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Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s15: The Maddas

Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c14.s15

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The Maddas

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Buddha had also among his disciples the people of the more distant Madda country, the notable of them being the bhikkhu Mahākappina and the two bhikkhunīs Khemā and Bhaddā Kapilānī. Buddha converted Khemā, the queen of Bimbisāra, in the seventh year of his missionary career after the institution of the order of nuns at Vesālī. She attained the highest stage of sanctification and was designated by Buddha as the chief of the highly wise nuns (*mahāpaññā*).¹ Her fame spread all over Magadha and Kosala as *paṇḍitā, viyattā, medhāvinī, bahussutā, cittakathī, kalyāṇapaṭibhānā* (wise, experienced, intelligent, erudite, charming in her talks, and correct in her accents).² She satisfied Pasenadi of Kosala by her expositions of indeterminable problems.³ The conversion of Khemā contributed to the popularity of the Buddhist order of nuns but also made easy the path of the spread of Buddhism in Sāgala, the capital of the Maddas,⁴ sprung as she was from the royal dynasty of the Madda country. Besides Khemā the two other notable converts, who hailed from the Madda country, were Mahākappina of the royal family of Kukkuṭavatī, mentioned by Buddha as the chief of the *bhikkhu ovādaka*⁵ (admonisher of bhikkhus) and Bhaddā Kapilānī of the Sāgala brāhmaṇa families and wife of Mahākassapa, referred to by Buddha as the foremost of the nuns who attained the knowledge of their previous births (*pubbenivāsa-anussaranti*).⁶

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¹ *Aṅguttara*, I, p. 25; *Manorathapūraṇī*, I, p. 345. 2 *Samyutta*, IV, p. 375. 3 *Ibid.*, pp. 375-80. 4 Cunningham’s *Ancient Geography*, (2nd ed.), pp. 206 ff., 686. 5 *Manorathapūraṇī*, I, pp. 318-324. 6 *Ibid.*, pp. 375-6; *Psalms of the Sisters*, pp. 47-49.

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