the bhikkhunī called Pabhā;
(17) . . . of those who wear the robes in an orderly manner, always ac-
cording to the instructions of the dharma, is the bhikkhunī called Jentī;
(18) . . . of those who are able to discuss in various ways without doubt or
hesitation is the bhikkhunī called Danti[kā];
(19) . . . of those who compose stanzas in praise of the virtues of the
Tathāgata is the bhikkhunī called Devadinnā;
(20) . . . of those who are widely learned, but in their kindness reach out
to even the most inferior, is the bhikkhunī called Gopī.35
39. MN 44 at I 304,34, MĀ 210 at T I 790a29 and D 4094 ju 11a4 or Q 5595 tu 12a8. A trans-
lation of the Tibetan version with a comparative study can be found in Anālayo (2011a), cf.
also Foley (1894) and Krey (2010).
40. The name Uttarā is mentioned as the author(s) of Thī 15 and Thī 175–81, a bhikkhunī by
the name of Jentī is given as the author of Thī 21–22 (Be and Ce: Jentā, Se: Jantā), and a
bhikkhunī by the name of Dantikā as the author of Thī 48–50.
41. AN 8.10 at IV 169,6 and its parallel MĀ 122 at T I 611b4 indicate that a genuine bhikkhu
is expected to wear his robes well, so much so that evil bhikkhus will imitate such behavior
in order not to be detected. The expression used to describe Jentī’s way of wearing robes
recurs in the Dharmaguptaka vinaya as part of a description of another bhikkhunī whose
awe-inspiring behavior arouses joyful inspiration in the mind of an onlooker, T 1428 at T
XXII 768b12.
42. EĀ 4.3 at T II 557b22. AN 1.14.2 at I 24,21 reckons him foremost among those of im-
promptu delivery. A collection of his poems can be found in the Vaṅgīsasaṃyutta, SN 8.1–11
at I 185–96, with counterparts in SĀ 1208–1219 at T II 329a–32b and SĀ² 224–30, SĀ² 250
and SĀ² 252–53 at T II 456b–62c; cf. also Th 1209–79. A long series of verses praising the
Buddha, spoken by the freshly converted lay disciple Upāli in front of his former teacher, the
leader of the Jains, can be found in MN 56 at I 386,3, with a Sanskrit parallel in Waldschmidt
(1979) and a Chinese parallel in MĀ 133 at T I 632b6; cf. also von Hinüber (1982).
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 107
[Part] Three
(21) Among my [ordained] disciples, the foremost of those bhikkhunīs
who are always in secluded quiet places, instead of living among
people, is the bhikkhunī called Abhayā;43
(22) . . . of those who beg alms [even when] physically ill, without choos-
ing between rich and poor [donors], is the bhikkhunī called Visākhā;
(23) . . . of those who sit alone in a single place, without moving at all, is
the bhikkhunī called Bhaddapālā;
(24) . . . of those who wander everywhere, begging [alms] among a range
of people, is the bhikkhunī called Manoharī;
(25) . . . of those who quickly accomplish the fruits of the path, without in
the course of that [encountering any] obstruction, is the bhikkhunī
called Damā;
(26) . . . of those who keep to the three [main] robes, never being separate
from them, is the bhikkhunī called Sudamā;
(27) . . . of those who always sit at the root of a tree with an unmoving
mind is the bhikkhunī called Līnā;
(28) . . . of those who always live out in the open, without caring for a
cover, is the bhikkhunī called Satā;
(29) . . . of those who delight in empty and secluded places, not in being
among people, is the bhikkhunī called Upacālā;
(30) . . . of those who continually sit on a grass mat, without [even] putting
a cloth on it, is the bhikkhunī called Vinā;
(31) . . . of those who, wearing rag robes, go to beg [alms from houses] in
the proper order, is the bhikkhunī called Anopamā.44
43. In this third part, for Abhayā (21), Visākhā (22), and Anopamā (31) I follow the indications
given in the Fóguāng edition; for Bhaddapālā (23), Damā (25), and Sudamā (26) I follow
Huyen-vi (1987, 49). In the case of (24), (29), and (30), the characters employed suggest the
possibility that the respective names could have been Manoharī, Upacālā, and Vinā. My ren-
dering of (27) follows an alternative spelling of her name found in T 2040 at T L 12b10. My
rendering of (28) is based on the indication in Soothill and Hodous ([1937] 2000, 370) that the
character couplet renders śāṭhya, corresponding to saṭha in Pāli. Since this results in a rather
improbable name, perhaps the original could have been something like Satā (from smṛ).
44. The rendering of her going begging is based on a variant reading.
108 women in early indian buddhism
(21), Visākhā (22), Upacālā (29), and Anopamā (31) have verses attributed
to them in the Therīgāthā.45
Several of the qualities of the bhikkhunīs in this section are related to se-
cluded and ascetic conduct, following the ideal of the monastic life depicted in
the early discourses. Thus Abhayā (21) stands out for keeping away from con-
tact with people and living in seclusion, which according to the Mahāsuññata-
sutta and its Chinese and Tibetan parallels is an important requirement for
being able to develop deeper levels of concentration and attain liberation.46
Most of the other qualities are self-explanatory. Keeping to only three robes
(26), wearing rag robes (31), and living out in the open (28) are ascetic prac-
tices. The notion of not being separate from one’s robes (26) relates to a vinaya
regulation, according to which a monastic should not be apart from his or her
set of robes at dawn.47 Begging food in order (31) refers to the practice of
begging at each house in turn on the road one has taken,48 not leaving out
45. A bhikkhunī by the name of Abhayā is mentioned as the author of Thī 35–36; a bhikkhunī
by the name of Visākhā as the author of Thī 13; a bhikkhunī by the name of Upacālā as the
author of Thī 189–195; and a bhikkhunī by the name of Anopamā as the author of Thī 151–
156. Upacāla also occurs in SN 5.7 at I 133,6 and the parallels SĀ 1206 at T II 328b17 and SĀ2
222 at T II 455c24.
46. MN 122 at III 110,16, MĀ 191 at T I 738a19 and the Tibetan version in Skilling (1994,
194,12).
47. The corresponding rule can be found in the Dharmaguptaka vinaya, T 1428 at T XXII
727c7, translated in Heirman (2002, 441); cf. also the Dharmaguptaka bhikṣuṇī prātimokṣa,
T 1431 at T XXII 1033c4, as well as in the Mahīśāsaka vinaya, T 1421 at T XXII 83a21; cf. also
the Mahīśāsaka bhikṣuṇī prātimokṣa, T 1423 at T XXII 208c2, and in the Mūlasarvāstivāda
vinaya, T 1443 at T XXIII 944b4, cf. also the Mūlasarvāstivāda bhikṣuṇī prātimokṣa, T 1455 at
T XXIV 510c10. In the case of the Mahāsāṅghika vinaya and the Sarvāstivāda vinaya, the
bhikṣuṇī vibhaṅgas do not give the corresponding rule in full, as the text should be supplied
from the same regulation for bhikkhus; cf. the survey in Hirakawa (1982, 194 n. 4). Thus the
Sanskrit manuscript of the Lokottaravāda Mahāsāṅghika bhikṣuṇī vinaya in Roth (1970,
165,2), translated in Nolot (1991, 159), gives only an abbreviated reference; cf. also the indica-
tion given in the Chinese version, T 1425 at T XXII 524b8. The Sarvāstivāda bhikṣuṇī vinaya,
T 1435 at T XXIII 313b5, begins its section on the niḥsargika pācittika rules with an explana-
tion by the translator; cf. Waldschmidt (1926, 104), that the rules observed also by bhikkhus
are not given explicitly. In the case of these two vinayas, however, a translation of the bhikṣuṇī
prātimokṣa is extant in Chinese, which gives the rule in full, cf. T 1427 at T XXII 558b22 for
the Mahāsāṅghika version and T 1437 at T XXIII 481c3 for the Sarvāstivāda version. In the
case of the Theravāda vinaya, according to the explanation given in Sp IV 919,10 (cf. Hüsken
1997a, 135 n. 108), the text should be supplemented from the corresponding rules for bhik-
khus, which in this particular case can be found in Vin III 198,22. For a translation of the
different bhikṣuṇī prātimokṣas cf. Kabilsingh (1998), with a comparative study in Kabilsingh
(1984).
48. See, for example, the reference to sapadānacārī in Sn 65, where the practice is combined
with not being greedy for flavors and not being mentally bound to families.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 109
any dwelling in anticipation that one might not receive food or might be given
only low-quality alms.
[Part] Four
(32) Among my [ordained] disciples, the foremost of those bhikkhunīs who de-
light in [staying] in abandoned cemeteries is the bhikkhunī called Uttamā;
(33) . . . of those who dwell much in benevolence, thinking of [all] forms
of life with empathy, is the bhikkhunī called Candā;
(34) . . . of those who have compassion for living beings that have not yet
reached the path is the bhikkhunī called Somā;
(35) . . . of those who joyfully attain the path, aspiring to reaching it com-
pletely, is the bhikkhunī called Mātalī;
(36) . . . of those who are restrained during all activities, with the mind
not straying away, is the bhikkhunī called Kālakā;
(37) . . . of those who keep to emptiness and hold on to vacuity, under-
standing that there is nothing [substantial in the world], is the
bhikkhunī called Devasu[tā];
(38) . . . of those whose heart delights in signlessness and in the eradica-
tion of all attachments is the bhikkhunī called Suriyapabhā;49
(39) . . . of those who cultivate wishlessness, with their mind always
[willing] to help [others] everywhere, is the bhikkhunī called Manāpā;
(40) . . . of those who are free from doubt in regard to all teachings, limit-
lessly delivering people, is the bhikkhunī called Vimadā;
(41) . . . of those who are able to explain widely the meaning and analyze
profound teachings is the bhikkhunī called Samantapabhāsā.
49. The original actually speaks of the absence of perceptions, instead of the absence of
signs. The two terms are, however, frequently confused with each other in Chinese transla-
tions, so that the appropriate rendering has to be decided in each case based on the context.
For a survey of examples cf. Anālayo (2011b, 274 n. 54). On signlessness cf. the study by
Harvey (1986).
50. Two different bhikkhunīs by the name of Uttamā are mentioned as the authors of Thī
42–44 and 45–47 respectively, stanzas attributed to Candā can be found in Thī 122–126, and
stanzas attributed to Somā in Thī 60–62.
110 women in early indian buddhism
with Somā also featuring in a discourse in the Saṃyutta-nikāya and its Chinese
parallels.51
The present section begins with a bhikkhunī outstanding for dwelling
in cemeteries (32), one of the ascetic practices. The references to empti-
ness (37), signlessness (38), and wishlessness (39) correspond to three
ways of concentrating the mind so as to reach the deathless.52 The same
three are the types of contact a meditator is said to experience on emerg-
ing from the cessation of perception and feeling,53 a particularly profound
meditative attainment.
[Part] Five
(42) Among my [ordained] disciples, the foremost of those bhikkhunīs
who cherish patience in their heart, just like the earth tolerating [an-
ything], is the bhikkhunī called Dhammadhī;
(43) . . . of those who are able to teach and transform people, inducing
them to make gifts to the monastic community of utensils, beds, and
seats is the bhikkhunī called Suyamā;54
(44) . . . of those who have a mind that is always calm, not generating ag-
itated perceptions, is the bhikkhunī called Indajā;
(45) . . . of those who never tire of contemplating the teachings with un-
derstanding is the bhikkhunī called Nāgī;
(46) . . . of those who have a strong and courageous mind, without being
polluted by attachment, is the bhikkhunī called Kuṇālā;
(47) . . . of those who enter concentration on water, totally turning [things]
into moisture, is the bhikkhunī called Vasu;
51. SN 5.2 at I 129,14 and its parallels SĀ 1199 at T II 326a28 and SĀ2 215 at T II 454a5 report
Somā being challenged by Māra. The Avadānaśataka reckons Somā to be outstanding in
learnedness (Speyer [1909] 1970, 22,4); for a study of the bhikkhunī Somā cf. Collett
(2009b).
52. SN 43.4 at IV 360,13.
53. MN 44 at I 302,22, although the parallel versions MĀ 211 at T I 792a19 and D 4094 ju
9a6 or Q 5595 tu 10a8 instead list imperturbable contact, nothingness contact, and signless
contact.
54. My rendering follows T 2040 at T L 12b26. The passage in the Ekottarika-āgama men-
tions Suyamā twice, first as foremost for her ability to teach and transform people, inducing
them to make gifts to the monastic community, and then a second time as foremost among
those who prepare beds and seats. As this double reference stands in contrast to the pattern
observed throughout and the preparation of beds and seats also does not seem to fit the con-
text too well, it seems safe to assume that the Ekottarika-āgama presentation has been af-
fected by some textual error, either during transmission or else at the time of translation.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 111
Conclusion
Looking back on this survey of outstanding bhikkhunīs, the acknowledge-
ment that Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (1) is considered outstanding in regard to
having gone forth for a long time obviously implies that she was foremost
among several bhikkhunīs that were of long standing, and this same prin-
ciple holds throughout the listing. Thus each of the bhikkhunīs in the
above listing should not be considered an exceptional case, where a single
bhikkhunī has a particular quality or ability. Rather, a bhikkhunī would only
be declared foremost in some respect if at the same time there were other
bhikkhunīs who had similar qualities or engaged in comparable conduct.
Viewed from this perspective, then, the listing of outstanding bhikkhunīs
is a survey of qualities and modes of behavior that were held to be to some
degree common among a number of the early Buddhist bhikkhunīs.
The net result of applying this perspective gives a rather impressive
survey of the broad variety of areas in which bhikkhunīs apparently
engaged. These can conveniently be organized under the three headings
of morality, concentration, and wisdom, a basic scaffolding of central
60. In fact one item in listings of kasiṇas is the consciousness-kasiṇa; cf., e.g., AN 10.26 at
V 47,16 and its parallels MĀ 215 at T I 800b7 and SĀ 549 at T II 143a25, an experience of
totality corresponding to the second of the four immaterial attainments, which, however, is
not easily related to the employment of a physical device; cf. also Anālayo (2009b).
61. MN 10 at I 57,13, MĀ 98 at T I 583b4, and EĀ 12.1 at T II 568a17.
Aṅguttara-nikāya/Ekottarika-āgama 113
63. Notably, the list in the Ekottarika-āgama does not yet exhaust the type of qualities in
which according to tradition nuns excelled; for a study of Kacaṅgalā/Kajaṅgalā, reckoned
foremost as a sūtrāntavibhāgakartrī, cf. Collett (forthcoming, chapter 1).
6
Saṃ yutta-nikaˉya/Saṃ yukta-aˉgama
defying maˉra— BHIKKHUNIˉ s in the SAṂ YUKTA - A
ˉ GAMA
Bhikkhu Anaˉlayo
Introduction
in the present chapter, I translate and study a set of ten discourses,
found in the Saṃyukta-āgama preserved in Chinese translation (Taishō
no. 99), in which bhikkhunīs are the main protagonists. This Saṃyukta-
āgama appears to stem from a Mūlasarvāstivāda line of transmission and
was translated into Chinese in the 5th century of the present era, based
on a manuscript that perhaps came from Sri Lanka to China (Glass 2010;
cf. also Anālayo 2010c, 67–69.). The ten discourses translated in the
present chapter have counterparts in the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta of the Pāli
canon, transmitted by the Theravāda tradition, as well as in another
Saṃyukta-āgama (Taishō no. 100) that has been partially preserved in
Chinese translation and whose school-affiliation is at present still a
matter of discussion.1
In what follows, I briefly examine the significance of Māra, who makes
his appearance in each of the ten translated discourses, challenging the
bhikkhunīs in their practice. Traditional exegesis recognizes several
I am indebted to Rod Bucknell, Shi Kongmu, and Giuliana Martini for comments and sug-
gestions.
1. Recent contributions are Bingenheimer (2011, 23–44) and Bucknell (2011); both argue in
favor of attributing T 100 to the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 117
concludes that when “arahants are tempted . . . by Māra,” this means that
“although their conscious life perhaps was completely purified, the deeper
and unconscious layers in their personality were not so. Some traces of the
old desires and insecurities were still there and found their outlet in the
only way still permitted to them: projected as external appearances.” In a
recent study of the “devil” in Buddhist thought, Batchelor (2004, 20–1)
sees Māra “as a metaphoric way of describing Buddha’s own inner life,”
“Mara’s tireless efforts to undermine Buddha by accusing him of insincer-
ity, self-deception . . . are ways of describing the doubts within Buddha’s
own mind.” In sum, according to Batchelor (2004, 28) Māra “is really
Gotama’s own conflicted humanity.”
Yet, the notion that the Buddha still had doubts about whether his
claim to awakening was a case of self-deception is difficult to reconcile
with the way the early discourses depict him elsewhere. Thus, for exam-
ple, qualities of the Buddha reckoned by tradition to be intrepidities
(vesārajja) are precisely his total certainty of having indeed awakened and
destroyed the influxes.6
Moreover, some of the challenges by Māra in the early discourses in-
volve actions such as changing himself into an ox and walking close to the
begging bowls of a group of bhikkhus, in order to distract them from lis-
tening to a talk given by the Buddha.7 At the time of a previous Buddha,
the Māra who lived during that period is on record for hitting an arahant
bhikkhu so that the bhikkhu’s head started bleeding.8 It would be difficult
to arrive at meaningful interpretations of such instances as mere symbolic
enactments of inner defilements or uncertainties, all the more in the last
mentioned instance, since according to the early discourses in the case of
an arahant any defilement or fear would not be there in the first place.9
Contrary to what appears to be a common opinion among Buddhist
scholars, it seems to me that in early Buddhist texts Māra is not invariably
meant to be personifying defilements of the person he challenges. Instead,
6. For a survey of sources that refer to these four intrepidities cf. Anālayo (2011b, 109–13).
7. SN 4.16 at I 112,15 and its parallel SĀ 1102 at T II 290a16.
8. While according to MN 50 at I 336,33 Māra took possession of a boy to perform this deed,
according to the parallels MĀ 131 at T I 622a7, T 66 at T I 866a7 and T 67 at T I 868a11 Māra
was himself the perpetrator of the action.
9. DN 29 at III 133,23 and its parallel DĀ 17 at T I 75b18 indicate that an arahant is beyond
fear and any other defilement.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 119
10. Other scholars have reached similar conclusions, for example Kloppenborg (1995, 154)
comments that Māra “can be regarded as an exponent of stereotypes that existed in . . . soci-
ety.” Abeynayake (2003, 3), commenting on the Somā incident, notes that Māra’s challenge
“is nothing but the condemnation that the society had towards women during this period.”
In relation to the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta in general, Witanachchi (2009, 750) explains that
these episodes are probably representative of “actual problems Buddhist nuns had to face
from pleasure-seeking males.”
11. The translated section ranges from T II 325c16 to 329a22, with counterparts in the Pāli
Saṃyutta-nikāya, SN I 128,1 to 135,26 (corresponding to pages 281 to 297 in Somaratne’s
new edition of the Sagātha-vagga) translated by Bodhi (2000, 221–30), and in the partially
preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100), T II 453b28 to 456b20, translated by Bingenheimer
(2011, 151–81). For ease of comparison, in my translation I employ Pāli terminology, without
thereby intending to take a position on the original language of the Saṃyukta-āgama manu-
script used for translation, which according to de Jong (1981, 108) would have been Sanskrit.
12. SĀ 1198, parallel to SN 5.1 and SĀ2 214. In my translation I have numbered the dis-
courses, with the present one counted as the first of the set of ten, and added the name of
the respective bhikkhunī as a title, neither of which are found in the original.
120 women in early indian buddhism
in Sāvatthī.13 In the morning, bhikkhunī Āḷāvikā put on her robes, took her
bowl and entered the town of Sāvatthī to beg for alms. Having finished her
meal, she returned to the monastery, put away her robe and bowl, washed
her feet, took her sitting mat, placed it over her right shoulder and entered
the Andhavana to sit in meditation.14
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The recluse Gotama is now staying
at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. He has a disciple, the
bhikkhunī Āḷāvikā, who is staying in a community of bhikkhunīs in the
Rājakārāma in Sāvatthī. In the morning, she has put on her robes, taken
her bowl, and entered the town of Sāvatthī to beg for alms. Having fin-
ished her meal, she has returned to the monastery, put away her robe and
bowl, washed her feet, taken her sitting mat, placed it over her right shoul-
der and entered the Andhavana to sit in meditation. I shall now approach
and disturb her.”15 He then transformed himself into a youth of handsome
appearance and went to that bhikkhunī.16 He said to the bhikkhunī:
“Lady, where do you want to go?”
13. The Rājakārāma is not mentioned explicitly in the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta or the partially pre-
served Saṃyukta-āgama, although it is mentioned in a sutta quotation paralleling SĀ 1202,
found in Śamathadeva’s commentary on the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya, D 4094 nyu 82a2 or Q
5595 thu 128a3: rgyal po’i dge slong ma’i dbyar khang. In other Pāli discourses the Rājakārāma
features as the venue of a teaching given by the Buddha to a large congregation of bhikkhunīs,
SN 55.11 at V 360,15, and as the location where a group of bhikkhunīs, on having received teach-
ings from the monk Nandaka, reach high realization, MN 146 at III 271,4; for a comparative
study of this teaching and the realizations reached by the bhikkhunīs cf. Anālayo (2010c).
14. The standard description in the discourses in the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta does not mention a
return to the monastery, putting away bowl and robe, washing the feet, and taking the sitting
mat, but directly continues with the respective bhikkhunī approaching the Andhavana. The
discourses in the partially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100) have such a depiction, although
in a shorter form. Without mentioning a return to the monastery, only cleaning the bowl and
going to the Andhavana are described. The Tibetan parallel to SĀ 1202, D 4094 nyu 82a3 or Q
5595 thu 128a4, is closer to the pericope found in the fully preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 99),
as besides washing the bowl this version also mentions putting away bowl and robe as well as
taking the sitting mat. The sitting mat is regularly mentioned elsewhere in Āgama discourses,
but often absent from Pāli parallels; cf. Minh Chau ([1964] 1991, 29) and Anālayo (2011b, 20).
15. Māra’s reflection is not reported in the discourses in the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta. The dis-
courses in the partially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100) and the Tibetan parallel to SĀ
1202, D 4094 nyu 82a4 or Q 5595 thu 128a5, however, report his reflection, which repeats
the introductory narration.
16. A transformation of Māra into a youth is not mentioned in the discourses in the
Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta. The discourses in the partially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100) and
the Tibetan parallel to SĀ 1202, D 4094 nyu 82a5 or Q 5595 thu 128a8, however, do mention
such a transformation.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 121
17. This question and answer exchange is not found in SN 5.1, which instead directly contin-
ues from the introductory narrative section to the stanza spoken by Māra. A similar ex-
change occurs in SĀ2 214 at T II 453c6.
18. The bhikkhunīs in the Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta and in the partially preserved Saṃyukta-
āgama (T 100) only wonder whether the speaker of the stanzas is a human or a non-human,
without reflecting upon whether this person might want to seduce them.
19. The translation is based on a variant reading.
20. Instead of fear, mentioned also in SĀ2 214 at T II 453c19, SN 5.1 at SN I 128,25 just
speaks of a lack of delight, arati.
122 women in early indian buddhism
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “That bhikkhunī Āḷāvikā has under-
stood my intentions.” Worried, sad and unhappy he then vanished and
was seen no more.
(2) [Somā]
22
Thus have I heard. . . . [Māra] said to the bhikkhunī:
“Lady, where do you want to go?”
The bhikkhunī replied: “Friend, I am going to a secluded place.”23
Then Māra, the Evil One, spoke in verse: [326b]
Then the bhikkhunī Somā thought: “Who is this, wanting to frighten me?
Is he a human or is he a non-human? Is this person scheming to seduce
me?” Then, having considered it, certainty of knowledge arose in her and
she knew: “This is the evil Māra who has come wanting to confound me.”
She then spoke in verse:
21. This last set of stanzas, which with slight variations is spoken by each bhikkhunī as a dec-
laration of having reached full awakening, is without a counterpart in the discourses in the
Bhikkhunī-saṃyutta. A comparable declaration is found, however, at the end of the stanzas
spoken by the bhikkhunīs in the discourses in the partially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama (T 100).
22. SĀ 1199, parallel to SN 5.2 and SĀ2 215. Here and below I have abbreviated the introduc-
tory narration, which follows the pattern established in relation to bhikkhunī Āḷāvikā, i.e., the
bhikkhunī in question goes begging, etc., and eventually enters the Andhavana, followed by
Māra reflecting that the bhikkhunī in question has gone begging, etc., and entered the And-
havana, deciding that he will approach to disturb her and transforming himself into a hand-
some youth for this purpose.
23. This question and answer exchange is not found in SN 5.2, which instead directly con-
tinues from the introductory narrative section to the stanza spoken by Māra. A similar ex-
change occurs in SĀ2 215 at T II 454a2.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 123
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Somā has understood
my intentions.” Harboring sadness and regret within, he then vanished
and was seen no more.
(3) [Kisāgotamī]
24
Thus have I heard . . . [Māra] said in verse:
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Kisāgotamī has under-
stood my intentions.” Being worried and sad, afflicted and annoyed, he
then vanished and was seen no more.
(4) [Uppalavaṇṇā]
26
Thus have I heard . . . [Māra] said in verse:
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā has un-
derstood my intentions.” Harboring sadness and worry within, he then
vanished and was seen no more.
(5) [Selā]
29
Thus have I heard . . . [327b] [Māra] said in verse:
27. In SN 5.5 at I 132,11 (cf. also Thī 232) it is Uppalavaṇṇā who threatens that she will get
into Māra’s belly. SĀ2 217 at T II 454b28 agrees with SĀ 1201 that this threat was made by
Māra; cf. also the discussion below.
28. This set of stanzas has no counterpart in SN 5.5, although a comparable set can be found
in SĀ2 217.
29. SĀ 1202, parallel to SN 5.10 and SĀ2 218; cf. also Enomoto (1994, 42) and D 4094 nyu
82a1 or Q 5595 thu 128a2. In the present case, a confusion of names appears to have hap-
pened, as the stanzas associated in SĀ 1202, SĀ2 218 and D 4094 or Q 5595 with Selā are
instead spoken by Vajirā in SN 5.10.
126 women in early indian buddhism
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Selā has understood
my intentions.” Harboring sadness and sorrow within, he then vanished
and was seen no more.
30. Vetter (2000, 157) suggests that the Chinese character employed in the present instance,
which usually renders the term “aggregates,” might rather be referring to “formations,” in
keeping with the Pāli and Sanskrit parallels. I have decided not to follow his reasonable sug-
gestion, as saṃskāra is not found among the equivalents listed for this character in
Hirakawa (1997, 1214), hence it seems safer to me to stick to the original and translate as
“aggregates.”
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 127
(6) [Vīrā]
Thus have I heard . . . 31 [Māra] said in verse: [327c]
31. SĀ 1203, parallel to SN 5.9 and SĀ2 219. Corresponding to the confusion of names in the
previous discourse, in the present case the stanzas associated with a nun by the name of
Vīrā in SĀ 1203 and SĀ2 219 are spoken by Selā in SN 5.9. On Vīrā and Vajirā cf. Bingen-
heimer (2011, 156–59).
32. SN 5.9 at I 134,26 instead mentions the essence of the earth and moisture as the condi-
tions for the growth of a seed. SĀ2 219 at T II 455a23 mentions just the earth, which Bingen-
heimer (2011, 173 n. 46) suggests to be due to a loss of text.
128 women in early indian buddhism
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Vīrā has understood
my intentions.” Giving rise to great sadness and sorrow, he then vanished
and was seen no more.
(7) [Vijayā]
33
Thus have I heard . . . [Māra] said in verse:
Then the bhikkhunī Vijayā thought: “Who is this person, wanting to frighten
me? Is he a human or is he a non-human? Is this person scheming to seduce
me?” Having considered like this, she then gained the realization: “This is
Māra, the Evil One, wanting to confound me.” She then spoke in verse:
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Vijayā has understood
my intentions.” Harboring sadness and sorrow within, he then vanished
and was seen no more.
(8) [Cālā]
38
Thus have I heard . . . [Māra] said in verse:
Then the bhikkhunī Cālā thought: “Who is this person, wanting to frighten
me? [328b] Is he a human or is he a non-human? Is this person scheming
to seduce me?” [She understood: “This is the evil Māra],40 who has come
here wanting to confound me.” She then spoke in verse:
38. SĀ 1205, parallel to SN 5.6 and SĀ2 221; cf. also Enomoto (1994, 43).
39. While SĀ2 221 proceeds similarly, in SN 5.6 at I 132,22 Māra first asks Cālā what she does
not approve of. She replies that she does not approve of birth. This initial conversation fits
the context well, explaining why Māra would take up the theme of being weary of birth.
40. The text supplemented in square brackets appears to have been lost.
130 women in early indian buddhism
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Cālā knows my inten-
tion.” Harboring sadness and sorrow within, he then vanished and was
seen no more.
(9) [Upacālā]
42
Thus have I heard . . . [Māra] said in verse:
41. Instead of this and the next set of stanzas, in SN 5.6 at SN I 133,1 Cālā indicates that
beings of the form and formless realm come back to existence because of not having under-
stood cessation.
42. SĀ 1206, parallel to SN 5.7 and SĀ2 222.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 131
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Upacālā has under-
stood my intentions.” Being sad and sorrowful within, he then vanished
and was seen no more.
(10) [Sīsupacālā]
46
Thus have I heard . . . [329a] [Māra] said:
“Lady, in what method do you delight?”47
The bhikkhunī replied: “I do not delight in anything!”
43. SN 5.7 at I 133,15 instead indicates that all these celestial beings are still bound by the
bondage of sensuality, while SĀ2 222 at T II 456a12 points out that they have not yet sepa-
rated themselves from the view of self.
44. On Māra’s power over the different heavenly realms of the sensual field cf. also note 4 above.
45. For parallels to these stanzas cf. Chung (2008, 229).
46. SĀ 1207, parallel to SN 5.8 and SĀ2 223; cf. also SHT VI 1399, Bechert and Wille (1989,
118), and SHT X 4236, Wille (2008, 331).
47. In SN 5.8 at I 133,27 Māra inquires what creed she approves, while in SĀ2 223 at T II
456b3 he wants to know which of the ninety-six methods she prefers; on the count of ninety-
six heretical teachings cf. Deeg (2005, 310 n. 1512).
132 women in early indian buddhism
Then Māra, the Evil One, thought: “The bhikkhunī Sīsupacālā has under-
stood my intentions.” Harboring sadness and sorrow within, he then van-
ished and was seen no more.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 133
Study
A comparison of the above-translated discourses with their Pāli counter-
parts brings to light relatively few major differences. One such difference
concerns names, as the stanzas associated in the Pāli version with Vajirā are
spoken in the parallel versions by Selā, and those spoken in the Pāli version
by Selā are attributed to a bhikkhunī by the name of Vīrā in the parallels.48
Another difference is that the stanzas spoken in the Saṃyukta-āgama
by each bhikkhunī at the end of their reply to Māra make it clear that they
are all fully awakened. While comparable stanzas are not found in the Pāli
version, several bhikkhunīs in this collection nevertheless give clear indi-
cations of the high level of their realization.49 The present difference thus
does not seem to imply a major divergence on the spiritual status of these
ten bhikkhunīs.
Another noteworthy difference is that, according to the Pāli account,
Uppalavaṇṇā threatens to enter Māra’s belly. Apart from the fact that it is
not clear if Māra was believed to have a digestive system, it seems rather
odd for a bhikkhunī to threaten that she will enter someone else’s belly.
According to the parallel versions, it is rather Māra who makes this
threat.50 For Māra such an action is more easily conceivable, as another
discourse reports that he got into the belly of an arahant bhikkhu.51 Hence
it seems that the Pāli version has probably suffered an error in transmis-
sion, and that the original sense was indeed that Māra threatened to get
into Uppalavaṇṇā’s belly. This also accords better with the overall attitude
maintained by the bhikkhunīs, who do not react to being threatened by
threatening back, but instead remain equanimous and unimpressed by
whatever Māra does.
The challenges posed by Māra cover several distinct themes. A particu-
larly prominent theme is sensuality, evident in Māra’s invitation to “con-
sume” the five sense pleasures (1) and in his recommendation to rejoice in
rebirth as a way to partake of the five sense pleasures (8) or of the pleasure
of the sense-sphere heavens (9). Pertaining to the same theme of sensuality
is the presumption that a woman who is alone must be wishing for a man
(3), the threat posed to a lone bhikkhunī by a man with evil intentions, evi-
dently of a sexual type (4), and the invitation to enjoy herself with a young
male to the accompaniment of music (7). The topic of sexual threat is in
fact a theme that forms an undercurrent in the entire set of ten discourses,
where a male approaches a bhikkhunī who is all alone by herself in a forest.
This much is evident in the recurrent reflection by each bhikkhunī in the
Saṃyukta-āgama whether the speaker might be scheming to seduce them.
Other challenges have a more doctrinal slant, such as in cases in which
two bhikkhunīs refute Māra’s views about a truly existing being or “bodily
shape” (5 and 6). Also related to the doctrinal sphere is the idea of delight-
ing in some outside teaching (10). Moreover, one case questions the spiri-
tual abilities of women (2).
The main themes of Māra’s challenges are thus:
(a) sensuality:
– enjoying sensual pleasures: Āḷāvikā (1)
– sorrow about loss of children and wishing for a man: Kisāgotamī (3)
Vīrā (6)
– delight in another teaching: Sīsupacālā (10)
Kisāgotamī (3), the reference to her being sad on having lost her child
seems to reflect awareness of the tale of her bereavement when her son
passed away.52 As her verses make clear, any concern with children or a
male partner is something she has forever left behind. Similarly, the chal-
lenge Māra poses to Uppalavaṇṇā (4) appears to be related to the story of
her being raped when dwelling alone in a forest.53 Her reply makes it
clear that even the horrible experience of being violated does not trauma-
tize an arahant bhikkhunī.
It is noteworthy that the present set of discourses contains three
instances where Māra overtly acts as a sexual aggressor, by insinuating
that withdrawal into solitude implies looking for a man (3), by in one
instance even apparently insinuating rape (4), and by inviting the
bhikkhunī to enjoy herself with him (7). This sets a remarkable con-
trast to sexual aggression by Māra’s daughters, of which in the whole
Māra-saṃyutta and its parallels there is just one single instance, when
Māra’s daughters unsuccessfully try to tempt the recently awakened
Buddha.54
This makes it clear that early Buddhism does not unilaterally con-
sider females as Māra’s forces who lure innocent males into sexual
desire. Instead, as the present set of discourses plainly shows, it is the
male Māra—and by definition only a male can be Māra55—who stands
for sensual temptation and sexual aggression, while those who are disin-
terested in sex are females.
This finding provides an important corrective to a mode of presenta-
tion current among some scholars. For example, Lang (1986, 69) holds
that “the pattern of identifying women with sensual desire . . . occurs with
depressing regularity throughout the androcentric literature of early Bud-
dhism.” According to Sarao (1989, 56) “to ancient Indian Buddhism all
women were daughters of Māra.” In a similar vein, Wilson (1996, 36)
56. Wilson (1996, 36) supports her conclusion by referring to a statement in AN 5.55 at III
68,28, according to which womankind is entirely a snare of Māra. When evaluating this
statement, it needs to be taken into account that according to the preceding narration a
mother and her son ordained as Buddhist monastics and then had sex with each other; cf.
also Silk (2009, 126–7). Thus the statement needs to be considered as a response to the
event that precedes it in the discourse. Moreover, this discourse is without any known paral-
lel in Chinese, Sanskrit, or Tibetan. Instead of taking such isolated passages out of context
as representing the early Buddhist evaluation of women, I think it would be preferable to
build an assessment of the early Buddhist attitude toward women on a broad range of
sources that are extant in parallel versions and that are evaluated within their narrative con-
text. As Collett (2006a, 82) points out, “Wilson rather overemphasizes the negative portray-
als of women she finds and essentially extrapolates from her sources to construct an over-
arching view of women in early and medieval Buddhism that is one-sided and unbalanced.”
57. On this topic cf. also the revealing findings by Collett in chapter three of the present volume.
The same holds also for the Therīgāthā, where Rajapakse (1992, 71) notes that, contrary to the
stereotype according to which “women figure . . . as seductresses bent on luring away male re-
cluses from their spiritual strivings,” the stanzas spoken by the Therīs present “men as seducers.”
58. SN 4.21 at SN I 117,23 and its parallel SĀ 1099 at T II 289a16.
Saṃyutta-nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama 137
that Māra, his daughters, and his baits simply stand for sensual desire in
general, independent of gender.
In line with this corrective, something else of note can be gathered
from the present set of ten episodes, where each bhikkhunī immediately
recognizes Māra and sends him away. A telling juxtaposition emerges
once the present set is compared to cases where Māra challenges bhik-
khus. The Māra-saṃyutta reports that several bhikkhus are not able to rec-
ognize Māra and need the Buddha’s personal intervention to deal with the
situation. For example, in the above-mentioned story where Māra trans-
forms himself into an ox and starts walking close to their begging bowls,
the bhikkhus fail to recognize him.59 He is thus successful in distracting
them from listening to the talk given by the Buddha. Again, in the in-
stance where Māra tempts a group of bhikkhus with the suggestion that
they should enjoy sensual pleasures, although they are able to give a fit-
ting reply, they fail to recognize him.60 The same pattern, with the bhik-
khus unable to recognize Māra, recurs in another two cases.61 Thus some
male monastics were evidently depicted as not being able to handle Māra
on their own in the way their monastic sisters did. In contrast, not a single
bhikkhunī is on record for having failed to recognize Māra or for having
been unable to dispatch him singlehandedly with a self-confident rebuttal.
This obviously reflects the situation that these bhikkhunīs are arahants,
whereas some of their male colleagues had evidently not yet reached the
same level of perfection. Nevertheless it is worthy of note that, in contrast
to the way some scholars see the representation of females in early Bud-
dhist literature, the present set of discourses on challenges by Māra is a
clear instance where the bhikkhunīs are presented in a more favorable
light than their male counterparts.
Regarding the topic of gender in the present set of discourses, the case
of Somā (2) is particularly noteworthy, since to my knowledge this is the
only instance among the early discourses were the ability of women to
reach awakening is put into question. Needless to say, the dictum that a
woman cannot be a Buddha is different, as this only implies that there will
not be a female Buddha, presumably because in the ancient Indian setting
a woman teacher would have stood less chance of being taken serious
than a male.62 No such considerations apply to the attainment of full
awakening as an arahant. Hence the present instance is unique in voicing
this prejudice regarding women’s abilities to realize arahantship.
Somā’s self-confident reaction to the derogatory remark about a wom-
an’s two-finger wit—apparently a pun on women’s use of two fingers
when doing household chores63—has been quoted repeatedly in writings
about the role of women in early Buddhism.64 Due to the way Māra’s chal-
lenges are often interpreted, however, and also since in the Pāli version
Somā’s status as an arahant is not as explicit as in the Chinese parallels,
the significance of Somā’s exchange with Māra has not always been fully
appreciated. The prejudice voiced by Māra does not imply that Somā had
any doubt about women’s ability to gain awakening. Having already
reached full awakening, how could there be any doubt about her own abil-
ity to reach it? Instead of reflecting Somā’s uncertainties, the point made
by the present episode is that, from an early Buddhist perspective, doubt-
ing women’s ability to reach awakening is so foolish that it can only be the
work of Māra.65
Alice Collett
stories” of the monks and nuns of the Therāgāthā and Therīgāthā. Von
Hinüber (1996, 61) calls the Apadāna “a supplement” to the Therāgāthā
and Therīgāthā, while Norman suggests it is “almost an appendix to the
Therīgāthā and Therāgāthā, since it connects together the past and present
lives of the theras and therīs” (1983, 89). Evidently, there is a close connec-
tion between the two texts, although it is not the case that all the same
monks and nuns appear in both, as Norman notes:
Cutler, looking for the origin of the collection, suggests that the Apadāna
was likely complied from the existing canon overall, given that “[s]nippets
of biographical information and stories” concerning the monks and nuns
can be found throughout the Pāli canon (1994, 25). However, this does
presuppose that the authors had access to the entire (oral) canon. In this
chapter I want to attempt to reinforce the view that the Therīgāthā verses
form the basis of the narrative life accounts of the Apadāna, especially in
instances in which little or no other biographical information is available.
Assessing the extant textual evidence, it appears that the verses were the
main inspiration for the biographies in the majority of cases.
With regard to the extant versions of the Therīgāthā and Apadāna, two
particular relationships are immediately evident: first, that some of the
Therīgāthā verses contain actual biographical information that is part of the
Apadāna biography, and second (and this much more often), that the verses
spoken are reflections of those who have experienced the predicaments
detailed in the biography. That is, the verses appear as (often) first-hand
accounts of responses to the events described in the biographies. By way of
exemplifying this, we can consider some of Kisāgotamī’s verses. Kisāgotamī’s
well-known story is the story of the mustard seed. Following the death of
her son, the birth of whom had caused favor for her among her in-laws,
Kisāgotamī was overcome with grief. She refused to let go of the small ca-
daver, continuing to cradle the body in her arms. She was advised to go and
see Gotama, who asked her to collect a mustard seed from any house in
which the family had not experienced the grief of loss, and not being able
to find a house that had been spared this powerful human experience
proved a successful teaching for her. In her Therīgāthā verses, Kisāgotamī
laments the suffering experienced by women as wives and mothers:
142 women in early indian buddhism
To add a few other brief examples, in her verses Aḍḍakāsī talks of her ex-
periences as a prostitute, which is the core of her biography; Bhaddā
Kāpilāni speaks of Kassapa, her husband in many previous lives whom
she followed into the order, and Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī mentions Māyā, her
sister and cowife according to numerous accounts.
In many ways this relationship of the verses as a core part of the biog-
raphy appears to have been a successful one, such that, some two thou-
sand years later, in the extant literature the relationship remains firmly
discernible in many cases, although with some notable exceptions.3 One
case in which the relationship appears to waver is that of the nun Nandā.
The Therīgāthā has two sets of verses apparently authored by nuns called
Nandā, although the first verse of each set is identical:
“See the body, Nandā, diseased, impure, putrid. Devote the mind,
collected and one-pointed, to contemplation of this impurity.
And develop the signless, cast out the latent tendency to conceit.
Then, by the full understanding of conceit, you will wander, at
peace.” (v. 19–20)4
“See the body, Nandā, diseased, impure, putrid. Devote the mind,
collected and one-pointed, to contemplation of this impurity.
The verses appear in different places in the extant text, as the extant
Therīgāthā is structured according to length, so that paired verses are in
the second section and sets of four in the fourth. There are several pos-
sible reasons as to why these two sets of verses exist within the Therīgāthā.
First, a reason is suggested by an addenda in the extant text itself. In-
cluded directly after verses 19 and 20 in the PTS edition is the phrase,
“Thus, the Blessed One often advised the novice Nandā with these verses”
(itthaṃ sudaṃ bhagavā nandaṃ sikkhamānaṃ imāhi gāthāhi abhiṇhaṃ
ovadati) (Thī 125). Perhaps then, the second set of verses are simply a
second incident of the Buddha tutoring Nandā? Another possible, if not
probable, reason is transmission error. The resounding evidence from
recent studies of early manuscripts is that different versions of the same
text can vary considerably. For example, the number and order of verses
can change or verses can be found in one chapter in one version and an-
other chapter in another.6 Thus, it could easily be surmised that the exist-
ence of two sets of verses apparently spoken by a female disciple named
Nandā with an identical first verse could be explained away as having
originally been one set of verses spoken by one eponymous nun. A third
but less obvious answer from a scholarly perspective is that the verses
pertain to two different nuns, both of whom were called Nandā. This ap-
pears to have been the explanation favored by the tradition, such that
5. Āturaṃ asuciṃ pūtiṃ passa Nande samussayaṃ, asubhāya cittaṃ bhāvehi ekaggaṃ susam-
āhitaṃ. Yathā idaṃ tathā etaṃ yathā etaṃ tathā idaṃ, duggandhaṃ pūtikaṃ vāti bālānaṃ
abhinanditaṃ. Evaṃ etaṃ avekkhantī rattindivam atanditā, tato sakāya paññāya abhinibbijja
dakkhisaṃ. Tassā me appamattāya vicinantiyā yoniso, yathābhūtaṃ ayaṃ kāyo diṭṭho
santarabāhiro. Atha nibbind’ ahaṃ kāye ajjhattañ ca virajj’ ahaṃ, appamattā visaṃyuttā upas-
anta mhi nibbutā (Thī 132).
6. For some examples of this, see chapters one and two of this volume. Also, see n. 13 below
for an example of the typical sorts of changes seen.
144 women in early indian buddhism
7. The notion of a child that shares one parent with their sibling being termed a half-brother
or half-sister only occurs in some patterns of kinship relations. In the Buddhist literature,
Nandā and her brother, male Nanda, are simply said to be brother and sister to the Buddha.
According to Dravidian kinship networks, the children of sisters should not be termed cous-
ins but rather brothers and sisters (Trautmann 1981)
8. Nandā can be rendered as “Delightful One,” which appears to be the meaning here, as
she brings delight by her beauty. Sundarīnandā, Abhirūpanandā and Rūpanandā can be
rendered as “Beautiful Nandā,” with the latter two including some implication of pos-
session of a beautiful figure, and Janapadakalyāṇī as “the beauty of the district,” with the
implication that she was the most beautiful. Most of the biographical accounts under-
line the relationship between the physical beauty of the protagonist and the name,
saying, for example, “she was known as Abhirūpanandā because of the excessive beauty
of her own body, she was beautiful, pleasing to look at, lovely” (sā attabhāvassa ativiya
rūpasobhaggappattiyā abhirūpā dassanīyā pāsādikā abhirūpanandā tveva paññāyittha,
Thī-a II.1 at 24).
Therīgāthā 145
Textual Evidence
Apadāna I contains biographies of two female Nandās, Abhirūpanandā
and Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī; however, the biographies of each of them, in
the extant version, tell essentially the same story. This is a story that came
to be the narrative center of the biography of the female Nandā in almost
all other versions. The very same story has also come to be the narrative
center of the biography of another nun, Khemā, who is better known than
Nandā.11 The story is essentially one of obsession with beauty. The pro-
tagonist (Nandā or Khemā) appeared lovely at birth and grew to be an
exquisitely beautiful woman. Intoxicated with her own physical beauty,
she avoided the Buddha, knowing that he disparaged those interested in
sensual beauty, seeing it as a meaningless preoccupation. However, by
9. The texts of the Pāli tradition do not mention the royal connection in the earliest life
stories of the Buddha, although Aśvaghoṣa does. This is true of most other traditions, apart
from the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, which talks of more than sixty thousand wives. Accord-
ing to Strong, only the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya develops the harem women scene (see Strong
1997, 114–15, and on the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, p.124 n. 2).
10. A third recension of the Apadāna was used by the authors/compliers of Paramatthajotikā
II. I will call the Apadāna that exists in what appears to be a complete form “Apadāna I” and
the sections that exist within the Therīgāthā commentary “Apadāna II.” See chapter eight of
this volume.
11. For more on Khemā, see the chapter in Collett (forthcoming). In the Pāli tradition, this is
the usual story of Khemā, but there is a different account of her in the Avadānaśataka, a text
connected to the Mūlasarvāstivāda tradition. The story of obsession with beauty fits better
with Nandā’s Therīgāthā verses, which are an admonition against such folly. Khemā’s
Therīgāthā verses appear as a conversation between lovers, although in the Samyutta-
nikāya/Saṃyukta-āgama they are conceived as a conversation between Māra and Khemā/
Kṣemā, and his attempts to seduce her (see chapter five of this volume).
Table 7.1 Nandā in the Pāli Texts
one way or another, eventually she meets Gotama and he, knowing about
her obsession, performs a miracle to teach her about the impermanence
of physical beauty. The Buddha conjures up an apparition before her, a
beautiful woman more exquisite then herself, then, by one means or an-
other, causes the apparition to turn old, ugly, deformed, or a mixture of
these. In each instance of the telling of narrative, for both Khemā and
Nandā, this apparition and its subsequent subversion have the desired
effect and cause the disciple to see the errors of her thinking. Sometimes
the event causes the disciple to experience a profound religious shift and
attain the status of an arahant, and on other occasions the experience ap-
pears to prime the candidate for arahant status, which follows soon after-
ward with the help of a further teaching.
This basic story arc is followed in both of the Apadāna I biographies of
Abhirūpanandā and Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī; however, the two versions of
it are entirely different in their detail.
Apadaˉna I
Abhirūpanandā
The biography of Abhirūpanandā begins in the era of Buddha Vipassī. At
that time, Abhirūpanandā is born in Bandhumati, into a rich and prosper-
ous (iddhe phīte) family.12 Among her own kinsmen and others, she was
known for her beauty (surūpa). She worshiped Buddha Vipassī and then,
journeying on through the worlds of gods and men, she was born in her
last existence inKapilavatthu as the daughter of Khemaka the Sakyan.
Even at birth, she was beautiful (abhirūpa) and so was called Nandā, and
as she grew into a young women she maintained her beautiful form
(rūpavaṇṇa). Having been advised to go forth as a member of the Sakyan
clan and become a disciple of the Buddha, she did so, apparently out of
respect for her family. However, having gone forth, knowing the Buddha
was disparaging of beauty, she did not go to see him. She was eventually
led into his presence, and he made appear a woman as beautiful as a heav-
enly nymph, who then turned old and died in front of her eyes. The
Buddha spoke to her, and she replied, in verses almost identical to the
second set of verses in the Therīgāthā:
12. See Collett (forthcoming, chapter on Paṭācārā) for a discussion of the importance of
family status and wealth in the biographies of early Buddhist women.
Therīgāthā 149
“See the body, Nandā, diseased, impure, putrid, oozing, and drip-
ping, it is what fools long for.
Devote the mind, collected and one-pointed, to contemplation of
this impurity. As this is, so is that; as that is, so is this.”
Looking at it in this way, not relaxing day or night, then analyzing
it by my own wisdom, I dwelt.
Thoroughly, with diligent examination, I saw this body as it really
was, inside and out.
Then I became disgusted with the body, and I was disinterested
internally. Vigilant, unfettered, I am at peace, stilled.13
The concluding verses recount that she mastered the supernormal powers,
including the divine ear and divine eye, and had knowledge of previous
births. Essentially, she was Awakened, having “done the Buddha’s teaching.”
Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī
The biography of Abhirūpanandā in Apadāna I is not a lengthy one, being
only twenty-five verses long. The biography of Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī is
just over twice that, being fifty-four verses in total. This second Apadāna
biography of a female Nandā stands out among the other biographies in
the text as the style is particularly poetic. There are other occasions of
these sorts of poetic style within Apadāna I, but these stylistic features are
more abundant in the biography of Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī than is gener-
ally the case.14 The biography begins during the era of Buddha Padumut-
tara. At the time of Buddha Padumuttara, Nandā was born in Haṃsavatī
in the family of a wealthy merchant. She heard an exposition by the
Buddha that she describes as “undying, of the greatest sweetness, making
13. Apadāna I omits the second line of verse 83 in the Thī—duggandhaṃ pūtikaṃ vāti
bālānaṃ abhinanditaṃ—and instead has a different second half to the first verse (no.
15)—uggharantam paggharantaṃ bālānaṃ abhipatthitaṃ. Although the two lines are in dif-
ferent places, they say very similar things. Two other changes in Lilley’s edition are the re-
placement of dakkhisaṃ with vacchasi and vicintantiyā with vincinant’ idha.
14. The biography begins during the time of Buddha Padumuttara; however, instead of the
much more typical single verse stating this, there are six verses devoted to extolling the
many virtues of this lineal Buddha: “One hundred thousand eons ago, a leader was born, the
conqueror named Padumuttara, who had reached perfection. He advised, offered instruc-
tion to all beings, was brilliant, skilled in teaching, a Buddha, who enabled many people to
cross over. Sympathetic, compassionate, desiring the welfare of all beings, he established
adherents of other sects who came to him in the five precepts. His emptiness was undis-
turbed by those adherents, and it was ornamented by the arahants, unique ones having
150 women in early indian buddhism
mastery. He was fifty-eight ratana tall; the great sage had the appearance of a golden flower
garland, possessing the thirty-two excellent marks. His lifespan lasted one hundred thou-
sand years, and while he remained, he enabled many people to cross over.” (Padumuttara
nāma jino sabbadhammāna pāragū, ito satasahassamhi kappe uppajji nāyako. Ovādako
viññāpako tārako sabbapāṇinaṃ, desanākusalo buddho tāresi janataṃ bahuṃ. Anukampako
kāruṇiko hitesī sabbapāṇinaṃ, sampatte titthiye sabbe pañcasīle patiṭṭhapi. Evaṃ nirākulaṃ āsi
suññataṃ titthiyehi ca, vicittaṃ arahantehi vasībhūtehi tādihi. Ratanān’ aṭṭhapaññāsaṃ uggato
so mahāmuṇi kañcanagghiyasaṅkāso battiṃsavaralakkhaṇo. Vassasahasahassāni āyu tiṭṭhati
tāvade, tāvatā tiṭṭhamāno so tāresi janataṃ bahuṃ) (Ap. II 572) If this set of verses is com-
pared to the first verse of Abhirūpanandā’s biography—“Ninety-one eons ago, the leader
Vipassī was born, beautiful leader, wise in all phenomena” (ekanavute ito kappe vipassī nāma
nāyako uppajji cārunayano sabbadhammesu cakkumā, Ap. II 608)—the difference is evident.
Abhirūpanandā’s preface is more typical of the text overall, and the general style overall is
more telegraphic than poetic, but that is only a generalization, as there are other examples
of the stylistic features evident here.
15. This account does mention her mother, but does not specify who her mother is, as others
do (see below).
16. This caveat, of course, complicates her eponymous accolade as Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī
if it is taken to imply she is the most beautiful in the district.
Therīgāthā 151
O Child, you were born in the Sakyan family. You are the younger
sister of the Buddha. How can you remain at home being without
Nanda?17
Her mother implores Nandā to renounce, telling her that her youth and
beauty will end in old age and disease before too long, and that to be pre-
occupied with these is a pointless endeavor. At her mother’s request,
Nandā does go forth, but she remains unconvinced in her mind. The
Buddha sees that Nandā remains intoxicated with youth and beauty, and
here he performs the miracle that converts her. However, here again the
wording is entirely different from the other account in Apadāna I. The
Buddha makes the stunning beauty appear before her eyes, and Nandā is
again transfixed. However, in this version Nandā speaks to the apparition,
in words that would be more fitting as a discourse between lovers. Nandā
first asks the woman her family, name, and clan, and then suggests she
come hither so that Nandā may rest her head on the woman’s lap. This
she does, and while they are enjoying their intimacy the apparition falls
asleep. Then, a forbidding spider falls upon the apparition’s forehead.
This causes a boil to quickly develop and then burst, oozing pus and
blood. Further, her mouth begins secreting impurities, which have a
rotten stench about them, causing swelling and discoloration, and she
also begins to excrete bodily pus and to tremble. This pus-ridden ghoul
then spoke to Nandā, complaining of being afflicted by misery and in
pain. Nandā asks her:
17. Sākiyamhi kule jātā putte buddhānujā tuvaṃ, nandena pi vinā bhūtā agāre kiṃ na acchasi
(Ap. II 574).
18. Kuhiṃ vadanasobhan te, kuhiṃ te tuṅganāsikā? Tambabimbavaroṭṭhan te vadanaṃ te
kuhiṃ gataṃ? Kuhiṃ sasiṃ nibhaṃ vattaṃ, kambugīvā kuhiṃ gatā? Dolālolā ca te kaṇṇā
vevaṇṇaṃ samupāgatā. Makulakhārakākārā kalasā va payodharā, pabhinnā pūtikuṇapā
duṭṭhagandhitvam āgatā (Ap. II 575. Two emendations of Lilley—dolālolā for dolālocā and
makulakhārakākārā for makulakhārak’ ākārā)
152 women in early indian buddhism
You, with narrow waist and wide hips, have become full of impuri-
ties, like sinful ones lead off to a slaughterhouse. O beauty is not
eternal!
All this putrid smell produced by the body is frightful. It is as
loathsome as a cemetery in which the foolish delight.20
Nandā has seen through her false views; she has understood that beauty
does not last and only fools are intoxicated with it. Following these verses,
the Buddha speaks to Nandā and again here we find the same second set
of verses from the Therīgāthā, as was the case with the biography of
Abhirūpanandā. The verses in this case are identical to Therīgāthā verses
82–84, but verses 85 and 86 are absent. Hearing these verses, Nandā at-
tained the status of arahant and in the usual telegraphic style of Apadāna
I then recounted that “whenever I sit, I am always given over to medita-
tion” (yattha yattha nisinnā ‘haṃ tadā jhānaparāyanā Ap. II 576) so the
Buddha placed her as foremost of female disciples who are meditators.
Apadaˉna II
Apadāna II, the other recension of sections of the Apadāna preserved and
contained within Dhammapāla’s commentary on the Therīgāthā, does not
19. Collett Cox, unpublished conference paper entitled “Formalized Scholasticism: Frag-
ments 20 and 23 in the British Library Collection of Gāndhārī Manuscripts,” delivered at the
XVIth Congress of the International Association for Buddhist Studies, Dharma Drum Bud-
dhist College, Jinshan, New Taipei City, Taiwan, June 2011.
20. Vedimajjhā puthussoṇī sūṇā ‘va nītakibbisā, jātā abhejjabharitā. Aho rūpam asassataṃ.
Sabbaṃ sarīrasañjātaṃ pūtigandhaṃ bhayānakaṃ, susānam iva jegucchaṃ ramante yattha
bālisā (Ap. II 575. Em. abhejja to amejjha, following Cone 2001, 226).
Therīgāthā 153
proffer its own names for its two extant accounts. The accounts are in-
cluded under the names Dhammapāla gives for the two women—
Abhirūpanandā and Sundarīnandā, although for the latter he says her
name was initially Nandā. The Apadāna II verse narrative included in
Dhammpāla under the name Sundarīnandā is the same as those in Apadāna
I on Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī. However, although those listed under the
name Abhirūpanandā in Apadāna II share the name with the biography in
Apadāna I, the biographical account is almost entirely different.
Abhirūpanandā
There are twenty-five verses included in the Apadāna II that are said to be
the Apadāna verses of Abhirūpanandā, but in fact only verses 20–22 are
the same as the Apadāna I account of Abhirūpanandā, and these three
verses (on attainment of certain powers, such as the divine eye) are a stan-
dard set of verses that appear in identical and similar form in many other
of the Therī-Apadāna accounts.21 The narrative of these twenty-five verses
does not provide much biographical content, but does tell us that
Abhirūpanandā was born previously (although it does not state this is
during the era of Buddha Vipassī) in Bandhumati and was the wife of a
khattiya king, Bandhumā. One day, while sitting and quietly reflecting,
Abhirūpanandā becomes aware that she had not herself done any good
deeds that might lead to a better rebirth and that, in fact, instead, at death,
she will “go to a hell that is extremely hot, terrible, of horrible appearance,
completely pitiless.”22 Thereupon, she resolves to do some good and asks
her husband, the king, to give her a recluse whom she could feed. Having
filled the bowl of the recluse with the most excellent food, she covers the
bowl with cloth worth a thousand coins and offers it. This virtuous deed
serves her well in further births. At death she journeys on among the
worlds of gods and men, becoming chief queen to both thousands of deva
kings and, in the human realm, equally thousands of wheel-turning mon-
archs. In the present existence, she is born into the Sakyan family, and
becames the “foremost of a thousand women of the son of Suddhodana”
(nārīsahassapāmokkhā suddhodhanasutass’ ahaṃ, Thī-a 25), which could be
21. See for example, Dhammadinnā’s verses 32–33 (Ap. II 569), Sakulā’s verses 28–29 (Ap.
II 571), Uppaladāyikā’s verses 20–22 (Ap. II 603), Sigālamātā’s verses 25–27 (Ap. II 605)
Aḍḍakāsikā’s verses 11–13 (Ap. II 611), and Puṇṇikā’s verses 14–16 (Ap. II 612). Two other
verses in Abhirūpanandā’s biography in Apadāna II (1–3) are the same as verses attributed
to Ekapiṇḍadāyikā in Apadāna I (verses 1–3, Ap. II 515–16).
22. Mahābhitāpaṃ kaṭukaṃ ghorarūpaṃ sudāruṇaṃ, nirayaṃ nūna gacchāmi . . . (Thī-a II.1 at 25)
154 women in early indian buddhism
a reference to her being a chief consort in the bodhisatta’s harem. The next
verse then tells that she went forth because she was disenchanted with
household life, but does not connect this to the previous verse about her
relationship with the Buddha-to-be. The remaining verses essentially tell
of all the good that came out of her gift to the recluse: receipt of immea-
surable nuns requisites, no rebirth into places of misery, only ever being
born into deva or human realms, and in exalted families, and only experi-
encing pleasure. The final verses conclude by noting her mastery of the
supernormal powers, including attainments of the divine eye and ear, and
her attainment of Awakening.
Therıˉgaˉthaˉ commentary
Abhirūpanandā
Although this Apadāna II account of Abhirūpanandā is quite different than
the usual story of Nandā, Dhammapāla, in his section on Abhirūpanandā
in his commentary, retells the more usual story of obsession with beauty.
This lack of concord between Dhammapāla’s version and the one in
Apadāna II that sits alongside it is not too unusual, appearing at several
other points throughout the text. Norman has already noted that this lack
of concord raises the question as to whether the Apadāna II excerpts were
added into Dhammapāla’s commentary at some later date (1983, 135). In
the section on Abhirūpanandā, the Apadāna II excerpt comes at the end,
but in other cases, such as for example, that of Mittā (Thī-a II.7 at 34), if the
Apadāna II excerpt is removed, Dhammapāla’s narrative flows easily and
appears unbroken. However, Dhammapāla was certainly aware of the
Apadāna as, at the end of his commentary (Thī-a 269), he notes that one
way of classifying nuns is by whether they have an apadāna or not. In com-
paring Dhammapāla’s account with that of Apadāna II, it can be seen that
he maintains the lineal and family details said to be those of Abhirūpanandā
in Apadāna I and Apadāna II, that she was the daughter of Khemaka the
Sakyan, but other than that he renders no other concurring details.23
23. It might seem tenable to speculate that the reason for this could be that Dhammapāla
sought to downplay any suggestion of the Buddha-to-be delighting in concubines of his
court. But such an argument would be easily subverted by a quick check of Dhammapāla’s
biographies of other nuns whose stories are not told in the Apadāna. Several of the nuns he
provides accounts of, otherwise little known nuns, are said to have been concubines in the
Bodhisatta’s royal court (see the accounts of the two nuns named Tissā, the second of which
includes mention of several other nuns, Thī-a I.4 at 11–12).
Therīgāthā 155
Sundarīnandā
With regard to Therīgāthā verses 82–86, attributed to the other Nandā,
Dhammapāla comments on them in his section on Sundarīnandā. Ac-
cording to Dhammapāla’s commentary, Sundarīnandā was born during
the era of Buddha Padumuttara into a good family in the town of
Haṃsavatī. She heard Buddha Padumuttara place a nun as foremost of
those women who meditate and she aspired to that position. She jour-
neyed on and in the era of Gotama was born into his own Sakyan family.
She was named Nandā, came to be called Sundarīnandā because of the
beauty of her form (rūpasampattiyā), and was known as the beauty of the
district (janapadakalyāṇī).24 The next section notes that, although she
24. This connection to a beautiful form is more often stated in relation to Abhirūpanandā.
156 women in early indian buddhism
could light up an entire room with the radiance of her body, Yasodharā
shone brighter than she.25 The next paragraph lists events that occurred
following the Awakening of the Buddha, which culminated in Nandā
going forth. First, her brother Nanda and Rāhula went forth, then her
father Suddhodana attained final release (parinibbuta), then Mahāpajāpatī
and Rāhula’s mother went forth, and so she pondered on the fact that all
of her family had renounced the world to follow the world-honoured one.
Deciding there was no point in her remaining within the household life
without her family, she too went forth but because of love for her relatives
(ñātisinehena), not because she was instilled with faith or confidence in the
teachings. Then follows the story of the apparition, although Dhammapāla
does not repeat it in full, but refers the reader back to the prior story
of Abhirūpanandā. However, he notes, there is a difference here:
Sundarīnandā saw the form of the woman overcome by old age, and her
mind was turned toward meditation. Seeing her ability to reflect upon and
contemplate impermanence, misery and non-self, the Buddha taught her
about the impermanence of the body with verses 82–84, and as a conse-
quence she attained entry into the stream. Then follows the Apadāna I
account of Nandā Janapadakalyāṇī, at the end of which Dhammapāla
comments that Sundarīnandā attained arahantship, and reflecting upon
her attainments, she uttered Therīgāthā verses 85–86.
Aṅguttara-nikaˉya commentary
The Manorathapūraṇī, which contains narrative biographies of the nuns
noted in the Aṅguttara-nikāya as distinguished in one quality or another,26
includes a biographical account of the nun Nandā, distinguished accord-
ing to the Aṅguttara-nikāya for her meditative ability. In this account, she
is called not only Nandā, but also Rūpanandā and Janapadakalyāṇī. She is
said to be the daughter of Mahāpajāpatī, born before the Buddha-to-be and
so again is his sister. The story here is very similar to that of Dhammapāla’s
commentary on Sundarīnandā. All the activities of her family are listed;
Nanda and Rāhula joined the Order, Suddhodana has died, and
Mahāpajāpatī and Rāhula’s mother have gone forth. She is left alone again
25. Pruitt notes that the Burmese and Sinhalese editions suggest this passage was a later
addition (Pruitt 1999, 107 n6).
26. See chapter five in this volume.
Therīgāthā 157
and so decides to go forth, and then follows the story of her obsession with
her beauty and the Buddha’s apparition. Both end with a quotation of a
Dhammapada verse, although only the beginning of the verse is recorded
in the Manorathapūraṇī. One noteworthy difference is that the
Manorathapūraṇī does not recount the story in full, as Dhammapāla does,
instead referencing an earlier telling of it. However, here the other version
referenced is the story of Khemā.
Dhammapada commentary
Janapadakalyāṇī Rūpanandā
Finally, the Dhammapada commentary includes a story of a nun called
Janapadakalyāṇī Rūpanandā. The verse that this story is a comment upon
is the same verse as noted above, one that is repeated in both the
Manorathapūraṇī and in Dhammapāla’s commentary on the Therīgāthā.
The verse, from the chapter in the Dhammapada on old age, teaches that
the body is a mere collection of bones, flesh, and blood, and thus the
story of Nandā and the Buddha is a fitting story to illustrate this. The
story in the Dhammapada commentary begins with Janapadakalyāṇī re-
flecting on that fact that her entire family has renounced the world. The
Buddha she calls her eldest brother, and she mentions her mother having
gone forth, but in this case does not name her. She does not mention her
brother Nanda, but instead reflects upon that fact that her husband has
become a monk. In another story in the Dhammapada commentary,
Nanda, the brother of the Buddha, is married to a Janapadakalyāṇī, which
is perhaps a confusion of their more usual relationship of brother and
sister. She decides to become a nun out of love for her family, and once
ordained comes to be known as Rūpanandā because of her outstanding
beauty. The same story as above, of her meeting with the Buddha,
follows,with some added detail on the moment of the “death” of the
apparition:
27. Aṭṭhīnaṃ nagaraṃ kataṃ maṃsalohitalepanaṃ, yattha jarā ca maccu ca māno makkho ca
ohito ti (Dhp-a 11.4 at III 118, Thī-a V.4 at 80, Mp 364).
158 women in early indian buddhism
Suddenly, her body began to bloat, from its nine openings oozed
lumps of pus and worms. Crows and other animals gathered and
tore at the carcass.28
The Buddha then gives her the teaching similar to Therīgāthā verses
82–83, and she attains the fruit of conversion.29 At the conclusion of the
story, the text reverts to calling her Nandā, although she has been
Janapadakalyāṇī at the beginning and Rūpanandā for the most part.
Conclusion
To conclude, let us summarize the above. As per the table on pages 146–7,
if we trace evidence for Nandās through the textual record in the trajectory
we assume to be early to late, we find the first texts speak of a Nandā dis-
tinguished in her skill in meditation, with verses attributed to her that
prefigure the beauty story in the Therīgāthā. In Apadāna I we find the two
Nandās with different lineal descent—the daughter of Khemaka the
Sakyan and the half-sister of Gotama. Here, however, is the same life ac-
count for both—the beauty story. It is only in Apadāna II, now only extant
in the Therīgāthā commentary, that there remains evidence of a separate
biography, although this does not have much content. The text composed
by Dhammapāla himself provides accounts of both the daughter of Khe-
maka and the daughter of Suddhodana, but in the two cases the biography
is the same. In the Manorathapūraṇī we find again Gotama’s sister and the
beauty story and finally in the Dhammapada commentary a Nandā who is
a wife to Nanda, brother to Gotama, and another Nandā who is his female
sibling.
With the exception of the account of Abhirūpanandā in Apadāna II, all
other biographical accounts of Nandā can be traced back to the two sets of
verses in the Therīgāthā. Although this is the case in the extant literature,
it does appear that biographies of nuns called Nandā have not remained
static through their history within the manuscripttradition. It appears to
be the case that there was some attempt within the textual tradition to es-
tablish historical accounts of the two female disciples called Nandā, al-
though this was only partially successful. Perhaps this lack of success was
in part due to the enterprise being spun on the shaky foundations of trans-
mission error. If, indeed, as would be the scholarly perspective, the two
sets of verses exist as a result of the fallibility of the transmission process,
the subsequent quest within the textual tradition to establish two from
one falters in this case on content—the content of the verses being identi-
cal, maintaining a second story with little scriptural/historical basis thus
proved too problematic in the end.
8
Apadaˉna: Therıˉ-apadaˉna
wives of the saints: marriage and KAMMA
in the path to arahantship
Jonathan S. Walters
Introduction
the apadāna is an early post-Asokan (ca. 2nd–1st century bce) collection
of hagiographical texts in Pāli verse, which is included in the Khuddaka-
nikāya of the Pāli Tipiṭaka as perhaps the latest and final addition to that
canon.1 It opens with brief, putative autobiographies of the Buddha
(Buddhāpadāna) and of the Paccekabuddhas, unnamed men who in the past
achieved Buddhahood without teaching and establishing a religious com-
munity (Paccekabuddhāpadāna). But the bulk of the collection narrates the
lives of monks (Therāpadāna) and nuns (Therī-apadāna) who became saints
(arahants) in the dispensation (sāsana) of the historical Buddha. These too
are presented as autobiographical (or more precisely, “autohagiographical”)
1. This chapter has been composed as part of a larger project to translate the entire Apadāna
into English, which at this writing (2012) I am pursuing with the generous support of sab-
batical leave from Whitman College, and for which I express my gratitude. The Apadāna is
the only text of the vast Pāli Tipiṭaka that remains untranslated into a Western language,
though portions of it have appeared in various publications, including my own (Walters
1995). It figures centrally in Walters (1990); Walters (1994); Walters (1997); Walters (2003).
For fuller studies of the entire text than I am able to provide or engage here, see also Bechert
(1958); Cutler (1994). All translations of the Apadāna in this chapter are my own, and I pro-
vide them in English verse approximating the meter of the original Pāli due to my conviction
that these texts were meant for rhythmic performance. Filler words, odd alternate forms,
repetitious phrases, fudged grammar, and so forth in the text betray the centrality of metrical
composition to the original authors and editors, and so I have followed suit. While my trans-
lations aim to be literal ones, in small ways I have taken poetic license in order to meet the
daunting challenge of making the Pāli meter work in modern English. In this chapter I have
not reproduced the critical apparatus that indicates those junctures, but the interested reader
can find it in the scholarly version of the full translation, which will be available for free at
www.whitman.edu/Penrose once it is completed. Cf. also notes 3, 5, and 7, below.
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 161
narratives, in which each monk or nun explains, in the first person, the
process that led to his or her achievement of arahantship.
Some of these men and women are well known from other (often earlier)
sources, but the majority of them are known only to Apadāna. This majority
is listed therein as personifications of meritorious deeds (with names like
“Lamp-Giver” or “Foot-Worshiper”) rather than being assigned names of
historical individuals believed to have played important roles in the early
Buddhist community.2 In their apadānas particularly, but even in those of
the otherwise famous monks and nuns, Apadāna often merely alludes to, or
even fails altogether to mention, certain details. The sorts of details of the
present/final life that might be expected of a biographical or hagiographical
narrative and that, in the case of the famous monks and nuns, are known
from other sources are often absent. Instead, in all cases, apadānas narrate
the process leading to arahantship (or in the case of the Buddha, Buddha-
hood) as the result primarily of meritorious deeds performed in previous
lives, during the times of previous Buddhas and Paccekabuddhas. Thus in a
typical apadāna a monk or nun begins by describing the meritorious deed
he or she performed during the time of a previous Buddha, details the sub-
sequent happy rebirths (both human and divine) experienced as results of
that deed, and concludes by portraying his or her present-life arahantship as
the culmination of that same kammic trajectory.
In other work (Walters 1997) I have interpreted this focus on pieties
performed during previous lives in light of the expansion of the Buddhist
community after the 3rd century bce. The earlier texts in the Pāli canon
had certainly established by then the expectation that good deeds per-
formed by laypeople and less advanced monks and nuns would result in
good rebirths among people and in various heavens. However, the achieve-
ment of arahantship—which entails the end of all rebirth, nibbāna—was
narrated as the exclusive domain of advanced monks and nuns, whose in-
tellectual penetration and meditative effort produced that religious goal.
Ordinary people could look forward to future lives as advanced monks and
nuns, during which they too could pursue arahantship. But the sorts of
religious activities that they typically performed in the present life (and
which most Theravāda Buddhists still typically perform today)—giving
alms; building temples and monuments; worshiping bodhi trees, thūpas,
and similar reminders of the Buddha; adopting special moral codes during
full moon day celebrations; listening to sermons—were not explicitly
3. The Pali Text Society edition of Apadāna (Lilley 1925–27) includes 547 apadānas of males
(theras); the Buddha Jayanti Tripiṭaka Series Apadāna (Vajirajñāṇa et al., 1961–1983) includes
559; the commentary (Godakumbura 1954) includes 561. The PTS and BJTS editions agree in
relating 40 apadānas of females, though there are some reasons to believe that the collection
once contained additional nuns’ apadānas (see Collett 2011, 210). While I have not taken on the
monumental project of constructing a critical edition of the text (for a model of which see
Cutler 1997), my translation does take into account the variance in readings between the PTS
and BJTS editions. Where they disagree, the critical apparatus (see n. 1) indicates the disagree-
ment in a footnote and indicates why I have chosen one over the other; where one edition in-
cludes verses not found in the other, I translate them anyway at the appropriate juncture,
double-numbering each verse according to both the PTS and the BJTS reckonings so that
readers can track the differences in the two editions. This too I refrain from reproducing in the
present chapter, for reasons of space, and I encourage the interested reader to pursue it via the
critical apparatus supplied in the scholarly version of the complete translation online. In the
present instance I have found it sufficient to refer only to the PTS edition, which will be most
accessible to readers of English. I number the verses only according to the PTS edition, and
accordingly also adopt the occasionally archaic transliteration system which the PTS edition
also employs, notably the use of “ŋ” for the now-more-common “ṃ” to denote the anusvāra.
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 163
4. The only clear exception to this statement which I have found is in the apadāna of one
Khomadāyaka Thera (“Cloth Provider,” #30; Ap. I:80, v. 1) who is made to say:
In the city Bandhumatī
I [lived as] a trader back then.
In that way supporting [my] wife (dāraŋ)
I planted the seeds of [great] wealth.
There are a number of additional instances in which the becoming-arahants refer more
generally to “friends, family, and relatives” whom they gathered together to perform their
root pieties, as a collective agent which presumably included their wives and other women.
We know from inscriptions that women were included in many such group pieties during
the historical period of Apadāna’s composition (see below, n. 13), and women surely are in-
tended to be among its audience (and presumably were included among its authors, on
which see my next note). But the fact that this phrase specifically fails to mention wives is
really a case-in-point, as becomes explicit in Bhaddā-Kāpilāni-apadāna’s refusal to let Mahā-
Kassapa-apadāna get away with it (see below, section 2).
164 women in early indian buddhism
6. For example, the apadāna of the Buddha’s chief disciple Sāriputta Thera (#1; Ap. I:15–31)
opens with a minutely detailed description of the flora, fauna and geography of his hermit-
age during a previous life as the ascetic Saruci (v. 1–33), followed by a lengthy passage de-
scribing the virtues of his students during that time (v. 35–65). It also contains two beautiful,
extended speeches in which Saruci praises the knowledge of Buddha Anomadassī (v. 77–92)
and then, reborn as Sāriputta, he praises the Buddha Gotama (v. 159–208). The apadāna of
Upāli Thera (#6; Ap. I:37–48) is similarly rich with extended metaphors describing the vir-
tues of the Buddha and his followers, and the positive effect discipleship had upon Upāli,
which seem more a display of poetic skill than a necessary detail of the kammic trajectory.
7. The tradition, which maintains that these verses were actually spoken by the monks to
whom they are ascribed, would lead us to believe that there were more than five hundred
authors of just the Therāpadāna.
8. Beginning with #371 (Pattipupphiya Thera, who is #374 in the BJTS edition) the manu-
scripts conclude almost all the texts in Therāpadāna with a fuller three-verse refrain that
prefaces the main formula quoted here with two additional verses. There is some variation
in the first twenty or so subsequent apadānas, which sometimes invert the order of the two
prefaced verses, and in some instances the text substitutes a different two feet (“All my out-
flows are exhausted”) for “Like elephants . . . without constraint.” But the “inverted version”
(below) becomes the consistent reading for all the rest of the Therāpadāna and for all of the
Therī-apadāna:
166 women in early indian buddhism
9. This is SN 3.2, a brief sutta in which Māra (Death) approaches the Bodhisatta during the
six years of severe asceticism he undertook prior to attaining Buddhahood. Māra points to
his emaciation and similar bodily suffering as a reason to give up the quest, then departs
when this ploy fails to undermine the Bodhisatta’s determination.
10. See, however, n. 8, above: their consistent employment of the finalized, “inverted ver-
sion” of the three-verse refrain may confirm that they are later/separate compositions.
11. Ettāvatā Buddhâpadānañ ca Paccekabuddhâpadānañ ca Therâpadānañ ca samattā ti.
Nibbānapaccayo hotu. “To this extent the apadānas of the Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas, and
Theras are finished. Let it be the foundation for nibbāna!” (Ap. I:511).
168 women in early indian buddhism
him. She finally meets the Buddha who famously tells her that he can
bring the son back to life with a white mustard seed obtained from a
home that has experienced no death. Going from home to home she
eventually comes to understand death’s terrible universality, and like
Paṭācāra makes this realization the foundation for her own arahantship
(Ap. II:565–66, v. 19–25). Dhammadinnā Therī (“Given by Dhamma,”
#23) “goes to another family” (parakulaŋ gantvā) and lives happily until
her husband (sāmiko) hears the dhamma and becomes a non-returner;
she then also goes forth and becomes an arahant (Ap. II:569, v. 24–26).
Like her, Sonā Therī (“Cleansed,” #26) “goes to a husband’s family”
(gantvā patikulaŋ) and gives birth to ten sons, but when to her displeasure
they all renounce the world along with their father, she tracks them to the
monastery where they are staying. Meeting a nun who instructs her in the
nature of suffering, she quickly achieves arahantship (Ap. II:577, v. 10–17).
In each of the foregoing examples, the fact of marriage is a necessary
contextualizing detail, in the absence of which the main story could not be
narrated. This no doubt reflects a historical situation in which a grown
woman’s status was largely defined by her husband (and after his death,
her sons), just as an unmarried girl’s status was largely defined by her
father and other male relatives.12 Marriage (or birth) to powerful men
largely determined the power of women. Alice Collett (2011) has persua-
sively argued that a central goal of the Therī-apadāna narratives was “to
establish a female past for the [Buddhist] tradition” in which, we know
from inscriptional and archaeological evidence, women did play signifi-
cant roles as nuns and lay donors.13 Given that historical situation, it
12. It is important to recognize that some of the nuns’ apadānas refer to fathers and other
male relatives as a contextualizing detail that functions much like marriage does in the
foregoing examples. This is especially clear in the repeated narrative about the seven daugh-
ters of Kikī the King of Kāsi (Benares) studied by Alice Collett (2011). They—including sev-
eral of the nuns just mentioned (Uppalavaṇṇā, Paṭācārā, Kisā-Gotamī, and Dhammadinnā)—
were sisters (during the time of the previous Buddha Kassapa) who, refused permission by
their father to become nuns, nevertheless remained in the home unmarried and devoted
themselves to performing meritorious deeds. In Therī-apadāna a number of other nuns
similarly perform their root pieties “while tagging along with father,” e.g., Sigālaka-mātā
Therī (#34; Ap. II:603, v.3) and Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī (#17; Ap. II:537, v. 97). This dis-
placement of woman’s agency onto her husband and other male relatives was formalized in
the classical law books of Brahmanism (dharmaśāstras), which maintained that marriage
was the single and definitive life-cycle ritual (saṃskāra) for women. See the next chapter of
this volume, chapter nine, for a discussion of some Brahmanical notions of marriage.
13. For a discussion see Walters (1994, esp. p. 371 and references provided in the notes
there); cf. Walters (1997, esp. p. 186, n. 42).
170 women in early indian buddhism
should come as no surprise that this past was often established on the
basis of a given woman’s marriage (or parentage).
The necessity of marriage to establish this female past becomes espe-
cially apparent when we consider another category of marriage references
found in the Therī-apadāna. The text contains a stock claim made by many
of the individual female arahants that during her intermediate lives she
“was fixed in the chief queen’s place” (mahesittaŋ akārayiŋ) of a certain
number of kings of the gods, and likewise of a certain number of human
kings, some of whom usually are specified to have been wheel-turning
(cakkavatti, Skt. cakravarti) monarchs.14 This claim is best understood in
light of the parallel Buddhist history constructed in Therāpadāna. Here a
great number of male arahants, using parallel stock phraseology, claim
the obverse. During their intermediate lives they were kings of the gods
and wheel-turning or lesser human kings some specified number of times
(usually bearing personal names reflective of the root piety that led them
into those exalted stations).15 This sovereign achievement is sometimes
included among the predictions that the previous Buddhas make of them.
The history of divine and human rulership thus constructed—which is
populated by becoming-arahants and fuelled by the good kamma of their
root pieties—opens an obvious space for female counterparts because
divine as well as human kings famously enjoy superior (and oftentimes
numerous) wives.16 Sometimes the previous Buddha’s prediction speci-
fies, as in the case of Sāriputta (“Sāri’s Son”) Thera, that:
14. This stock claim recurs in the apadānas of Sumedhā Therī (“Wise” #1); Tīṇinaḷamālikā
Therī (“Three Reed Garland-er” #5); Ekapiṇḍadāyikā Therī (“One Ball [of Food] Donor”),
#6; Kaṭacchubhikkhadāyikā Therī (“A Spoonful of Begged-for Food Donor” #7);
Sattuppalamālikāya Therī (“Seven Blue Lotus Flower-er”, #8); Pañcadīpikā Therī (“Five
Lamps” #9); Udakadāyikā Therī (“Water Donor”, #10); Ekūposathikā Therī (“One Full Moon
Observance”, #11); Ekāsanadāyikā Therī (“One Seat Donor” #14); Pañcadīpadāyikā Therī
(“Five-Lamps Donor” #15); Sālamālikā Therī (“Sal Garland-er” #16); Khemā Therī (“Peace”
#18); Bhaddā-Kuṇḍalakesā Therī (“Auspicious Curly-Hair” #21); Nandā or Janapadakalyāṇi
Therī (“Joy” or “Beauty of the Countryside” #25); Uppaladāyikā Therī (“Lotus Donor”, #33).
Several more nuns, including Bhaddā-Kāpilāni Therī (#27) and Yasodharā Therī (#28), who
are discussed in the next two sections, also claim to have been married to human and/or
divine kings without however employing this stock phraseology.
15. This theme, in one variation or another, is found in virtually all the monks’ apadānas,
even those which are only a few verses long (and in which, therefore, this claim becomes the
most salient biographical detail provided). I leave off listing them here for considerations of
space.
16. For a provocative examination of just how seriously human kings’ superior sexuality was
taken see Ali 2004.
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 171
And the wheel-turning monarchs are regularly introduced with the epi-
thet “possessor of the seven gems” (sattaratanasampanno), among which
the “woman gem” (itthiratana, Skt. strīratna) was reckoned an especially
significant one.18 But none of the texts of the Therāpadāna draws the obvi-
ous (and marvelous) conclusion, namely that the superb female consorts
of such becoming-arahant god-kings and human-kings were (and in the
context of the day, are) themselves becoming-arahant god-queens and
human-queens. Only in Therī-apadāna does this possibility becomes ex-
plicit. In its opening verses, Sumedhā Therī (“Wise,” #1) states that “being
the chief queen of one who possessed the seven gems, I was the woman-
gem” (Lilley II:512, v. 3: sattaratanassa mahesī itthiratanaŋ ahaŋ bhaviŋ). As
Therī-apadāna proceeds to enumerate the vast number of times that par-
ticular nuns were chief queens of god-kings and human-kings, it repopu-
lates Therāpadāna’s universal history with the women who later became
arahants in the dispensation of Gotama Buddha. This establishes further
place for women in the Buddhist past and likely proved especially poi-
gnant to those in the Apadāna’s audience who were themselves Buddhist
queens.
The necessity of marriage that I have been discussing certainly points
to the dependence of Buddhist queens on Buddhist kings. This is the case
whether we are talking about legendary queens in a constructed Buddhist
past or real ones in a then-present Buddhist audience. But as John Strong
17. Virtually identical (future) pleasures are predicted of Upāli Thera (#6, Ap. I:40, v. 38–39)
and Upavāna Thera (#22, Ap. I:73, v. 40–41). Additional prediction sequences too numerous
to detail here assure the becoming-arahant of more generalized pleasures in heaven.
18. The other six gems of a wheel-turning monarch were his wheel (cakka, sometimes un-
derstood to mean the chariot, and sometimes a more symbolic representation of his power),
elephant, horse, gem, steward (or wealth), and advisor.
172 women in early indian buddhism
19. That is, kings whose underlordship to world-conquering emperors was enacted through
their participation in his imperial circle (rājamaṇḍalā), on which see especially Inden (1981);
Inden (2000). For its playing out in the ancient and medieval Sri Lankan Buddhist king-
doms that preserved the Apadāna see Walters (2000); Walters (2008).
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 173
20. These same two feet are repeated in the same context in the apadāna of Sālamālikā
Therī (#16; Ap. II:529, v. 4).
21. The highest heaven.
174 women in early indian buddhism
The rulership of the queens, and the good kamma that produced it, was
their own. Many of the individual nuns’ apadānas also stipulate that Bud-
dhist queens enjoyed many pleasures, including being happy, being
wealthy, being attended upon by others, and enjoying fabulous heavenly
mansions. These were likewise their own, experienced independently of
their royal husbands.
Strong’s threefold analysis of the Buddhist queen as simultaneously
dependent, interdependent, and independent helps us make sense of the
complexity found in the apadānas of the two most famous wives of saints,
Bhaddā-Kāpilāni and Yasodharā. Both of them were likewise chief queens
to their present-life husbands (Mahā-Kassapa and the Buddha, respec-
tively) when the latter were enjoying their intermediate lives as divine and
human kings. In the apadānas of those therīs, too, we see ways in which
they were dependent on their husbands, but also ways in which they and
their husbands were interdependent, and an insistence that in some ways
they were independent of their husbands. I turn to these detailed pictures
of kammic marriage in the following two sections. But I conclude this sec-
tion by pointing to a final apadāna in which this “edgy” independence of
wives from their husbands is especially clear, that of Bhaddā-Kuṇḍalakesā
Therī (#21).
Though not a queen, in her present life Bhaddā-Kuṇḍalakesā was the
daughter of an opulent millionaire. Becoming infatuated with a thief she
sees being led for execution, she soon marries him after her father pur-
chases his freedom. She lives as his “trustworthy, very loving and friendly”
wife but “that enemy, being greedy for [her] valuable ornaments,” leads
her to a mountain precipice on the pretense of performing a sacrifice. In
fact, he intends to murder her. Discerning his plan she attempts to save
her life by offering him her finery freely and lowering herself to the status
of “bed-slave” (mañca-dāsī). But then he replies:
She quickly devises a ruse to get him to the edge of the cliff, then throws
him into the precipice, reveling:
thūpa for the departed Padumuttara Buddha (100,000 aeons ago) in con-
cert with his “family and friends” (v. 1–6). This is followed by thirteen
verses (v. 7–19) detailing the heavenly mansion he enjoyed among the
gods; the worldly palace he enjoyed as the cakkavattin named Ubbiddha
60,000 aeons ago (during which aeon he was a cakkavattin, presumably
by the same name, “fully thirty times”); and the great city Rammaka that
those cakkavattins ruled. The text concludes with the briefest allusion to
his present/final life:
The wife’s apadāna also opens in the time of Padumuttara, but it tells the
back-story to the building of the thūpa then. At that time, Mahā-Kassapa
was then named Videha, a leading millionaire with many gems in the city
of Haṃsavatī. One time, along with his servants, he went to hear Padu-
muttara Buddha preach and on that occasion the Buddha praised the dis-
ciple who was foremost in the practice of austerities. The millionaire
served the Buddha alms for a week then aspired to attain that state him-
self, making everyone in his retinue smile. At that very instant Padumut-
tara Buddha predicted the future arising of Gotama Buddha and the mil-
lionaire’s rebirth as Kassapa, who would indeed be foremost among the
disciples who practice austerities. Gladdened by that he then lovingly
served Padumuttara Buddha the rest of his life (v. 1–9). Only then does the
Buddha pass away (v. 10) and:
The wife’s apadāna here unmistakably refers to the opening of her husband’s
apadāna by mentioning the detail that he acted in concert with his family and
friends; it even borrows the imagery of blazing like the sun or a blooming sal
(Vateria acuminata) tree from the husband’s apadāna. But as though all the
details of the back-story weren’t enough, Bhaddā-Kāpilāni then proceeds to
describe the thūpa itself in far greater detail than even Mahā-Kassapa’s some-
what elaborate (for these texts) account. Her apadāna supplies, in nine verses,
a description of the thūpa’s architectural features and the rituals that, she
says, her husband performed there for the rest of his life (v. 13–21).
Bhaddā-Kāpilāni’s apadāna proceeds to describe a series of additional
root pieties performed by her husband during previous lives:
On first blush the subject of the wife’s apadāna is thus actually the
husband, but the interest of the text goes beyond mere reportage of bio-
graphical details about Mahā-Kassapa. Throughout this narrative, Bhaddā-
Kāpilāni gently but consistently is inserted into the rich kammic biography
thus produced of her husband:
And as with the Buddhist queens discussed in the previous section, de-
pendence is not the end of the story here.
Many of the passages just quoted are suggestive of the interdepen-
dence of husband and wife, who perform these pious deeds together. The
brahmin who gives Vipassi Buddha a cloak seems to need his wife’s
approval (which she gives). Also, it takes but a small stretch of the imagi-
nation to realize that the wife would have been integral to any of these pi-
eties: the duties of a wife would include organizing things, cooking the
food, and sewing and then replacing the cloak that had been given away.23
In Bhaddā-Kāpilāni’s account of Mahā-Kassapa’s almsgiving to a Pacceka-
buddha, when he was one of three landholding brothers (v. 35–41), we get
22. Kalyāṇa-mittā is a term the Buddha uses in the suttas to indicate the sort of companion
who enables, encourages, and entwines one in meritorious things. It is juxtaposed with the
“ugly (akalyāṇa) friend” who enables, encourages, and entwines one in demeritorious
things.
23. Such domestic service is an especially prominent theme in Yasodharā Therī’s apadāna,
discussed in the next section.
180 women in early indian buddhism
a particularly rich glimpse into what must indeed have been the complex
inner-workings of a household committed to performing acts of merit.
The eldest brother (who is Mahā-Kassapa’s rebirth precursor) is away from
the house when the Paccekabuddha comes for alms. The youngest brother
offers the Paccekabuddha his eldest brother’s portion of food. When the
eldest returns and his wife (Bhaddā-Kāpilāni’s rebirth precursor) tells him
what has happened, he “does not rejoice about that almsgiving”
(nābhinandittha so dānaŋ), so the wife takes the food back from the Pac-
cekabuddha and gives it to her husband. When he then gives it back to the
Paccekabuddha himself, the wife is enraged.24 She retrieves the bowl for a
second time, throws away the food, fills it up with mud, and then gives it
once again to the Paccekabuddha! But when she then notices the Pacceka-
buddha’s equanimity—he has remained unmoved by the whole scene,
and accepts the bowl of mud without any difference from the way he ac-
cepted the home-cooked meal—she has a change of heart. She takes back
the bowl for a third time, cleanses and perfumes it, fills it with clarified
butter (ghata, ghee) and offers it to him with proper reverence (sakkāraŋ
adaŋ). This restores to the whole household the meritoriousness of giving
alms to a Paccekabuddha, which means that in that instance, anyway, Kas-
sapa’s rebirth precursor, in several ways, would not have made merit
except for the actions of his wife.
This interdependence of husband and wife becomes explicit at two
points near the end of Bhaddā-Kāpilāni’s apadāna. Here the syntax of the
text, otherwise narrated in the third person, with first person interjections,
suddenly shifts to the second person plural:
24. The text does not specify why that makes her so angry (ruṭṭhā); it assumes that its audi-
ence will immediately understand the reason. I imagine something like this: the husband
expresses his displeasure in terms that implicate the wife—“I come home for lunch and
there’s nothing for me to eat”—so she does something unthinkable in the context of
Apadāna (and Theravāda Buddhist culture), taking alms back from a Buddha so her hus-
band can eat the food himself. When he then turns around and gives the food back to the
Buddha again, he reveals that his intention was not to get fed, but rather to earn the merit
for himself. (He is responding to what may have already been a tense situation, if the initial
return of the food struck him as an already-angry insult on the part of his wife, perhaps be-
cause she made a sarcastic comment, “Fear not, here’s your lunch”). The wife, who presum-
ably cooked the meal in the first place, has now been chastised for a lapse in her domestic
responsibility. She has turned a merit-making (puñña-kamma) opportunity into an act of
demerit (pāpa-kamma) in order to rectify that lapse, only to realize that the real lapse was in
her husband’s greediness for merit even at her expense. So she would have had plenty of
cause to become enraged, especially if the return of the food had already been a volley in a
marital spat.
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 181
In light of this, we can understand that even when she was following after
her husband it was she who gave alms, she who approved of the cloak, she
who followed after him, she who worshipped the Paccekabuddhas. Accord-
ingly, Mahā-Kassapa also disappears in the narrative of her own arahant-
ship (v. 61–63). Ultimately, these are all her deeds, not his.
25. The discussion which follows is based on the Pali Text Society edition, and rather than
attempting to exhaust the story of Yasodharā it merely highlights those passages most rele-
vant to our discussion of marriage and kamma. For fuller accounts the interested reader
should certainly consult Sally Mellick Cutler’s (1997) ground-breaking critical edition, trans-
lation, and study of the Pāli text, as well as Ranjini Obeyesekere’s (2009) excellent transla-
tion and study of two medieval Sinhala retellings of it. For a non-Theravādin parallel see also
Strong (1997).
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 183
26. As already mentioned in Section 1, the Buddhāpadāna proper also does not follow this
standard convention of the monks’ apadānas.
184 women in early indian buddhism
27. Buddhāpadāna also resonates with Mahāyāna Buddhist texts in referring to Buddhas in
the plural, including multiple Buddhas in a single time-space; in its somewhat cryptic refer-
ences to “Buddha-fields” (buddhakhetta = Skt. buddhakṣetra); and in the fact that like a
Mahāyāna sūtra the mere hearing of it is productive of Buddhahood, given that what one
hears and imagines is precisely what the Buddha himself imagined as he set out on the path
toward Awakening.
Apadāna: Therī-apadāna 185
stories of the slanderers Sundarī and Ciñcamānavikā, who both accuse the
Buddha of having impregnated them in “The Rags of Previous Kamma”
(v. 9, 14). Here too, this absence even of a mention of marriage is particu-
larly apparent given its centrality to the apadāna of his wife, Yasodharā.
Yasodharā’s apadāna is also a remarkable one, with a complex liter-
ary structure. Unlike most apadānas, but closely paralleling that of the
Buddha’s stepmother Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (#17; see Walters 1994;
Walters 1995), it begins with a prologue (v. 1–25). 28 On the day of her
final passing into nibbāna (death), she tells the Buddha that her time
has come:
She asks that any lapse in their long transmigration together be forgiven,
to which he replies:
28. Sinhala editions such as Vajirajñāṇa et al., 1961–1983 IIa (1983):158, v. 952–57 provide six
verses at the beginning of the text which are not found in the Lilley/PTS edition. The PTS
edition begins (Ap. II:584, v. 1) at what corresponds to the seventh verse (v. 958) of the Sin-
hala/BJTS edition. The six extra verses spell out that, as with Gotamī, Yasodharā came to the
realization of the time of death by reasoning it out for herself, then went to report it to the
Buddha. The PTS begins as it were in media res, with Yasodharā at the head of 500 nuns on
her way to report the realization to the Buddha.
29. That is, nibbāna.
186 women in early indian buddhism
Thrilled at his words, she dedicates her future lives to Sumedha, then fi-
nally is born a Sākyan and becomes the chief woman of his harem when
he has been born as Prince Siddhattha (v. 57–62).
The third “mini-apadāna” (v. 63–87) returns to the topic of the first:
service. In a speech addressed (to the Buddha? the Buddha’s father? some-
one in the text’s audience?) in the vocative “O Great King” (mahārāja),
Yasodharā details the mind-boggling numbers of Buddhas, Paccekabud-
dhas, and arahants to whom she provided vast almsgivings (mahādānaŋ
pavattayiŋ). These are reckoned finally in the hundreds of thousands of
billions and are proof of her repeated claim that “[her] service (adhikāraŋ)
was constant” across that vast swathe of cosmic time:
Here the text once again returns to her final/present life, her renuncia-
tion, and her achievement of arahantship, concluding with the standard
refrain (v. 81–87).
188 women in early indian buddhism
early community who have attained the highest goal. Their apadānas—
constructed largely on the basis of verses or parts of verses found in
Yasodharā’s apadāna—completely parallel hers. Thus the apadāna of “The
10,000 Nuns Headed Up by Yasodharā” (#29) has them all, during the
time of Dīpāṅkara Buddha, vow to be (and receive a prediction that they
will be) the perpetual wives of the ascetic Sumedha. This is fulfilled up to
and including their co-birth as beautiful women in the Buddha’s clan who
then join his harem and who renounce and attain arahantship in unison
with Yasodharā. The apadāna of “The 18,000 Nuns Headed Up by
Yasodharā” (#30) makes them even more exact, mirror-images of
Yasodharā, reproducing the text of her first two “mini-apadānas” verba-
tim, except for minor changes (such as tweaking the first person pronouns
and verbs from the singular to the plural). All 18,000 of these women ap-
proach the Buddha along with Yasodharā, and declare to him in unison
that they too will now pass away. Like the first 10,000 their perpetual wife-
ship for his sake was the fulfillment of a vow and prediction during the
time of Dīpāṅkara Buddha. They are even made to say “We are Yasodharās,
Great Sage,” in the passages where she identifies herself to the Buddha as
part of her/their spectacular miracle show! The third group, “18,000
Kṣatriyan Maidens Headed Up by Yasodharā” (#31), declare with a lot less
fanfare (and in a brief twelve verses) that they were also women of the
inner chambers, born together after serving alms “for [Buddha’s] sake”
during previous lives, who thereafter renounced and became arahants.
Taken together, these additional texts amplify the anyway strong mes-
sage of Yasodharā’s own apadāna that marriage is a kammic matter that
can extend over many lifetimes. Like Yasodharā herself, these parallel
women all serve the Buddha both actually and metaphorically, wanting for
themselves what he wants them to do (whether formerly, in terms of erot-
icism and political power, or presently, in terms of Buddhist accomplish-
ments and religious power). In performing this service they collectively
enable him to pursue his own Awakening, and even drive that process
themselves. These texts contribute to the general Therī-apadāna project of
finding space for women in Buddhist history, and find them a very wide
space indeed: all 46,000 of these “Yasodharās” aspired to and achieved
the station of “Buddha’s wife.”30 Like the special rankings in the monastic
30. In making this station a widespread achievement of religious women the texts call to
mind—despite a very different cultural setting—the widespread claim among medieval
Christian nuns and mystics, even some males, to be the “brides of Christ.”
190 women in early indian buddhism
intertwined with their own and that they enjoy a degree of independence
in which, even while married, they can pursue their own arahantship and
can act as driving forces in the progress their husbands, and others, may
make.
Yet at the end of her long kammic biography, it is important to under-
line, Yasodharā, like Bhaddā-Kāpilāni and each of the previous-life wives
of the saints, human and divine, ultimately left her husband behind to
realize her own Awakening. Arahantship entails the end of all ties to the
world, even the world of the gods, and marriage in particular is an institu-
tion that finally must be transcended in order to become a monk or nun
who can reach the end of the long, gradual path to Awakening that I have
dubbed “the kammic trajectory.” In the Therī-apadāna no less than
Therāpadāna, this is the central point. Though the former rebuts the latter
by reflecting so widely on the important roles played by marriage during
the earlier stages of that path, it agrees in taking the end point as the main
point in each and every autohagiography it contains. The standard refrain
encapsulates the real focus of each of the monks’ and nuns’ apadānas,
namely his or her arahantship. The Apadāna provides all that rich bio-
graphical detail, with such poetic flourish, only in the service of narrating
the final achievement of nibbāna. And as much as the Therī-apadāna
weaves marriage into the kammic trajectories of all the saints, males as
well as females, it also contains plenty of narratives of past lives as well as
present lives of nuns in which marriage is not involved. These include the
shared narrative of the seven sisters who explicitly resist marriage despite
remaining in the house so that they can dedicate themselves indepen-
dently and completely to religious activity (Collett 2011). However impor-
tant it may be in some cases, in others marriage certainly is not a neces-
sary condition of sainthood. But for the authors of the Therī-apadāna, and
the wives who heard it recited, it was important to recognize that marriage
does not preclude sainthood, either. In the early stages of the path, mar-
riage can even be a positive soteriological force.
9
Avadaˉnaśataka
the role of brahmanical marriage
in a buddhist text
Karen Muldoon-Hules
Introduction
the avadānaśataka is a Sanskrit collection of Buddhist stories that was
redacted in North India sometime during the first five hundred years of
the Common Era.1 The broad geographical distribution of its extent ver-
sions, ranging from early fragments found near Bamiyan in Afghanistan
to a number of later complete manuscripts located in Nepal, attests to its
wide circulation and enduring popularity. In addition, variants of the
Avadānaśataka’s stories appeared in at least six other North Indian Bud-
dhist narrative collections, and some also appear in the voluminous north-
ern Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya. The Avadānaśataka is organized into ten
chapters, or vargas, of ten stories each, for a total of exactly one hundred
avadānas. The term avadāna originally seems to have meant a portion of
something offered in a Vedic sacrifice, but underwent a shift in meaning
over the centuries and perhaps as it moved between traditions, coming to
1. On the dating of the Avś see, most recently, Demoto Mitsuyo (1998), and her article on the
fragments in the Schøyen Collection (Demoto 2006, 207–44). She suggests the original
redaction of the Sanskrit Avadānaśataka took place sometime between the 2nd and the early
6th centuries ce. Demoto’s argument for a new terminus ad quem rests primarily on her
proposed redating of the Chinese Avadānaśataka, the Zhuan ji bai yuan jing (撰集百緣經,
T 200), from the 3rd century ce to the mid-5th to late 6th century ce (2006, 209–12). The
2nd-century terminus a quo for the Sanskrit Avś is based on the dīnāra mentioned in the 83rd
avadāna and was suggested by the editor of the editio princeps (Speyer 1902–9, I, xv).
Avadānaśataka 193
mean a “heroic deed” or “heroic story” in the Buddhist context.2 This ar-
ticle focuses on the sometimes surprising use of Brahmanical marital
forms in the 8th varga.
2. Speculation on the exact meaning and the origin of the term avadāna has generated a
considerable amount of scholarly discussion. Edgerton did not hazard a guess, just noting
that the precise meaning was “much disputed” (Edgerton 1953 [1998], II:72). In the preface
to his translation of the Avś, Feer lamented the difficulty in defining it, a difficulty he felt
Asian Buddhists suffered from as well ([1891] 1979, ix.). Speyer argued that the word
avadāna was derived from the root ava √dā in the sense of “to cut off ” or “to select” (1902–9,
ii, Preface, II–IV). This accords very well, for example, with the use of avadāna in Gobhila
GS (1, 8, 5–12, 18) where it represents a piece of the sacrificial offering that is cut off. In
terms of later Buddhist usage, Winternitz defined avadāna as “a great religious or moral
deed” or the “history” of such ([1912] 1987, 244). Summaries of the scholarly discussion on
the origin and meaning of avadāna can be found in Sharma (1985, lxi–lxiii).
194 women in early indian buddhism
the Buddha, and announcing him as her choice before all the assembled
suitors. As I have argued elsewhere (Muldoon-Hules, forthcoming), these
actions echo steps of the Brahmanical svayaṃvara, and the use of the
chariot (ratha) also evokes the Brahmanical wedding ceremony. The re-
dactor of the Avadānaśataka seems to be cleverly subverting a well-known
Brahmanical marital convention—and a common literary motif of this
period—to make a dramatically framed case for Buddhist female renun-
ciation: a girl who can choose her own husband should be able to choose
to renounce.
It is important to note here that none of the Brahmanical law codes of
this period recognized the svayaṃvara as a marriage in its own right. In
fact, in Brahmanical literary sources of the period, a svayaṃvara was typi-
cally followed by a full wedding ceremony, as in the case of Indumatī’s
marriage to Prince Aja in Kālidāsa’s kāvya, the Raghuvaṃśa (Devadhar
[1981–84] 1993, II:122–24, 7.18–28). Similarly, Draupadī’s svayaṃvara and
inadvertent betrothal to the five Pāndava brothers in the Mahābhārata—a
self-styled “fifth Veda” (Fitzgerald 1980) and hence a religious text as well
as a literary masterpiece—is followed by five separate weddings, one for
Avadānaśataka 195
each brother (I: 186–90).3 The lone exception to this constant coupling of
a svayaṃvara to a wedding seems to be Bhīṣma’s inclusion of the
svayaṃvara in his somewhat self-serving list of marriages as he abducts
three girls from their svayaṃvara in the Mahābhārata (I: 96.8–14),4 an in-
clusion at odds with both other literary sources and the lists of marriages
given in the legal literature of the era.
At the same time, the Mahābhārata offers one somewhat parallel case to
Avadānaśataka 71 and 76’s use of the svayaṃvara in Madhavī’s choice of the
forest as her bridegroom at her svayaṃvara over an impressive array of suit-
ors. The forest, in this case, represents a celibate, spiritual life. Significantly,
this comes after Madhavī’s four marriages and four sons, all carried out in
the service of a brahmin’s wild quest for the perfect gift for his guru and all
made possible by her conveniently renewable virginity (V.104–21, especially
v. 112–18).5 Like the forest in Madhavī’s story, the presentation of the Buddha
as a chosen bridegroom at the svayaṃvaras of Suprabhā and Kāśisundarī in
Avadānaśataka 71 and 76 also represents a choice quite the opposite of mar-
riage, a celibate life as a Buddhist nun. Unlike Madhavī, however, neither
Suprabhā nor Kāśisundarī will marry or have a child. Thus, while Madhavī
had fulfilled the marital and procreative imperatives that Brahmanical Hin-
duism6 presented as a woman’s dharma, Suprabhā and Kāśisundarī com-
pletely sidestep any engagement with those imperatives.7
3. This unusual situation is presented in the text as a mistake made by their mother, Kuntī,
when she, without looking, instructs Arjuna to share the results of his day’s work equally
with his brothers as usual. She is taken aback when she discovers the reward is a girl but
cannot take back her words. The result is a rare case of polyandrous marriage in this source.
All Mahābhārata citations follow the critical edition (Sukthankar et al. 1927–71).
4. H. P. Schmidt noted that this was a “passage that is clearly tendentious” (1987, 87). See also
Sternbach (1951, 89–93). Unlike the legal sources, the Āśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra, and most schol-
ars, Sternbach gives eleven forms of marriage and includes two forms of svayaṃvara on the
list. However, his inclusion of the svayaṃvara seems untenable for the reasons stated above.
5. See Jamison (1996, 208–10); Dasgupta (2000). This parallel is discussed in more detail
in Muldoon-Hules (forthcoming).
6. “Brahmanical Hinduism” or “Brahmanism” herein refers to pre-Purāṇic Hinduism, the
strands of Hinduism active between roughly 100–600 ce.
7. Neither marriage nor procreation were part of the early Buddhist paradigm for ideal prac-
tice, despite the care taken in the biographies of the Buddha to portray him as fulfilling these
essentially Hindu imperatives. That care, reflected in sources such as Aśvaghoṣa’s 2nd-
century-CE Buddhacarita, reflects some of the same tension between Brahmanical marriage
and Buddhist renunciation that we see in these stories of the 8th varga. On the other hand,
none of the stories in the 7th varga of the Avś, which gives stories of men who renounce,
show any tension or concern about marriage, suggesting that the tension at the time of the
redaction of the text centered on female renunciation.
196 women in early indian buddhism
Oddly, in Avadānaśataka 71 and 76, the catalyst for the girl’s choice to
renounce is not any overt spirituality on her part but rather her father’s
dilemma when faced with a horde of suitors all vying for the girl’s hand in
marriage. Each father fears making enemies of the rejected suitors, the
sons of powerful men, as expressed in Avadānaśataka 71:
Then, besieged by them, her father, having put his cheek in his
hand, sat there depressed, saying, “If I give her to any one of them,
the others will become my enemies.”8
Fear of retaliation seems to be the keynote here, and this resonates with
the violent attack Draupadī’s rejected suitors launch on her father and
brother after her svayaṃvara in the Mahābhārata (I.180.1–10).9 A similar
attack on Indumatī and her new husband Aja in the Raghuvaṃśa as the
newlyweds leave her father’s city and protection suggests that such fears
were neither unfounded nor unfamiliar, at least as literary themes
(Devadhar [1981–84] 1993, II:126–33, 7.34–66).10 In Avadānaśataka 71 and
76, the attacks and their outcomes take on a Buddhist flavor, and the agent
who responds is not male, as in the Brahmanical texts, but female: each
girl confronts her angry suitors and performs pratihāryas (magical feats)
to demonstrate her spiritual attainment and convince them she is unfit for
marriage.
On another level, this focus on the father’s dilemma may have been an
attempt to make sense of what would not have been normal action in
these circumstances, given two factors: first, the pressure to marry girls
8. Tatas tair upadrūyamāṇaḥ pitā cāsyāḥ kare kapolaṃ dattvā cintāparo vyavasthitaḥ, yady
ekasmai dāsyāmi anye me amitrā bhaviṣyantīti (Speyer 1902–9, ii, 16.6–.7). According to Hi-
raoka, this phrase kare kapolam dattvā cintāparo vyavasthitaḥ “having put his head in his
hands, sat there depressed,” occurs twice in the Divyāvadāna, four times in the extant San-
skrit portion of the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, and six times in the Avś (2002, 158). However,
this does not include numerous other occurrences of this trope in the complete
Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, extant now in Tibetan translation only. See Schopen (2000,
158–59, n. V.4), for a list of these and a discussion of this hand-to-cheek pose in Indian art
and drama. It seems that the redactor of the 8th varga was taking a set phrase and inserting
it into a new context, a beleaguered father unable to choose a suitor out of the pack clamor-
ing for his daughter’s hand.
9. There is a strong element of interclass tension in this particular attack since the angry
kings specifically take issue with a brahmin (the disguised Arjuna) entering the vīryaśulka
contest in this svayaṃvara, which they see as a kṣatriya event.
10. It is ironic that, in the Raghuvaṃśa, the rejected suitors have enjoyed the hospitality of
the bride’s family and the wedding feasts for several days prior to this attack.
Avadānaśataka 197
off by the start of their menses in the Brahmanical context lest the father
incur the sin of brūṇahatya or “embryo-killing,” and, second, the strategic
use of the kanyādāna (“gift of a girl”) marriage as a form of marital alliance
to strengthen a man’s connections in his community or region. However,
neither of these factors are directly referenced in Avadānaśataka 71 and
76. It is unclear, also, whether Buddhist fathers would have been con-
cerned about a Brahmanical sin, but it is notable that neither Suprabhā
nor Kāśisundarī seem to come from households clearly marked as Bud-
dhist. In fact, in the 8th varga, only one girl, Supriyā (Avś 72), belongs to
what might be termed a “Buddhist household.”11 On the other hand, as we
will see, two other stories do address the issue of marital alliance in this
varga.
In any case, it seems the redactor needed a rationale to justify a father
who supported his daughter’s wish to renounce and that the fear of retali-
ation from rejected suitors provided a convincing one since he12 deploys it
again in two other stories in this same chapter (Avś 73 and 77) with almost
identical wording. This gives us a total of four stories in the 8th chapter
with the motif of the fearful father, all located in this subset that focuses
on Brahmanical marital forms and norms.
This rationale of the fear of retaliation by vengeful suitors seems to
be otherwise quite rare in Buddhist texts. I have only found one appear-
ance of this rationale in a Pāli story of this period although that same
story appears in two texts. In the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and the
Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā, the father of the famous Uppalavaṇṇā finds him-
self overwhelmed with suitors asking for her hand. While more econom-
ical in wording, this Pāli passage is very similar to the Sanskrit phrasing
of the four Avadānaśataka stories. In the Avadānaśataka stories, however,
11. If we take the term “Buddhist household” to mean an exclusive family commitment to
Buddhism, such a commitment is evident only in the story of Supriyā (Avś 72), the daughter
of the exemplary layman, Anāthapiṇḍada. In the stories in the 8th varga that focus on a ten-
sion between marriage and female renunciation or feature early renunciation, some of the
girls’ households seem to be non-Buddhist, as in Avś 73 and possibly 79 and 80, or possibly
hybrid in their religious identification.
12. We know very little about who redacted the 8th varga or the Avś except that the primary
audience repeatedly and directly addressed in these stories consists of monks, suggesting a
monastic redactor or perhaps a committee of monks. Whether any nuns might have been
involved is unknown. Hence, the male singular used herein for the redactor merely stands
for an unknown person or persons of either sex, albeit someone with considerable knowl-
edge of marital customs and rites.
198 women in early indian buddhism
the girls propose the solution of renunciation to solve their fathers’ prob-
lem, whereas in the Pāli story, the father, out of fear, urges Uppalavaṇṇā
to renounce while the girl herself plays a far more passive role.13 Thus,
the most significant difference is that the agency attributed to the girls in
the northern Avadānaśataka is assigned instead to Uppalavaṇṇā’s father
in the Pāli texts that describe this incident. This makes the agency at-
tributed to the young women of the 8th chapter of the Avadānaśataka all
the more remarkable, but whether it was meant to portray an existing
and realizable independence for young women in northern India or
merely to model an idealized course of behavior is debatable.
13. See Dhammpada-aṭṭhakathā. 1992, 1993, 2007 [1906-15], vol. 2, 48–49. A very similar
version of this story is told in the Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā (Thī-a XV.1 at 177), but this is actu-
ally one of two different stories about Uppalavaṇṇā’s going-forth. A second story of
Uppalavaṇṇā’s renunciation, a story of marriage and double incest, follows the Apadāna
verses included in this commentary in the Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā (Thī-a XI.1 at 188.23–
190.5). Silk compared this second story to a much more elaborate tale about Utpalavarṇā in
the Vinaya-vibhaṅga of the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, a tale that he translates in full (2009,
139–56). For another translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya story of Utpalavarṇā’s last
life, see von Schiefner ([1882] 1926, 206–15). On the other hand, the Therī-Apadāna verses
about Uppalavaṇṇā’s renunciation seem to give her more agency in both Lilley’s edition
(#19, Ap. II, 556) and the Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā (Thī-a XI.1 at 187.48–49). In these, she states
that she was much sought after for marriage, but went forth instead. However, these two
accounts provide no detail of the actual moment of decision and so do not directly contradict
the story of her father’s proposing renuuciation as a solution to the suitor dilemma. The
Bhikkhunī-samyutta does not deal with Uppalavaṇṇā’s renunciation, focusing instead on her
defeat of Māra. My remarks on her lack of agency are confined to the particular incident
described above and in no way meant to undercut this nun’s generally assertive character.
Avadānaśataka 199
14. Triṃśad varṣo vahet kanyāṃ hṛdyāṃ dvādaśavārṣikīm, tryaṣṭavarṣo “ṣṭavarṣāṃ vā dharme
sīdati satvaraḥ” (Olivelle 2005, 763–64, tr. 194). The use of the MDh as representative of the
Brahmanical legal literature of the time here is due to restrictions on space and is in no way
an attempt to oversimplify a rich and complex legal and cultural landscape.
15. After extensive research on this and other early law codes, Olivelle has presented a strong
argument for a date of 2nd–3rd centuries CE for the redaction of the MDh (2005, 20–25).
16. The influence of the MDh is evident not only in the dharmaśāstras that immediately
follow it and the surviving nine commentaries written on it, but also in the subsequent me-
dieval Nibandhas that continue to regard the MDh as the authority on dharma (Olivelle
2005, 66–70).
17. For Pāli examples of girls renouncing at seven, see the verses for Pañcadīpikā and
Ekūposathikā in the Therī-Apadāna (9, Ap. II, 520.18, 11, Ap. II 523.16) and for Uttamā and
Selā in the Apadāna and the Therīgāthā-aṭṭhakathā (Thī-a 46.16, 62.18). The age of seven is
much younger than the stipulated age in the ordination texts. For unmarried women, a re-
quired question at ordination is whether the candidate for ordination is twenty years of age,
an age that would have ensured the candidate was well past what appears to be the normal
age for marriage in the Avś. The wording of the question for married women is unclear as
to whether it refers to the candidate being at least twelve years of age or married for twelve
years. For discussions of female ordination age in the vinaya texts of a number of Buddhist
traditions, see Shih (2000, 479–96), and Kieffer-Pülz (2005); von Hinüber (2008, 222–27)
focuses on the Pāli evidence. The meaning of the discrepancy between the vinaya sources
and the Avś is unclear.
18. Speyer (1902–9, ii, 68.9 and 79.6). In the first instance, after many stillbirths, a desper-
ate couple promises their next baby to the monk Aniruddha if the child lives. When a boy is
born, Aniruddha gives him monastic robes and wishes him long life. The parents fulfill
their promise by giving him the boy at age seven. Avś 84, on the other hand, features a motif
also found in the Śuklā story (Avś 73), in which a son of King Prasenajit is born with robes
of the monastic color. Since he has the memory of his past lives, he soon asks about the
whereabouts of the Buddha and his main disciples. When the king invites the monks to re-
ceive a meal at his house and brings the infant to see the Buddha, the Buddha wishes him
good health, and the baby responds, hailing him as “Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksambuddha.”
The princeling renounces at seven, giving us another case of precocious spirituality.
200 women in early indian buddhism
the other stories in this subgroup, signaling that those girls had all reached
the usual age for marriage.19 So it seems that Avadānaśataka 72 models an
early renunciation—before marriage would have been an issue—by a spir-
itually advanced girl from the only clearly Buddhist family in the 8th varga.
In Avadānaśataka 73, the other story featuring precocious spirituality,
Śuklā is an only child born to an apparently infertile couple after her father
has offered numerous sacrifices to all the gods. Her family is thoroughly
Brahmanical in its religious practices, and the Buddhist text delivers a
stock condemnation of her father’s ritual choices, one that appears seven
times altogether in the Avadānaśataka, as well as in other northern
sources.20 Moreover, just before her birth, her father threatens to turn
both wife and child out of the house if the baby is not male, as would have
been his legal right after a certain number of years under Brahmanical
19. In the Brahmanical context, the presence of suitors was an important factor in calculat-
ing the number of occurrences of bhrūṇahatyā, according to the Dharmasūtra of Baudhāyana
4.1.12–13:
If a man does not give his daughter in marriage within three years after she has
reached puberty, he undoubtedly incurs a guilt equal to that of performing an abor-
tion.
That is the case if there is no suitor; but if there are suitors, then he incurs that guilt
each time. Manu has declared that he becomes guilty of a grevious sin causing loss of
caste at each of her menstrual periods. (tr. Olivelle 1999, 228)
See also the Dharmasūtra of Vāsiṣṭha 17.71 and Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra I.64. Therefore the
appearance of suitors in these stories would signal the clock was running, and the father was
under considerable pressure to fulfill his duty in time. The designated period varied be-
tween three months and three years after the appearance of her menses, depending on the
law code used. Moreover, if a father could not arrange a marriage within the stipulated time,
he would lose whatever benefit he might have gained from an advantageous marriage since
his daughter would be free to arrange her own marriage. The range of penances prescribed
for bhrūṇahatyā is discussed in Sternbach (1967, 30–57). A detailed discussion of the father’s
responsibilities for arranging a marriage for his daughter in the Brahmanical context can be
found in Jamison (1996, 237–40). See also Schmidt (1987, 76–109); Sternbach (1965–1967,
385–387). For a fuller discussion of bhrūṇahatya in relation to Avś 71 and 76, see Muldoon-
Hules (forthcoming).
20. Everything in this section of Avś 73 from taking a wife of a suitable family through the
condemnation of Śuklā’s father’s sacrifices to the gods comprises a series of stereotyped
passages that also occur multiple times in the Divyāvadāna and the extant Sanskrit
Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya (cf. Hiraoka 2002, 157–59). The frequent occurrence of this stock
condemnation of other people’s practices in the Avś, Divyāvadāna and Mūlasarvāstivāda
vinaya suggests there was a perceived need to discourage such practices in the Buddhist
community. In the Avś, the redactor criticizes such actions as mistaken since birth is due to
three conditions: love, timing, and the presence of a gandharva. For a discussion of the as-
sociation of gandharvas with birth, see Wijesekera (1994, 175–212). See also Fitfield (2008,
30 and 95–96 [re Avś 3]); Collett (2006b, 155–85).
Avadānaśataka 201
law.21 Only Śuklā’s miraculous birth fully clad in pure white saves them
from this fate, and the girl is named for this white clothing, which grows
with her yet never grows dirty.
Later, when Śuklā’s father, besieged by suitors, fears retaliation from
the rejected ones, she offers to renounce and he readily accepts. Yet with-
out the evidence of precocious spirituality and purity symbolized by the
white clothes, her father’s acceptance would probably have seemed strange
to an audience in the first millennium ce. According to the Brahmanical
law codes of the time, a female only-child was a putrikā, a “female son,”
whose son would inherit her father’s property and conduct rituals for her
father and his ancestors instead of for the boy’s biological father, as at-
tested by Mānava Dharmaśāstra 9:136–37 and 9:139:
Through a son a man gains the worlds; through a son’s son he ob-
tains eternal life; but through the son’s grandson he attains the
crest of the sun. (v. 137)
....
The importance accorded to a putrikā and her son in this passage, and also
in Gautama Dharmasūtra 28:18–19, may explain why a dual justification
(precocious spirituality and the fear of alienating powerful suitors) is given
in Avadānaśataka 73. Indeed, in Śuklā’s story the suitors obligingly disap-
pear, in sharp contrast to the suitors in Avadānaśataka 71, 76, and 77, our
other three occurrences of the trope of the fearful father. In Suklā’s story,
21. For example, MDh 9:81 provides for superseding a barren wife in the eighth year and a
wife who bears only daughters in the eleventh (Olivelle 2005, 761, tr. 194).
22. Akṛtā vā kṛtā vāpi yaṃ vindet sadṛśātsutam, pautrī mātāmahastena dadyātpiṇḍaṃ hared
dhanam. Putreṇa lokāñjayati pautreṇānantyamaśrute, atha putrasya pautreṇa bradhnasyāpnoti
viṣṭapam . . . Pautradauhitrayor loke viśeṣo nopapadyate, dauhitro’pi hy amutrainaṃ saṃtārayati
pautravat (Olivelle 2005, 771–72, tr. 197).
202 women in early indian buddhism
the suitors’ quiet withdrawal may reflect the standard warnings in the law
codes against marrying a brotherless girl who might be a putrikā, exempli-
fied in Gautama Dharmasūtra 28:20; Mānava Dharmaśāstra 3:11; and
Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra I.53.23 Avadānaśataka 72 and 73, then, could be
said to model uncomplicated early renunciation by spiritually precocious
girls who come from two types of families, Buddhist and Brahmanical.
Thus it seems that couples that renounced together were not entirely
rare in the vinayas, but most of them seem to have led a full, conjugal life
together before entering the Order, and some may have been elderly. 26
The sole exception here is one of the monastic couples discussed by Wal-
ters in the previous chapter, Mahākāśyapa and Kapilabhadrā. In the
Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, these two are said to have lived together but
maintained celibacy without lustful impulses for over twelve years after
a marriage arranged to please their parents. Their secular marriage lasts
until his parents die, and then both go forth, although Bhaddā initially
enters a non-Buddhist order before joining her husband in the Buddhist
saṅgha.27 In addition, the Pāli biographies of Dhammadinnā provide a
26. In a 2010 article, Schopen examines several Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya stories with a nar-
rative trope that typically precedes an old man joining the order in which he laments his
poverty and lack of relatives to support him, a pattern that is relatively common in such
stories about male renunciation, noting:
All these men are not young people, but mature men of considerable years and domes-
tic experience, with, in the main, probably limited formal education, and yet this is
only a very small sampling of what is found in this Vinaya. In the first examples cited
here the men in question are very old, at or even beyond the end of their productive
years, and one cannot help but be reminded of the classical description of the men
who become renouncers in the āśrama system: these men become Buddhist monks
when they are unable or too old to do anything else. (2010, 128)
While some of these men left wives behind when they renounced, Clarke’s research sug-
gests that elderly joint renunciation would not have been a problem even if his stories of
married monastics do not specifically identify their protagonists as elderly.
27. Clarke (2014, 260–261). For a translation of the Tibetan version of their story, see von
Schiefner ([1882] 1926, 186–205).
204 women in early indian buddhism
Arthaśāstra 7.3.29.30 When Kṣemā, whose name means “peace,” later con-
verts to Buddhism and asks for permission to become a nun, her father re-
fuses because the alliance and the peace it produced depend on her marry-
ing Brahmadatta’s son, Kṣemaṅkara (“Peacemaker”). He claims that only
her betrothed can grant such permission, a claim that may have some valid-
ity given the Mānava Dharmaśāstra’s treatment of betrothal in its section on
contract law.31 When Kṣemā finds out that her father has secretly summoned
Brahmadatta and his son for a hasty wedding, she implores the Buddha for
help. The Buddha secretly appears and instructs her to the point of her de-
veloping ṛddhi (“supernatural or magical power,” Edgerton [1953] 1998, ii,
151b). During the wedding, at the key moment of the pānigraha when the
groom takes the bride’s hand, Kṣemā rises into the air “like a goose king on
extended wing”32 and—like Suprabhā and Kāśisundarī in our two svayaṃvara
stories—works prātihāryas (magical feats) that finally convince everyone
that she is truly unsuited to marriage. Thus, while Muktā’s marriage alli-
ance in Avadānaśataka 77 facilitates her becoming a nun, Kṣemā’s marriage
alliance poses a major hurdle that she can and must learn to overcome.
On the seventh day when the time for the wedding came, after the
prince had arrived with many people and a hundred companions,
and she had gone to the middle of the altar, the brahmin royal chap-
lain offered fried grains with sprinkled ghee. Then, when the join-
ing of the hands of the young man and young woman was being
performed, while many hundreds of thousands of beings were
watching, Kṣemā, having risen up into the vault of the sky like a
goose king on extended wing, began to display various magical
feats. Then King Prasenjit of Kauśala and King Brahmadatta and
Prince Kṣemaṅkara and other beings whose wonder was aroused,
were amazed, and having fallen at her feet, began to entreat her:
“Forgive us, sister! Since these dharmas have been realized by you,
it is impossible that you should enjoy desire.”
1. In the ceremony at the bride’s house, the groom offers oblations to the
sacrificial fire, with bride seated behind him and touching him.
2. The groom grasps the hands of bride (pāṇigraha/pāṇigrahaṇa).
3. The bride is made to tread on a stone.
4. The bride, standing, sacrifices fried grains into the fire.
5. The groom and bride circumambulate the fire, keeping their right
sides to it.
6. After repeating steps 3–5 several times, the bride and groom take
seven steps together.
7. The couple are wiped and/or sprinkled on their heads with conse-
crated water by the ācārya conducting the ceremony or by the water
pot carrier.
8. Fees are distributed to the brahmin who officiated and gifts made to
other local worthies.
9. The groom has the bride mount the chariot or wagon for the trip to
his house, taking the nuptial fire with them.
10. The new couple view the polestar together.
11. The newlyweds spend a minimum of three nights cohabitating in
chastity.
12. On the day they break chastity, the husband makes oblations to the
fire and various deities, and they then have intercourse for the first
time.34
34. See Śāṅkhāyana GS, I, 12, 11–13 to 18, 1–5; Āśvalāyana GS I, 7, 3 to 8, 10–11; Pāraskara GS
I, 5, 1–12 to 11, 1–6; Khādira GS I, 3, 7–16 to 4, 12–14 (Oldenberg [1886] 1964, 34–44, 167–71,
279–89, and 380–85); Gobhila GS 2, 1, 19–26 to 5, 1–10; Hiraṅyakeśin GS I, 6, 19, 4–8 to 7,
25, 4; and Āpastamba GS 2, 4, 9–10 to 3, 8, 10–11 (Oldenberg [1892] 1964, 44–52, 187–200,
and 259–68).
208 women in early indian buddhism
35. See, for example, Śāṅkhāyana GS I, 5, 2 (Oldenberg [1886] 1964, 20), which lists a wed-
ding as one of five occasions for making offerings to the fire.
36. References in the gṛhyasūtras that use the pāṇigraha[ṇa] as emblematic of the whole mar-
riage ritual include Śāṅkhāyana GS 1, 5, 5; Āśvalāyana GS I, 9, 1–2; Pāraskara GS I, 4, 5–7;
and Gobhila GS 1, 1, 8 and 20. In all of these sources, the pāṇigraha[ṇa] is a climatic moment
rather than the formal conclusion of the rite. In dealing with the grounds for litigation with
respect to the cancellation of a sale or purchase, MDh 8:227 asserts: “The ritual formulas of
marriage are a sure sign that she is the wife, and learned men should recognize that they
reach their completion at the seventh step” (tr. Olivelle 2005, 179, and see 317, n. 8.227; and
704). The seventh step for the MDh was the conclusion of the transfer or gift of the girl;
however, it should be noted that this statement occurs in the section concerned with con-
tracts, in the context of discussing penalties for violations of marriage contracts. Neverthe-
less, this statement may partly explain the primacy given to the seven steps in later medieval
and modern discussions of marriage, which generally accord the MDh pride of place among
the law codes. A more detailed discussion of marriage occurs in Ch. 3 of the MDh.
37. See, for example, Āśvalāyana GS I, 7, 3–5 (Oldenberg [1886] 1964, 167–68), where grasp-
ing the thumb of the bride’s hand with the palm side up indicates a desire for male off-
spring, while taking the other fingers meant female offspring were desired, and grasping
both the thumb and the hand with the back of the hand held up meant both male and female
offspring. Some of the other gṛhyasūtras offer different associations between grasping the
hand and procreation. See Hiraṅyakeśin GS 1, 6, 20, 1–2 (Oldenberg [1892] 1964, 189–90)
and Āpastamba GS 2, 4, 11–15 (ibid., 259). MDh 3:43–44 adds some unusual varṇa specifica-
tions into this moment: “The consecratory rite of taking the hand in marriage is prescribed
only for brides of equal class. The following should be recognized as the procedure for the
rite of marriage when brides are of unequal class. When marrying an upper-class man, a
Kṣatriya bride should take hold of an arrow, a Vaiśya bride a goad, and a Śūdra bride the hem
of his garment” (tr. Olivelle 2005, 110). The gṛhyasūtras surveyed for this study seem to have
no such provisions, but Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra I.62 echoes the MDh in stipulating the
arrow and the goad for women marrying men of a higher class (Stenzler 1970, Sanskrit 10
and German 9; Goodall 1996, 303). However, this is hardly surprising since the author of
the Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra relies quite heavily on the MDh.
Another indicator of the iconic nature of this moment is the range of vocabulary derived
from it. These lexical items included words for “marriage” (pāṇigrahaṇa-saṃskāra or simply
pāṇigraha), “groom” (pāṇigrāhavat, pāṇigrahītṛ), and “bride” (pāṇigṛhītā/-tī), among others
(Monier-Williams [1899] 2002, 615b).
Avadānaśataka 209
38. Recent studies suggest Daṇḍin lived in the late 7th–early 8th century ce. While he is pri-
marily associated with the Tamil Nadu region of South India, he was forced into exile for
twelve years, traveling extensively during that time, according to a surviving section of his
Avantisundarī[kathā] (Onians 2005, 24–25). Kale placed Daṇḍin a little earlier, ca. 550–650 ce,
but leaned toward 650 (Kale 1925, xx–xxi). Given the influence achieved by Daṇḍin’s
Kāvyādarśa, it might not be surprising if his novel had begun to influence northern narrative
literature, at least by the time of Demoto’s hypothetical revision of the Avś around the 8th
century ce. However, for now it is difficult to say what impact Daṇḍin’s work may have had on
this particular story.
39. In his discussion of marriage as a Jain Śarīrasaṃskāra, Sangave (1956, 143–45) gives a list
of eight forms of marriage: brāhma, daiva, ārṣa, prājāpatya, āsura, gāndharva, rākṣasa, and
paiśāca, based on the Jaina Vivāha Paddhati. The titles match those given in the MDh and
other Brahmanical sources, and the Jain definitions of the forms closely overlap the Brah-
manical definitions. Moreover, Jain ācāryas also labelled the first four forms of marriage as
lawful primarily because, Sangave reports, “such marriages are contracted with the mutual
consent of the parents of the bride and the bridegroom and the bride is given by her father
as a gift to the bridegroom . . .” (ibid., 145). In other words, the notion of the kanyādāna as
the ideal form of marriage found in the Brahmanical context carried over into the Jain con-
text. As to when these forms were adopted, Sangave notes:
The Jaina sacred books that prescribe these ceremonies [i.e., the Jain saṃskāras] are
not very old. The Digaṁbara’s Ādi-purāṇa was written in the ninth century A.D. and
Āchāra-dinakara was written in Saṁvat year 1468 [A.D. 942]. Thus as the ceremonies
are prescribed sufficiently late, it is likely that the Jaina ceremonies might have been
designed after the Hindu ceremonies. Whatever might be in theory, in practice at least
the Jaina ceremonies look like the Hindu ceremonies. (1956, 267)
210 women in early indian buddhism
Moreover, these were not the only Hindu marital customs adopted by the Jains since, ac-
cording to Sangave, in Ādi Purāṇa 16.247, Jinasena advocated the anuloma rule for mar-
riages and Jains later followed some of the same exogamous restrictions as Hindus (1956,
154–61). However, there seems to have been little exploration of these issues in the early Jain
context so far, apart from Sangave’s study, and further research is needed.
40. Sources: Āśvalāyana GS 1, 6, 1–8; Kauṭīlya Arthaśāstra 3.2.1–9; Āpastamba DS 2.11.17–
2.12.4; Gautama DS 4.6–15; Baudhāyana DS 1.20.1–16;Vasiṣṭha DS 1.28–38; MDh 3:20–34;
and Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra I.58–61. The Āśvalāyana GS is unusual in that most gṛhyasūtras
do not give a list of forms. While dating these documents is difficult, after detailed studies of
the four dharmasūtras and of the MDh, Olivelle has suggested the following schema:
(Olivelle 1999, xxviii–xxxiv; Olivelle 2005, 20–25). Despite its association with the south of
India today, Olivelle would place the initial redaction of the Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra in the
north of India, along with the rest of the Dharmasūtras cited above and the Mānava Dharmaśāstra.
41. Only two sources show any variation in the nomenclature for these marital forms and that is
minor. The relatively late Vāsiṣṭha Dharmasūtra refers to the āsura marriage as the mānuṣa mar-
riage and the rākṣasa form as the kṣatriya form; the latter is a logical variation, given the repeated
association of the rākṣasa form with the kṣatriya class. The Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra, the latest
source among those surveyed for this study, renames the prajāpatya form kāya and defines the
paiśāca form slightly differently as an abduction carried out by deception rather than a rape.
Nevertheless, the definitions for the other marriage forms do not vary in any substantial way.
Table 9.2 Marriage Forms in Brahmanical Sources
Marital Form
Āśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra X X X X X X X X
Kauṭīlya Arthaśāstra X X X X X X X X
Āpastamba Dharmasūtra X X X X X X
Gautama Dharmasūtra X X X X X X X X
Baudhāyana Dharmasūtra X X X X X X X X
Vāsiṣṭha Dharmasūtra X X X X X X
Mānava Dharmaśāstra X X X X X X X X
Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra X X X X X X X X
212 women in early indian buddhism
More than once recently it has again been suggested that Buddhist
monks had little or no role in life-cycle ceremonies in early India. I
do not know on what evidence these suggestions are based, but it
does not seem that it could be the Pāli texts. In fact, Buddhist vinaya
texts in Pāli, Sanskrit, and what Roth calls “Prākrit-cum-Sanskrit”
seem to suggest quite otherwise. They seem to suggest and assume
that monks regularly had a role in such ceremonies and that their
ritual presence and performance at such ceremonies was of some
importance. Most passages, indeed, employ language that suggests
“obligation” (karaṇīya). (1997, 72)
The Pāli vinaya goes on to stipulate a wide variety of other events that
monks must attend if summoned, two of which directly concern our dis-
cussion here:
This is the case, monks, where a dwelling comes to have been built
by a layfollower for himself . . . or there comes to be his son’s
marriage, or there comes to be his daughter’s marriage, or he be-
comes ill, or he speaks a well known discourse. If he should send a
messenger to monks, saying: . . . “Let the reverend sirs come.
44. Vin. I, 139, tr. Horner Vol. IV [1951] 1962, 186, quoted in Schopen (1997, 73).
214 women in early indian buddhism
I want to give a gift, and to hear dhamma, and to see the monks”,
you should go, monks, if you are sent for and if the business can be
done in seven days, but not if you are not sent for.45
The first Pāli vinaya passage quoted above focuses on the obligation to
accept donations from the devout laity and to teach dhamma in exchange,
while the second passage suggests contexts for such donations. Notice that
the formula of the invitation and the lay follower’s expectation do not change
with the occasion. In the case of marriage, at least, such an invitation would
seem to correspond to the gifts required to be made to brahmins at or after
Brahmanical weddings, as attested to by the gṛhyasūtras (see no. 8 in the list
of wedding steps above). These gift recipients do not have to be present at
the ceremony itself. Thus, it seems that Buddhist monks could be included
within the preexisting structure of Brahmanical weddings, with only a sub-
stitution of guests to be honored with donations.46
An analogous list of obligations, couched in similar language, can be
found in the corresponding Varṣāvastu in the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, but
Schopen notes that “[i]t does not list all of the same occasions, however,
referring explicitly only to marriage and serious, if not terminal, illness”
(Schopen 1997, 76). Clearly, then, marriages of upāsakas or their family
members brought important invitations for monastic saṅghas in both Sri
Lanka and North India. Moreover, the Abhisamācārikā of the Mahāsāṅghika-
Lokottaravāda school gives—along with detailed directions for etiquette at
such events—specific verses for assigning the reward (i.e., merit) of a
meal or food donation given in connection with births, deaths, marriages,
and housewarmings in lay households (Singh and Minowa 1988, 91–94,
tr. 126–29).47 For each of these four occasions, the text sets forth both
45. Vin. I, 140, tr. Horner Vol. IV, [1951] 1962, 186 also quoted in part in Schopen (1997, 74).
46. Such a substitution calls to mind chapter 26 of the Pāli Dhammapada, which redefines
a “brahmin” as, essentially, a Buddhist monk. This and other attempts to redefine a “brah-
min” in terms of actions and not mere birth may have been crucial in getting donations re-
directed to Buddhist monks in ceremonies like weddings.
47. See also Schopen (1997, 78–79). In the Abhisamācārikā’s introduction to these dedica-
tory verses, the list of possible reasons for the offering of a meal is longer and includes
family gatherings and separations, illness, [invitations to?] the king’s palace, or misfortune,
plus meals offered by outgoing monks and food donations made to individual monks. How-
ever, no verses are provided to dedicate the merit for these occasions, suggesting they may
have been less frequent. The text also stipulates that upon the receipt of any invitation, effort
has to be expended to make sure the invitation is real and not a trap or a ruse (Singh and
Minowa 1988, 88–90, tr. 122–24).
Avadānaśataka 215
inappropriate and appropriate verses. The verses for assigning the benefit
of a meal donated in connection with a wedding are:
48. Singh and Minowa (1988, 92–93). See also Jinananda (1969, 19–20) and Prasad (1984,
46, n. 3 and 47, n. 1). According to Prasad, the verse that is not to be recited can be found in
the Jātaka-aṭṭhakathā in the commentary on the Ucchana Jātaka, while the verses that should
be recited instead appear in Cowell and Francis (1895–1913, Vol. III, Pt. I, 214 [1984, 46–47]).
49. Two commentaries on the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya extant in Tibetan explicitly state that
the phrase dakṣiṇā[m] ā √diś means “assign the reward (i.e., the fruit of the merit)” in similar
texts in that tradition (Schopen 2004, 41–42, n. 48). The same reading seems appropriate here.
50. Reading this as two parts, vi + dhava, but vidhavā can be translated as “widow.”
216 women in early indian buddhism
51. The term vidhi could also mean “law,” “means,” “act,” or even “rite,” etc. (Monier-Williams
1899 [2002], 968b).
52. The translation here is mine, but see also Singh and Minowa (1988, 127) and Prasad
(1984, 46–47). Prasad points out that there appear to be no similar verses for assigning
merit after a meal given in connection with a marriage in the Pāli vinaya, raising the ques-
tion of exactly what Buddhist monks did for this occasion in the premodern Sri Lankan
context (ibid., 219–20).
53. Gombrich and Obeyesekere could find no evidence of monks playing any role in Sri
Lanka weddings before the 1980s (1988, 265–67). In fact, there were strong feelings against
having monks at such a ceremony:
The majority of Sinhalese Buddhists still find it strange for a monk to appear at a wed-
ding at all, let alone take any part in the formal proceedings. A monk is traditionally as-
sociated with sterility or even with death, so that the mere sight of one is—or used to
be—inauspicious in a secular context; for example, to see a monk as one sets out on a
journey is a bad omen. By the same token weddings are always held on secular premises.
However, now it is gradually becoming popular to have monks recite pirit, the all-
purpose rite of blessing, at middle-class weddings. It does not conflict with traditional
practice for the bride or groom or both to make merit before the wedding by inviting
monks to recite pirit and accept alms—though we suspect that even this is a relatively
modern custom. However, it is decidedly innovative to have monks recite pirit at the
wedding itself. (1988, 265)
Avadānaśataka 217
Conclusion
The Buddhist use of Brahmanical marriage rites may have brought with it
some unwanted baggage in the form of Brahmanical marital laws and
customs. As noted above, there are three possible examples of unstated
adherence to Brahmanical marital laws in the 8th varga of the
Avadānaśataka. First, the stipulation of seven as the age of renunciation
for Ānathapiṇḍada’s daughter in Avadānaśataka 72 happens to be one year
shy of the earliest specified age for a girl to marry in the Mānava
Dharmaśāstra, though seven is also mentioned in two other Avadānaśataka
stories as an age at which some boys renounced and in some Pāli texts for
girls. Second, Muktā and her groom renounce immediately after the wed-
ding ceremony in Avadānaśataka 77 and therefore probably before the
consummation of the marriage, according to the timing specified in sev-
eral of the gṛyhasūtras. Third, the repeated motif of the father who fears
making enemies of rejected suitors, which resonates with attacks on fam-
ilies and couples in the Mahābhārata and the Raghuvaṃśa. Fourth, we
have the strategic interruption of the wedding at the paṇigraha in Kṣemā’s
tale, which mirrors an interrupted wedding in the Dasakumāracarita and
several other Buddhist tales. Set side by side, these four elements suggest
that Brahmanical marital customs and perhaps marital laws continued to
exert some force within Buddhist communities of North India. Similarly,
the redactor’s condemnation of the Brahmanical sacrifices offered by
Śuklā’s father to secure the birth of a son in Avadānaśataka 73 suggests the
Gombrich and Obeyesekere also discuss one secular official who had interpolated Buddhist
elements into the upper-class weddings he conducted, claiming that he was following the
example of Siddhārtha and Yaśodharā’s wedding (1988, 269–71). This is ironic since the
Bodhisattva’s wedding would have followed Brahmanical and/or local precedents, and, as
the art historical evidence discussed by Verardi shows, Siddhārtha’s wedding was certainly
envisioned as a Brahmanical ceremony in Gandhāran Buddhist communities. The same
was probably true elsewhere.
218 women in early indian buddhism
54. Along the same lines, see Freiberger (1998) on three ways in which certain Pāli texts
reinterpreted brahmanical sacrifice in order to bring it into line with Buddhist priorities.
55. See also Mānava Śrautasūtra (1961–63, vol. 1, 182 and vol. 2, 247). MDh 5:167 specifies
that the wife be cremated “with [her husband’s] sacred fire and sacrificial implements”
(dāhayedagnnihotreṇa yajñapātraisca dharmaviti, tr. Olivelle 2005, 147).
56. The notion of dividing a male’s life into stages also appears in earlier literature not as-
sociated with the āśrama system, like the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (Olivelle 1993, 132).
57. MDh 3:1–2 gives a duration of 9, 18, or 36 years for as an appropriate period of study for a
youth, after which he should marry. Meanwhile, MDh 6:33 stipulates that a man should become
an ascetic wanderer during the last quarter of his life but, according to MDh 6:35, “[o]nly after he
has paid his three debts . . .” (tr. Olivelle 2005, 150). The emphasis in the MDh is on performing
the four stages consecutively, as is quite clear from MDh 6:87–88. Meanwhile MDh 6:89–90
assert once again the superiority of the householder over the other three āśramas. MDh 6:86
and 6:94–95 also seem to undercut the renouncer āśrama by offering a comfortable alternative
for an elderly man to stay at home and follow certain practices, which he terms vedasaṃnyāsika:
“. . . retiring from all ritual activities, being self-controlled, and reciting the Veda, he should live
at ease under the care of his son” (tr. Olivelle 2005, 153).
Avadānaśataka 219
For the Brāhman there are four orders, for the Kṣatriya the first
three, for the Vaiśya only the first two. They who belong to the
orders are the following four: the Veda-student, the householder,
the hermit, the ascetic.60
58. Of course, this change would have had greatest force within the mainstream of Brah-
manical society, and less outside of the mainstream where the āśramas seem to have contin-
ued, in at least some groups, as separate life paths. Buddhists and Jains, for example, did not
employ the āśrama vocabulary (Olivelle [1993] 2004, 25), and both continued to view ascetic
renunciation as a separate life path. This, however, does not rule out the possibility of their
being aware of the āśrama system or affected indirectly by changes in it, particularly where
marriageable women were concerned. There was no parallel institutionalized system for
women in the Vedic or Brahmanical traditions that provided a path to renunciation.
59. For MDh Chapter 6, see Olivelle (2005, 594–612, tr. 148–53).
60. Vaikhānasa Dharmasūtra 8.1 (Caland 1982, 184). The same correlation between varṇa
and āśrama is repeated in section 8.9b in the same source (ibid., 192).
220 women in early indian buddhism
61. In fact, only one story out of the ten in this chapter models the renunciation of an older
woman, Avś 78, and she, as the Buddha’s former mother in five hundred previous lives, is
clearly a unique case. See Durt (2005) and Muldoon-Hules (2009).
10
Dhammapada-aṭ ṭ hakathaˉ/
Saddharmaratnaˉvaliya
women in medieval south asian buddhist
societies
Ranjini Obeyesekere
The 4th to 6th centuries, during which many of the Pāli commentaries of
the Pāli canon were written, was a period when monks from South India,
such as Buddhaghosa, the apparent author of the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā,
came to the major monasteries in Sri Lanka, famed for their Buddhist
scholarship. There they learned the Sinhala language and translated into
Pāli many Buddhist commentarial texts, composed by generations of
erudite Sinhala monks. The original collection of these stories in Sinhala
that were translated into Pāli thus dates back to a period prior to the 5th
century ce.
Sadly, over the centuries, especially after the 10th century ce, these
early Buddhist texts in Sinhala were gradually lost, destroyed by wars, pe-
riods of neglect, or the vicissitudes of time.3 Then in the 13th century,
during a period of Buddhist revival, several of these lost commentaries
were translated back into Sinhala from the Pāli. In relation to this, the
author of the 13th-century Sinhala “translation” of the Pāli text thus states:
We have abandoned the strict Pali method and taken only the themes
in composing this work. It may have faults and stylistic shortcom-
ings, but [you the reader should] ignore them. Be like swans that
separate milk from water even though the milk and water be mixed
together; or like those who acquire learning and skills even from a
teacher of low status, because it is with the acquisition of knowledge
We therefore have two versions of stories that claim to be from the same
text, but which belong to two (perhaps three) different periods, that are
retold by two monks working in two very different language traditions.
The first is a succinct Pāli shorn of excessive ornamentation, and the
other is in the “diffuse idiom,” with extended metaphors and imagery
that characterized works in Sinhala. Yet they are retellings of the same
stories. The fact that the texts can be dated gives us material that can
provide insights into the social world of women in early Buddhist Sri
Lanka. It also enables us to potentially discern the norms and values that
conditioned the fabric of the stories prior to or around the 5th century ce,
the transformations that might have occurred as they were retold in Pāli
by an Indian Buddhist monk for a wider Indian readership, and also still
further changes when retranslated back into the world of 13th-century
Sri Lanka.
In this chapter, I intend specifically to look at references in the two
texts to norms that conditioned social institutions such as marriage, di-
vorce, the education, role, and status of women and the transformations,
if any, that may have occurred between the periods of composition of the
two extant texts, nearly eight centuries apart. I conclude the chapter with
some reflections on how the values expressed and reinterpreted in the
texts permeate into 20th-century Buddhist Sri Lankan society, and con-
tinue to affect Buddhist women practicing today.
Buddhist monasticism had become strongly institutionalized in Sri
Lanka between the 3rd and 10th centuries ce. The two major monastic
complexes, the Mahāvihāra and Abhayagiri, attracted Buddhist scholars
and monks from India, China, and other Buddhist countries, who studied
4. Pāli krama maga hära artha pamaṇak gena apa kalāvū prabandhayehi krama vilanghanādī
adu väḍi ätat, ē nosalakā, pän saha kiri musu vūvat kiri pamanak tōrā häragannā hansayan men
da, śāstra dannavungē jāti aḍuvūvat ungē taram nosalakā, śāstra pamaṇak salakā śāstra ugan-
navun men, prayōjana pamaṇak sitā nuvaṇa nämati äs hi mōha nämati paṭalaya väsi akusal
mahā valaṭa väda nivan purayaṭa gosin tubū kusal maha vata nodaknavun, saddharmaratnāvali
nämati behedin mōha nämati paṭalaya näti koṭa, nuvaṇäsa ańduru hära, kusal maha vataṭa
nivan purayaṭa suvayen yā yutu. SR 2, tr. Obeyesekere (1991, xii).
224 women in early indian buddhism
texts and Buddhist commentaries and translated them into many lan-
guages.5 The period between the 10th and 13th centuries, however, was
punctuated by South Indian conquests and rule by Kālinga, Chōla, and
Pāndyan kings. The influence of Hinduism where the Mānava Dharmaśāstra
had begun to hold sway must no doubt have left its impact on the society
and culture of Buddhist Sri Lanka during that period. Is this reflected in
the content and manner of the telling and retelling of these stories?
The 13th-century Saddharmaratnāvaliya was written at a time of Bud-
dhist revival that followed the periods of South Indian wars. Texts de-
stroyed during the South Indian conquests were rewritten or translated
back from the Pāli. Ironically, since Buddhism still flourished in many
parts of South India during this period, when one South Indian power at-
tacked and destroyed the Sri Lankan monasteries, as with Māgha of
Kālinga, it was monks from another South Indian state, such as the Chōla
kingdom, who were invited by Sinhala kings to reintroduce lost texts back
to Sri Lanka. Many commentarial texts were written or rewritten during
this period, probably including the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā, as well as
other such as the Jātaka-aṭṭhakathā. Text such as these, which use stories
to illustrate aspects of Buddhist doctrine, can potentially provide an inter-
esting reflection of the social worlds of the translators and the shifts that
occurred over time.
I plan to deal in this chapter with issues that center around women,
and so I have decided to confine myself to stories from the two texts—the
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and Saddharmaratnāvaliya—that have women
as central characters.6 I shall focus on a few important themes: women in
their relationship to parents; to husbands; women as cowives; as courte-
sans; and as nuns.
I begin with the story of Kuṇḍalakēsī (Pāli Kuṇḍalakesā) whose biogra-
phy in the Therī-Apadāna has been mentioned by Walters in chapter eight
of this volume.7 The story of her, in both the Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and
5. See von Hinüber (1996, 100–53) and Norman (1983, 118–37) for a discussion of commen-
tators working within this commentarial tradition, such as Buddhaghosa. (On Buddhaghosa
specifically see von Hinüber [102–3] and Norman [1983, 120–30]).
6. These stories appear both in Burlingame’s English translation of the Dhammapada Com-
mentary (3 vols. [1921] 1995–2009) and in my translations from the Saddharmaratnāvaliya
(1991) and (2001).
7. The basic story arc of Kuṇḍalakēsī remains fairly static between the Apadāna version, and
the two versions under discussion here.
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 225
When women reach this age they burn and long for men.8
Young women of that age are intoxicated with their youth and so
are sexually attracted to men. To prevent any loose behavior her
parents shut her up in a room at the topmost floor of a seven-storied
palace with only a serving maid to attend on her. It was as if she was
imprisoned for being born beautiful.9
8. Tasmi ca vaye ṭhitā nāriyo purisajjhāsaya honti purisalolā. Dhp-a II.217, tr. Burlingame
([1921]1995, 2:227).
9. Ē vayasa pirī siṭi sthrīhuda yavvana madayen mat heyin puruṣayan kerehi lolkam attōya.
Unge demavpiyōda un mityācārayen navatanu nisā eka kellaka meyaṭa pāvā dīlā sat mal
māligāvē uda mālē śrī yahan gabaḍāvaka rūpatva upannāta pāṭopayaṭa sira geyaka lūva sē lūha.
SR 595, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 117).
226 women in early indian buddhism
“I do not want anyone else. If I don’t get this man I shall die,” [the
daughter replied].10
secretly sent a thousand gold coins to the executioner with the mes-
sage, “Take this money and do not kill the man. Release him and
send him to us.”
The executioner agreed, sent the man to the nobleman, killed
another in his place and informed the king, “I have executed the
thief.”11
The cavalier attitude of the executioner who kills another in his place is
stated without comment, suggesting that such actions were common and
so did not even register as morally wrong. The daughter is then given in
marriage to the released thief. Thereafter she does everything in her power
to try to win his affection:
10. Putanḍa, e sē sitannē häyida? Mumba vardaṇa va siṭiyavun heyin geyi tabā gena hińdumōda?
Jāti ādin sari samāna tänakaṭa pāvā diya hakkäyi” kivūya. “Anik kavurunut nokämättēya. Mun
noladot miyamī.” SR 595, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 118).
11. Ēē soru maranṭa gena yana tänättavunṭa masū dahasak sorā yavā, “telē hära gena tulū
nomarā apaṭa evanu mänavayi” kiyā yävūya. Eyit givisa ū siṭānanṭa häralā anikaku marā piyā
“soru marā pīmhäyi” rajjuruvanṭa kivūya. SR 595, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 118).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 227
From then on, in order to win his affection, the young woman
would adorn herself in all her jewelry, prepare his meals herself,
feed him, give him drinks, wash his hair and bathe him.12
She resolved to win the favor of her husband; and from that time
on, adorned in all her adornments she prepared her husband’s
meals with her own hand.13
Both texts imply that cooking the meals herself is not what a woman from
a wealthy family would normally do. It is a special act of abnegation on
Kuṇḍalakēsī’s part in order to win the husband’s affection. The
Saddharmaratnāvaliya with its more detailed description adds to this a
note of excess, suggesting that the woman in her infatuation subjects her-
self to doing very menial tasks, ones not expected of a woman of noble
birth.
The husband however is not won over and is determined to kill her
and rob her of her ornaments. His cruelty and cold indifference come out
in the sparse harsh words in which he tells her of his decision to kill her.
She begs for her life in every way she knows, but fails to move him.
Kuṇḍalakēsī’s slow reversal from a state of complete and abject infatua-
tion to one of cold cunning is brilliantly described and made completely
understandable. She now takes control:
12. Situ duyaniyot evak paṭan ohu sit ganṭa savbharaṇa lā särahī gena tumūma ō haṭa bat mālu
pisati. Kavati. Povati. Isa sodāvati. Nāvati. SR 595, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 118).
13. Sā tato paṭṭhāya sāmikaṃ ārādhessāmī ti sabbābharaṇapaṭimaṇḍitā sayam eva tassa
yāguādīni saṃvidahati. Dhp-a II.218, tr. Burlingame ([1921]1995, 2:228).
14. Siṭu duvaniyo sitannō, “mūgē kaṭayutak itā napuru niyāya. Nuvaṇa nam äti vannā pala hā
gena kanṭa novat prayōjana nisā vūva. Ādi kumak sitā kumak kelem namut taṭat kalamanā deya
dän tarayē karami sitāla . . .” SR p.597, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 120).
228 women in early indian buddhism
Using her sharp intelligence she tricks him, pushes him down the cliff,
and kills him. The deity residing on the rock applauds her action saying:
It is not men who always have the best stratagems. In certain situa-
tions women too know what to do.15
The young woman hurled the robber down from the rock with the
help of his enemy his own bad karma, and herself escaped death by
the grace of her friend, her own good karma.16
While the earlier killing by the executioner is told without moral comment
by both authors, in this latter killing, the 13th-century author feels con-
strained to shift the blame off Kuṇḍalakēsī. He therefore brings in the
kamma argument, making the man merely the victim of his own bad
kamma. The issue of moral culpability for a killing is again raised by the
monks at the assembly hall at the end of the story. There the monks said:
Kuṇḍalakēsī did not hear much of a sermon and yet she has become
an arahat. Besides she fought and overcame a robber.
15. Häma tänadīma pirimin upades daniti näta. Samahara tänaka gänuda upades daniti”
kīyēya. SR 597, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 121).
16. Siṭuduvaniyō da sorugē akusal nämati saturat sahāya koṭa gena soru galin helāla, tamangē
kusal nämati mitrayānan sahāya koṭa gena tumū gälavi gena siṭannā hu. SR 597, tr. Obeye-
sekere (2001, 121).
17. Kundalakēsin äsu baṇakut bohō noveyi. Etakudu vūvat rahat vūya. Ek soraku hāt yuddha koṭa
uyit paradavā avu yayi . . . buduhu väḍa. . . . “mā desū baṇa madekäyi kiyat bohōvakäyi kiyat
nokiyava . . . yam katāvak asā satvayo nivan dakit nam ē ma yahapata.” SR 600, tr. Obeye-
sekere (2001, 124).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 229
No one was able to match question and answer with her; in fact
such a reputation did she acquire that whenever men heard the an-
nouncement, “Here comes the Nun of the Rose Apple” they would
run away.19
She travelled all over the land engaging in debates with whomever
she met. She encountered no one who could defeat her in a debate.
Men living in those areas fled the moment they heard the wander-
ing female ascetic was approaching, afraid of her very name.20
Both texts over a time span of almost eight centuries have no inhibitions
about the fact that a woman of enormous intelligence and learning routed
monks and men in debate. Her being a woman was not an issue. Neither
text adds comment or qualification to this part of her story. One might
therefore infer that both in the early period and in the medieval period,
Buddhism not only provided a space for women to acquire learning, but
also the freedom to display that knowledge in public debate and argu-
ment. For a nun to travel the length and breadth of the land alone was also
not an issue. There are innumerable references in other stories in the
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and Saddharmaratnāvaliya to the learning that
women had acquired. The brahmin mother of Māgandi in the story of
Udēnī (Pāli Udeni) is more learned than her brahmin husband. She sees
the footprint of the Buddha and immediately reads the signs. The
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā text states:
Now the brahmin’s wife was familiar with the three Vedas including
the verses relating to signs. So she repeated the verses relating to
signs, considering carefully the signs borne by the footprint before
her. Finally she said, “Brahmin, this is no footprint of one who fol-
lows the five Lusts.” So saying she pronounced the following stanzas:
“The footprint of a lustful man will be squatty
That of a wicked man, violently pressed down
Of one infatuate the footprint will be shuffling
This is the sort of footprint made by one who
has rolled back the veil of passion.”
Then said the Brahmin to her, “Wife, you are always seeing croco-
diles in the water vessel and thieves hiding in the house. Be still.”
She insists, “Brahmin, you may say what you like but this is no
footprint of one who follows the five lusts.”21
translation of the verse. The impurities of the human body are often the
subject of contemplation by Buddhists during meditation. They are seen
as being subject to transience and decay and thus part of the human con-
dition. Here the monk author describes them as specifically female impu-
rities. What is more he has a woman say it. It is as if the monk has no
problem accepting the woman’s superior learning and education but it is
female sexuality that he berates. I quote the Saddharmaratnāvaliya au-
thor’s rendering of the perfectly innocuous Pāli verse from the
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā:
Since she was well learned in the three vēdasand the science of
signs, she recognized the markings on the footprint and said,
“Brahmin, what are you saying? This is not the footprint of one who
will ever pollute himself by laying his chest on that lump of flesh
called a “woman’s breast”. Nor is it the footprint of a lustful one who
will bring his face to touch a woman’s mouth, that toilet full of im-
purities such as spittle, and her body with its thirty-two kinds of
filth. What is the use of saying more? This is definitely not the foot-
print of one who seeks the pleasures of the five senses.”22
When the brahmin tries to belittle the woman’s learning, the wife firmly
puts him down, saying:
Look here, brahmin, you have been born into the brahmin caste
and yet without the smallest iota of knowledge of the sciences you
insist on saying only what you wish. Whatever you may say, I say
that this is not the footprint of one who seeks to indulge in the plea-
sures of the five senses.23
Here again is a woman who has acquired learning and is completely con-
fident of her knowledge. She refuses to be silenced by a husband she
22. Bämiṇi piyavara balā piyā tamā vedatrayehi kela pämiṇi bävin hā lakṣana mantra dannā
heyin hā piyavara salakuṇu balā, ‘Bamuṇa, tō kumak kiyayi da? Mē gänunge tana nämati mas
ganḍuvehi tamangē laya paharavā apavitra karaṇa kenekun ebū piyavarak noveyi. Detis kuṇu
koṭasakin yuktavū gähäniyagē bol kela nämati asūci pirunu muka nämäti väsikilyaṭa tamangē
muhuna yomu karaṇa kāmātura kenekunge piyavarek noveti. Bohōkoṭa deḍīmen kimda? Ekāntayen
paňca kāma sēvanaya karaṇa kenekungē piyavarek noveti. SR 231, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 54).
23. Hembala bamuṇa, tā bamuṇa kulayehi ipadat me pamaṇa śāstra mātrayak pavā dannā
nokala tā kämättekma kīya. Tō kumak kīyayi namut mē paňcakāmi guṇayan sēvanaya karaṇa
keṇekungē piyavarek nove mayi’ kī va. SR 231, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 55).
232 women in early indian buddhism
“Your majesty we householders do not give our young girls for fear
people will say they are abused and maltreated.” Angered by the
24. See the works of Goonesekere (e.g., 1990), Kiribamuna (e.g., 1999) and the work done
under the auspices of the Sri Lankan Centre for Women’s Research (http://www.cenwor.lk).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 233
“I will not give our daughter in bondage,” replied the merchant. “If
you ask for what reason it is that according to the customs of our
farmer caste we do not expose our female children to feel ashamed
and made the subject of peoples’ disparaging remarks. Therefore
fearing the scornful words of others I will not give my daughter,” he
said. At these words the king was enraged, ordered the nobleman’s
house sealed and sent the nobleman and his wife out of their home.26
“Dear daughter, the king sent for you for his harem: and when we
refused, saying ‘We do not give our daughters in bondage,’ he
caused the house to be sealed and us to be turned out of doors.”
25. Mayaṃ gahapatika nāma kumārikānaṃ heṭhetvā viheṭhetvā kathana-bhayena na dema devā
ti. Rājā kujjhitvā gehaṃ lañchāpetvā seṭṭhiñ ca bhariyañ c’assa hatthe gahetvā bahi kārāpesi.
Dhp-a I.191, tr. Burlingame ([1921] 2009, 1:269).
26. Apagē diyaniyō pāvā nodemha. Kumak piṇisadäyi yata hot, apa govingē cāritra nam apagē
gähänu daruvanṭa nindā koṭa vehesa kiyan basaṭa lajjā ätiyamha. Esē heyin nindā basaṭa bayen
nodemhäyi. E pavat asā rajjuruvo kipī siṭānangē geya as obbavā siṭānan hā ämbeniyan pamanak
gen piṭatkara vūya. SR 222, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 45).
234 women in early indian buddhism
“Dear father, you made a great mistake. When one who is king
commands, you should not say ‘We do not give.’ You should rather
say, ‘If you will take our daughter with her retinue we will give her
to you.’”27
The father agrees to her wishes and the king then conducts Sāmāvatī
and her retinue to the palace and confers on her the status of chief
consort.
A subtle distinction is being made here. Not being a woman of the
khattiya caste, if Sāmāvatī went to the king without her retinue she
would be just another member of the harem and have no status. But if
she is accepted with her retinue of “ladies in waiting,” then her status is
that of a consort of the king. Sāmāvatī, with her usual intelligence and
practical good sense, as displayed on an earlier occasion (in the matter
of the arrangements at the alms hall), comes up now with a practical
solution to the problem facing her adopted parents. The father readily
accepts the daughter’s advice and does as instructed, just as he had done
on the earlier occasion. In the story of Uttarā, her father, the nobleman
Bahudhana:
27. Mē kimdäyi vicārā. “Hembā put. Rajjuruvō topa tamange antappurayaṭa kändavā evūha. Ē
asā apa, “apigē daruvan pāvā nodemhäyi kīmha. Eheyin rajjuruvō apa geya as obbavā apat gen
piṭataṭa lavā pū yäyi,” kīha. E pavat asā Sāmavati ‘rajjuruvan kī bas nogivisse napura. Idin kiya-
tot “magē diyaniyan ovun pirivara hā samaga gannā sēk vī nam demyī” kiyā yutuyäyi kīvā. SR
223, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 46).
28. Bahudhana siṭāno da sumana siṭānange putaṇuvan sädä näti heyin hā tamangē diyaniyan
mārga gata vu acala śraddhāvehi pihiṭi heyin unṭa saraṇa denṭa mäli vu ha. SR 880, tr. Obeye-
sekere (2001, 194).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 235
29. Saraṇa piṭa lālā mesē vu hirageyaka lūyē häyi däyi? Melesa karaṇa kala dū kam kuma vūvat
vikiṇā hära gannavun mithyādruṣtikayäyi niyama näti heyin sanak gasā piyā vikiṇīmama ya-
hapata. SR 883, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 195).
30. Puta, hembā mē nuvara sirimā nam veśyā duvak äta. Ō tomō davas patā peheṇaya piṇisa
masu dahasak häragannīya. Tela pasalos dahasa oba yavālā ä genvāgeṇa pasalos davasaṭa siṭu
putrayanṭa ä pāvādī taman pin kala mänavayi kīha. SR 884, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 195).
236 women in early indian buddhism
Again the father’s solution to secure the happiness of his daughter is not
unlike that of Kuṇḍalakēsī’s father. Here again money is used, this time to
obtain the services of a courtesan. Courtesans, we know, were an accepted
part of South Asian society and served many people in many different
ways. The father’s suggestion and the daughter taking it up as a solution
to her immediate problem demonstrates just how accepted their role was
in the society of the time. The 13th-century text states:
Uttarā had Sirimā come and said, “Friend, take these 15,000 gold
coins, and spend fifteen days ministering as a wife to our wealthy
nobleman.”31
There is no specific mention that the nobleman is her husband but the
use of the phrase “our wealthy nobleman” carries a hint of it. Such an ar-
rangement was a monetary temporary arrangement that was perhaps not
at all unusual in the society of that time, and so had none of the overtones
of prostitution or illicit sex.
Again, in the story of the Elder Sunderasamuddha (Pāli Sundar-
asamudda) (Obeyesekere 2001, 213), the parents hire a courtesan to seduce
their son who has now become a monk. In return, they promise to make
the courtesan his bride if she succeeds in bringing him back to a lay life.
There is no moral opprobrium attached either to the parents who hire the
courtesan or to the courtesan who takes on the task. It is the monk’s near
capitulation to sexual desire that is a matter of concern in the manner in
which the story is told, as it undermines the monk’s commitment to the
Order and his chance of attaining nirvana. In this story he is saved by the
intervention of the Buddha.
It is perhaps the Buddhist stress on parental responsibility to ensure
the happiness of a daughter in marriage that made divorce a much easier
arrangement among Buddhist Sri Lankans in medieval times. It was the
practice prior to colonial contact and continued in the hill country even
after British rule was established and the Roman Dutch Law introduced to
replace the traditional laws of the land, that a woman had the right to
return to her parental home if she was unhappy in her marriage. Not only
did the parents and family accept her back, but if she chose not to return
31. Uttaravōda Sirimāvan genvāgena ‘yeheli, mē pasalos dahasak vitara masuran hära gena
pasalos davasak apage siṭu putrayāṇanṭa pādaparicārikā vāvayi. SR 884, tr. Obeyesekere
(2001, 195).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 237
to her husband, the marriage, after a specific period, was considered ter-
minated and both parties were free to marry again. In the story of Kāṇa,
this practice is described:
She was about to return to her husband after a visit to her mother.
Not wanting her to return empty-handed her mother prepared
honey cakes. However on four successive occasions four monks
came begging for alms and each time the honey cakes that had
been prepared were given as alms to the monks. Because Kāṇa’s
departure was thus delayed, her husband took another wife.32
Kāṇa is angry at the monks whose alms rounds delayed her return to her
husband and so resulted in her broken marriage. In the story, she makes
the monastics well aware of her displeasure; she rants and raves at them.
Interestingly, however, she does not blame her husband. Thus the impli-
cation is that the husband was well within his rights to consider the mar-
riage over as she had not returned from her visit to her parental home
within the customary amount of time. Finally she too is later married
again to a nobleman of good repute who “[t]ook her to his home and gave
her charge of all his wealth” (Obeyesekere 2001, 114). The 5th-century Pāli
text gives even more weight to the practice. It is described there as a pre-
cept set down by the Buddha:
What is stated as a precept laid down by the teacher in the 5th-century Pāli
translation of the Sinhala text was very likely an accepted way of life in
pre-5th-century-ce Buddhist Sri Lanka as it was in during the 13th century.
It would appear that the practice has a long history in Buddhist Sri Lanka.
Even today, the practice continues as the accepted form of divorce for
those who live in the central hill country of Sri Lanka. It has even been
incorporated as part of the divorce law for that region. If the textual origin
32. Kāṇa nam vū upāsikāva samanangē oba yanni, sisatin nogiya mänā vē däyi mäṇiyan idikala
kavum, sataravārayakin kätiva satara namakaṭa dun kalhi, kāṇāvange gaman kal yana heyin
rakṣā kala samaṇan anik ambu kenek genā kalhi . . . SR 543, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 113).
33. Satthārā tasmiṃ vatthusmiṃ sikkhāpade paññatte . . . Dhp-a II.149, tr. Burlingame (1995,
2:190).
238 women in early indian buddhism
of this practice was the earlier, now lost, Sinhala commentary, as the prac-
tice seems to find a natural home on the island of dhamma (dhammadīpa),
it may have been the case that Buddhaghosa, the Indian monk, felt it nec-
essary to explain the probably unfamiliar practice to his Indian readers as
a “[p]recept laid down by the teacher.”
Marriage, in Sri Lanka, was never considered a sacrament until recent
postcolonial influences brought about considerable transformations. Prior to
the period of colonial rule, monks played no role in marriages; it was purely
a simple secular arrangement between families that was accepted by society
without need for legislation. Thus divorce was an equally simple arrange-
ment. Registration of marriages was introduced only after colonial contact in
the 19th century.34 Prior to that, neither religion nor the state were involved
in any part of the martial process. Both marriage and divorce were secular,
flexible processes, giving women considerable rights and options. This is
quite unlike what took place in Brahmanical/Hindu India, as discussed by
Muldoon-Hules in the previous chapter, where the influential dharmaśāstras
came into operation and took their hold over the subcontinent.
While in early and medieval Sri Lanka arranged marriages were the
norm, especially among the wealthier classes, these stories in the
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā and Saddharmaratnāvaliya relate many instance
of women falling in love and taking control of their own lives. That was the
case with Kuṇḍalakēsī who obtained the man of her choice, and did every-
thing she could to try to win the robber’s affection until he tried to kill her.
She escaped and from then on let her intellect rule her life. Beautiful
Paṭācārā was also confined to an apartment in the top floor of a seven-storied
mansion in order to prevent any misconduct. In spite of this she became
intimate with a young man of her own household. When her parents were
about to give her in marriage to another, she tells the young man:
If you love me, before I go there, take me now to any place you wish.35
34. Even today according to the law of the land those who reside in the central provinces also
known as the Kandyan area can, if they choose, marry under what is termed “Kandyan law”.
35. Idin mā kerehi prēmayek ät nam oba noyan tek, dänma mā kändavā gena kämati tänakaṭa
yavayi” kivuya. SR 633, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 126).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 239
the two young people, she is asked to sit behind a curtain and told that the
king is a leper. Conversely, with the same intention in mind, Udēnī is told
that the princess is a hunchback. One day, though he recited the formula
again and again, Vāsuladattā kept repeating it incorrectly. King Udēnī
became impatient and shouted at her:
“You good for nothing hunchback have your lips and tongue
become lifeless?” . . .
At that the princess equally angry said, “You leper, what was that
you said? Do you dare label someone like me a hunchback?” and
she pulled aside the curtain. The two stared at each other and real-
ized the truth of the situation. They knew the king had deceived
them because he feared they would be attracted to each other. They
were powerfully attracted and instantly made love behind that very
curtain. From that point on the lessons ended.36
While most of the stories deal with nuclear families, the practice of having
cowives, especially for kings, was not unusual. In addition to the women
of his harem, King Udēnī had three queens: Sāmāvatī (from a farmer
caste); Vāsuladattā (the daughter of a king and so of a khattiya caste); and
Māgandi (the daughter of a brahmin). However, once accepted as queens
and consorts, there do not seem to have been any status differences be-
tween them. Each queen had her own apartments, and according to the
story the king divided his time equally between them.
Since Māgandi had on a former occasion vowed vengeance on the
Buddha for his rejection of her, and Sāmāvatī by contrast was an ardent
follower of the Buddha, a tension develops between the two wives. Unable
to exact her revenge upon the Buddha, Māgandi instead turns her anger
on Sāmāvatī and tries to alienate her from the king:
36. Udēni rajjuruvo kipī,’ embala duṣṭa kuda, tīgē diva saha detola bol va giyada? . . . Ē asā bisavu
kipī “embla śevata kuṣṭhaya, tā kiyannē kimekda? Apa sē vūvot kudun kerehi ätulat hu däyi?”
kadaturāva osavā ovunovun balā ovunovunge svarūpa vicārā, tat vū paridden däna, rajjuruvo
apa dedenā ovunovun hā viśvāsa veti yana bhayin valahā kī vanhayi niścaya koṭa ovunovun
kerehi anurāgha ätiva javanikāva atulehi dīma ovunovun ha sahāvāsaya kalaha. Etan paṭan
mantra iganvīma näti viya. SR 227, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 49).
240 women in early indian buddhism
Magandi, figuring that the king was due to visit Sāmāvatī the next
day or the day after, asked her uncle to bring her a cobra that had
medicinal preparations rubbed on his fangs to neutralize the
poison. She kept the snake with her.37
She then slips it into the king’s musical instrument and when it surfaces
in Sāmāvatī’s apartment, Māgandi accuses Sāmāvatī of a plot to kill the
king. These cowives have much more zeal in the stories than do women
in the harems. Thus these stories indicate a clear distinction between
“consorts” of the king who had the status of queens and women of the
harem, the queens being more powerful and agentive, as are the Indian
queens discussed by Walters in chapter eight.
While cowives are mainly found among the wealthy, on occasion as in
the Saddharmaratnāvaliya story of the demoness Kāli (Obeyesekere 1991,
98) a member of a poorer farmer family could also take on a cowife, in
this case because the first wife was barren. The subtly nuanced, complex,
and pragmatic pressures that condition marriage arrangements in medi-
eval Sri Lanka are well described in the Kāli story. A widowed mother sees
her son overburdened by his responsibilities and thinks that though she
cannot relieve him of all his chores, were she to arrange a marriage for
him at least he could leave the household chores to his wife and take a
little rest himself:
So one day she said, “Son shall I arrange a marriage for you?”
“Mother I don’t want that. Let us not introduce any such complica-
tion. I will care for you as long as I live.”
“Son, don’t say that. How can I be happy when I see you work so
hard?”38
Finally he gives in to her demands but when she is about to choose a wife
for him he sends her to the home “of one of his choice.” Unfortunately the
37. E samayehi rajjuruvō sāmāvatiya, vāsuladattāya, māgandīya yana tun denāge prāsāda tunehi
murayen mura tabā gena ekī ekī murayehi sat sat davasa veseti. E kalhi māgandi tomō seṭa hō aniddā
hō rajjuruvō sāmāvatīn gē prāsādayaṭa yeti niyama däna tamāge kudāpiyāṭa kiyā yavā dalehi
avusada galvā visa nätikala nayeku genvā gena tabāgata. SR 244, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 68).
38. Ek davasak, “puta topaṭa saraṇak genävut nila karamō däyi?” vicālōya. ohu ē asā, “mäniyan
vahansa ē nokämättemi. Ese vū avulak kara no la divi pamaṇinma mama muba vahansēṭa
upasthāna keremi.” . . . “Puta, esē nokiyava. Topa geyi daḍa ganna duk duṭu kalaṭa ma sitaṭa
säpa noveyi.” SR 101, tr. Obeyesekere (2001, 98).
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 241
“I’m a barren woman. If your daughter gives birth to a son she will
be mistress of the family wealth. What use is wealth to me a barren
woman?” Thus like a figure disguised, thinking one thing but
saying otherwise she obtained their consent and gave her to her
husband.39
The transaction in the story between the wife and the cowife is not unlike
that of Uttarā and the courtesan discussed previously. The wife makes a
purely pragmatic decision in selecting a cowife for her husband. However,
39. Mama vańda yemi. Mubagē duvaṇiyō daru keṇekun laddū nam ū sampataṭa himiveti. Mā
vańda kulu tänätiyaṭa sampatin kam kimdäyi” ves bańda pānā ruvak men sitin ekak sitā vūvat
basin elesak kiyā givisvā gena, samuṇanṭa pāvā dīlā . . . tr. Obeyesekere (1991, 171).
40. Māyāva nam akusal viṣayaṭa kusal viṣayehi praňgnāva sē vuvamanā bävin hā nävata ē
māyāva tamā nikruṣṭa bävin nikuṣṭa bajanaya karaṇa lesata guṇen nikruṣṭa vū strīin ma ba-
janaya kalak men strīin kerehima bohō koṭa pavatnā heyin . . . SR 102, tr. Obeyesekere (1991,
99).
242 women in early indian buddhism
tensions caused by jealousy develop on the part of the wife toward the
cowife when the latter becomes pregnant, just as the courtesan became
jealous of Uttarā and tried to throw hot oil on her. In the Kāli story this
conflict between the two wives is played out over several births in saṃsāra
and finally resolved only through the intervention of the Buddha and a
long-term reconciliation based upon his advice. Even in the case of the
cowives of King Udēni, although the king divided his time equally be-
tween them, and seems to have shown no preferences, tensions caused by
extraneous factors, such as Māgandi’s sworn enmity to the Buddha and
Sāmāvatī’s total acceptance of him, result in conflicts.
Thus while it was perhaps socially acceptable in medieval South Asian
society to have cowives, the stories suggest that such relationships were
generally fraught with tension and were the exception rather than the
norm. In the many stories that center on the lives of women in the
Saddharmaratnāvaliya, very few deal with situations between cowives. It
was perhaps a practice no doubt adopted for pragmatic reasons, but not
one that was popularly followed. Similarly, while polygamy was never a
general practice in Sri Lanka in the society at large, polyandry, for very
practical, often economic, reasons, was fairly common especially among
peasant communities.
The establishment of an order of nuns was one of the most important
factors in the emancipation of women in South Asian Buddhist societies.
The early poems of the Pāli canon, the Therīgāthā, discussed earlier in this
volume, reiterate the sense of liberation that came with the chance for
women to leave the life of the household, a choice that Indian society had
up until this point likely given only to men. The women in the stories of
the Saddharmaratnāvaliya again and again make this choice. For
Kuṇḍalakēsī it led to an enormous expansion of her intellectual world. For
Utpalavarṇa, born so beautiful that when she came of age every prince in
Dambadiva came asking for her hand, it was a way out. Her father, realiz-
ing that if he to give her in marriage to one, he would have to face the
enmity of the rest, decided to ask her to join the monastic order, a choice
she readily agreed to. For Paṭācārā who lost husband, children, parents,
and siblings in disaster upon disaster, joining the order of nuns brought
her relief from her overpowering grief and finally a sense of equanimity.
However, not all the women in these Saddharmaratnāvaliya stories become
nuns. Some, like Sāmāvatī, become followers of the Buddha and learn to
exercise enormous compassion even toward those who perform acts of
enmity toward them. Others like Visākhā become ardent lay followers of
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā/Saddharmaratnāvaliya 243
the Buddha and spend their lives engaged in acts of merit. Likewise, the
courtesan Sirimā becomes a follower of the Buddha and spends her wealth
in gifts to the saṅgha. And even while she is a benevolent and generous lay
donor, we are not told that she gives up her profession. But for almost all
of them their lives are changed dramatically and even those who do not
become nuns bring to their lives and worlds a new sense of liberation.
As noted by Collett in the introduction to this volume, the fact that the
Therīgāthā and related texts like the Apadāna and others discussed in this
volume were considered important enough to be included in the Pāli
canon and handed down from generation to generation suggests the im-
portant role played by nuns within some early Buddhist communities.
These texts also attest to the enormous respect with which they were
treated. Important women for the tradition, women like Prajāpati Gōtami
and Yasōdharā, both discussed in some detail in this volume, were never
raised to the status of deities but were always considered very human
women, who by their human efforts had achieved the same status of arah-
ant, as had their counterparts, the monks.
The status and position given to women in the texts studied in this
volume, as in the early medieval Buddhist world, was clearly subject to
many shifts and changes over the centuries. While, as this volume demon-
strates, much that is recorded within the central texts of the early tradition
is notably positive, this is not always the case, as the anti-feminist asides in
many of the stories of the 13th-century Saddharmaratnāvaliya demonstrate.
To conclude with some reflections on how textual stories can and have
impacted upon the lives of real women, let us now turn to a consideration
of the place of women in modern Buddhist Sri Lanka. In the 20th century,
the egalitarian thrust for education among Sri Lankan women came from
rural sections of society, still steeped in early traditional Buddhist norms
that encouraged education for both males and females. When, in the
1950s and ’60s the state engineered free education system and the new
language policies opened access to university education, it was women
from the less privileged classes that flooded the universities. It was they
who moved rapidly into the professions and the administrative services in
the country. By contrast, women from among the wealthier westernized
elites, coming from regions exposed to several centuries of colonial rule,
that had absorbed some of the puritan Victorian values of their British
peers, were at first hesitant to educate themselves in public universities.
Thus these women, on the whole, lived more restricted and secluded lives
than their rural counterparts.
244 women in early indian buddhism
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old, 151, 156–7, 185, 241 attachments, 71, 109–10, 114
aggregates, 64, 117, 121, 126–7 avadāna, 2, 9–10, 47–8, 50–8, 193
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alms, 70, 107, 113, 120, 161, 168, 177, 193–209, 213, 215, 217, 219–20
180–2, 189, 216, 237 avadānists, 50–1
almsfood, 30–1 awakening, 1, 29, 103, 105, 117–18,
Anālayo, 8, 12, 18–19, 22–3, 26, 28–9, 122, 133–4, 138–9, 156, 184, 187,
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Aṅguttara-nikāya, v, xi, 25, 28, 62–3, 98, 46
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apadāna, v, xi, 6–7, 13–15, 140–2, beauty story, 146–7, 158
145–56, 158, 161–7, 169–75, 177, bedding, 83–4, 91
179–91, 199, 204, 226 beds, 70, 82–3, 110, 226
apparition, 148, 151, 155–7 begging, 102, 107–8, 113, 122, 237
arahant, 99, 118–19, 133, 137–8, 148–50, believers, 71–2
162–3, 166, 169, 171, 182, 187–90, Benares, 168–9, 177
228–9 Bhaddā-Kāpilāni, 13, 164, 174, 177–9,
becoming-, 163, 165, 170–1 181–2, 191
arahantship, v, x, 133, 138, 161–4, 166–9, Bhaddā-Kāpilāni’s apadāna, 177,
175, 177, 183, 187, 189–91 180–1
ascetic practices, 93, 102, 108, 110 bhikkhu, 98, 100, 104, 106, 108, 111,
Aśoka, 54–5, 57–9 118, 136–7
268 Index
concentration, 84, 106, 108, 110–13 divorce, 15, 223, 236–8, 244
consent, 74–5, 241 donations, 69, 96, 198, 214, 216
consenting, 65, 75 donors, ii, 60–1, 107, 168–70, 243
contact, bodily, 74, 79 dukkha, 121, 123–4, 126–7, 129–31
courtesans, 224, 235–6, 241–2 duties, 179, 200, 232, 235, 245
cowife, 142, 240–2 grave, 4, 81, 84
cowives, 188, 224, 239–40, 242
craving, 71, 124–7, 130–2 earth, 111–12, 127, 184, 190
Ekottarika-āgama, v, xi, 7, 12, 98, 100,
Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅgasutta, 9, 18, 22, 101–3, 105, 107, 110–11, 113, 115
25, 28 Ekottarika-āgama listing, 99
daughter, 13, 39, 62, 135–7, 144, 150, 156, eminence, 100, 101, 103–4
169, 174, 186, 197–8, 200–2, 226, eminent bhikkhunī, 99–100, 102
232–6, 239 era of Buddha Vipassī, 148, 153, 155
adopted, 232 Evil, 120–6, 128–32
daughter’s son, 201 evil Māra, 121–7, 129–32
death, 3, 117, 129, 141, 153, 155, 157, 167,
169, 185, 214, 216 families, 39, 70, 108, 141, 148–51, 155–7,
defilements, 72, 117–18, 166, 173, 181 163, 168, 177, 198, 200, 202–4,
delight, 64, 107, 109, 121, 128, 130–2, 217, 235–6, 238
134, 144 father, 53–4, 60, 83, 88, 169, 174, 179,
dhamma, 30, 70–2, 74, 139, 169, 187, 196–8, 200–2, 204–5, 209, 212,
213–14, 238 217, 226, 232–5
Dhammadinnā, 75, 104–5, 169, 204 fault, 82–3, 86–8, 90–1, 94–5, 155, 222
Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā, 8, 14, 145, fear, 118, 121, 125, 134, 196, 198, 201,
157–8, 197, 222, 224–5, 227–8, 217, 233, 235, 245
230–1, 238 female authorship, 6–7, 16, 164
Dhammapāla, 154–8 female children, 232–3, 244
Dhammapāla’s commentary, 145, 152, female sexuality, 6, 10, 15, 63–5, 69, 78,
154–7 86, 95, 231
dharma, ii, 31, 53, 56–8, 87, 104–6, 199, five sense pleasures, 121, 128, 134
206 flowers, 186, 188
dharmasūtras, 210 followers, 1, 98, 165, 234, 242–3
Dīpāṅkara Buddha, 186, 189 food, 78, 82–4, 88–9, 102, 108–9, 168,
disciples, 54, 73, 99–100, 103–4, 106–7, 170, 179–80, 226
109–10, 117, 120, 148, 150, 176, first-time offerings of, 82, 84
186, 199 footprint, 230–1
disciples of Buddhas, 183, 188 forest, viii, 134–5, 195, 229
discourses, 14–15, 22, 99, 106, 110, 111,
116, 119–20, 122, 134, 136, 151 Gandhāra, 3, 48–9, 59, 61
divine, 161, 170, 172, 174, 191 Gandhāran avadāna, 48, 52, 54, 56
divine eye, 102–3, 105, 114, 149, 153–4 Gandhāran avadāna texts, 10, 50–1
270 Index