Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.109

c6.109

The Buddhist monastic order includes not only monks but also nuns (*bhikkhunis*). It was only with great reluctance that the Buddha consented to this arrangement. His aunt, Mahāprājāpati, wished to join the order, but was refused three times. She appealed to Ānanda, who interceded for her, and at last the Buddha yielded. He expressed, however, his sorrow, and said that the admission of women would ruin his work. If they had not been admitted, the doctrine, he said, would have abided a thousand years, but now it would only abide five hundred. The nuns were made closely dependent on the monks, and could only be admitted by them; and there are passages which show that the Buddha shared the low opinion of women which was held by others in India, as we see expressed, for instance, in the Law of Manu. We have no means of ascertaining to what extent Buddhist nunneries spread, and what proportion in numbers they bore to the monasteries. It would seem most likely that they would be much fewer in number, and this is borne out by what is found in Buddhist countries to-day. In Ceylon Buddhist nuns are hardly to be found, and in Burma they are small in numbers compared with the monks. It is not likely, therefore, that Buddhist nunneries in India helped to any great extent to spread education amongst women. No doubt those who joined the order would have received instruction in the Buddhist doctrines, and perhaps also in reading and writing; but we do not know whether the nunneries, like the monasteries, became centres of general instruction, receiving pupils even from amongst those who were not intending to join the order. There is no evidence of this, and the probability seems rather against our supposing it was so. In Ceylon there are no such nunneries to-day where girls are instructed, and in Burma little is done for the education of girls compared with what is done for boys. Some Buddhist nuns visit, it is said, the women in their homes, and there are a few girls' schools at the nunneries, but that is all. It seems hardly safe, therefore, to conjecture that even when Buddhism was at its zenith in India it did very much for the education of women.