Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c25.40

c25.40

**Some Women Leaders of Buddhism.** We shall now proceed to give a notice of some of the most distinguished nuns who took a prominent part in the work of the early Buddhist Reformation and Church. In the commentary called *Manorathapūraṇī* of Buddhaghosha in *Aṅguttara Nikāya* there is an interesting chapter concerning those ladies whom the Buddha regarded as his chief disciples. Among them are to be noticed several who entered the Order and were known as *Therīs*. Thirteen such *Therīs* are specially mentioned by the Buddha for their merit. The most distinguished of them was Dhammadinnā. Her husband, resolving to renounce the world in the interests of his spiritual life, offered her as much treasure as she desired in taking her leave. The offer was proudly rejected by her. She herself took to the religious life and in due time became fit to be a teacher of the Doctrine. The commentator then describes how the tables were turned when her husband sought spiritual wisdom from his wife who solved all difficult metaphysical questions with the ease of 'one who severs the stalk of a lotus with the sword'. Further information regarding these women leaders of the Buddhist Reformation is given in the commentary of Dharmapāla on the *Therī-Gāthā* which is believed to be the collection of verses of the women who were the first to join the Buddha's Order in his very life-time. We have already seen how it was the piety and persistence of Mahāpajāpatī, the sister of the Buddha's mother, that overcame his opposition and secured for deserving women the right of entry into the Order and religious life. She entered the Order with a following of 500 other Śākya ladies and constituted with them the Order of Nuns that was hardly inferior to that of Monks in piety and learning. This nucleus of the Order was formed of members representing different classes and ranks of society. Thus one such member was Somā, daughter of King Bimbisāra's chaplain, converted by the Buddha at the gate of Rājagṛiha. She embraced the Order not as a means of escape from the ills of life, but out of deliberate preference for its inherent ideals. Anupamā, peerless, so named for her unrivalled beauty, daughter of wealthy parents, with no want of suitors courting her, "cutting off the glory of her hair, entered on the lonely paths of life and wandered forth to lose the sense of home," is another example of self-sacrifice among the aristocratic womanhood. Low life also made its contributions to the Order. The wives of a poor straw-plaiter and basket-maker and of a crook-backed Brāhman took orders to escape from their hard lot; "from three crooked things, from pestle and mortar and my crook-backed lord," as one *Gāthā* puts it. Such members of the Order as Queen Khemā, and Sujātā, the wife of a wealthy citizen, are examples of the quest of the ideal for its own sake, renouncing happy conditions of life. A curious example is that of Chāpā who, by her conduct, drove her husband to be a monk, till she herself, chastened by the separation, followed her husband and joined the Order. The Order counted among its members some bereaved mothers, the loss of whose sons made them renounce the world and seek peace in religion. The most distinguished of such is Kisā Gotamī. The story goes how she approached the Blessed One for medicine that would restore life to the dead child she carried in her arms. The Buddha bade her fetch a little white mustard from a family of which no member had ever died. Thus she was consoled by the realization that what afflicted her afflicted all. She was subsequently known for her progress in virtue and philosophical learning which made the Buddha appoint her as the superintendent of the Convent at Jetavana. The beautiful Sundarī, a rich heiress, lost all interest in life and the world on her brother's death and joined the Order, renouncing "her great inheritance of Benares"