འཕགས་པ་བད་མད་འགྱར་བ་ལང་བསྟན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.8

intro.8

There are other sūtras that prominently feature female bodhisattvas. The protagonists in The Questions of the Girl Vimalaśraddhā (Toh 84),¹ The Questions of Vimaladattā (Toh 77), and The Lion’s Roar of Śrīmālādevī (Toh 92) are princesses. Elsewhere, royal women are the protagonists predicted to future awakening in The Sūtra of Aśokadattā’s Prophecy (Toh 76),² The Questions of Vimalaprabhā (Toh 168), and The Sūtra of Kṣemavatī’s Prophecy (Toh 192).³ Less privileged laywomen are the main interlocutors in The Questions of the Girl Sumati (Toh 74), The Questions of Gaṅgottara (Toh 75),⁴ The Questions of an Old Lady (Toh 171),⁵ The Miraculous Play of Mañjuśrī (Toh 96),⁶ and The Sūtra of the Girl Candrottarā’s Prophecy (Toh 191). Even so, given the longstanding Buddhist tradition of according primacy to males, the focus on Strīvivarta in this scripture is unusual and refreshing. Still, in the end Strīvivarta bows down at the Buddha’s feet, saying that she will not rise again until she has received a prophecy of her future awakening and has obtained a man’s body. The five hundred women in her retinue do and say the same. In the Buddha’s prophecy that follows, he says that in the bodhisattva’s future buddha realm “not even the word woman will exist.” Upon receiving this prophecy, Strīvivarta and the five hundred women rise into the air, overjoyed, and “take on the appearance of sixteen-year-old boys.” The traditional stance on male superiority thus seems to be, after all, reinstated.