We have heard and read that in the early days of the Buddha
Sasana, while the Blessed One still lived and breathed and walked the
dusty paths of India's ancient heartland, there were very many fully
enlightened women, bhikkhuni Arahantis. The Buddha's most beloved former wife,
foster mother, half-sister, and many more Sakyan daughters were
amongst the ladies of the Madhyadesa who became the Blessed One's
Foremost Disciples, preeminent in all good qualities and virtues.
For
when the Sakyan ladies emerged en masse from their native home Kapilavastu,
on foot, hair shorn, bereft of all but the humble robes of samanas, it
was the Blessed One who received and ordained their leader, his foster mother, she
already attained to the first stages of sainthood. And to his Bhikkhu
Sangha he gave the honor and responsibility of bestowing ordination upon her many saintly and aspiring companions, uplifting and entering five
hundred more of these daughters of the Sakyans into full communion in
the monastic Sangha. Thus the Bhikkhuni Sasana arose in the world in
this Fortunate Eon, although there are the rumors of other early
solitary wanderers amongst women, quick to be enlightened, called
directly to the Path by the Conqueror.
Not long after, in
praise of the effectiveness of his teaching, the Blessed One, the Noble
Lord Buddha himself, testified to the attainment in his twofold
monastic Sangha, and to the complete enlightenment of five hundred of
his monastic women disciples to the Noble reaches and heights of the
Path, to Arahant.
But then there were more.
For amongst the women Elders,
the Theris, there arose those who themselves excelled in leadership
and teaching: Theris Khema and Uppalavanna, preeminent in leadership of
the women's monastic Sangha; Theri Dhammadinna for her Buddhavacana, the words from her lips likened by the Blessed One to his own;
and Theri Patacara preeminent in her deep knowledge and teaching of the
monastic discipline of the Vinaya. It is said that the venerable
Patacara herself had five hundred enlightened disciples, and likewise
former queen Anoja Theri five hundred, and the great Theri Mahapajapati Gotami too,
together with the thousands following the Theri Bimba Yasodhara,
unequaled in Vision of the Ages.
But those were the early days
of the Sasana, when Arahantis flourished upon the lands of Middle Earth;
the Noble Path of the Ariyas and the banner of the Arahants blazing
forth in all its glory in robed feminine and masculine form. But you
may ask, what of the Arahants of later days, after the light of the
Tathagata passed from the world into the great and final bliss
of Parinibbana?
The years passed and the Dhamma spread, and then a great king
emerged, who by bloody conquest terrorized and took for his own land
after land, amassing an empire previously unknown until, upon seeing a
gentle monastic recluse, Asoka the Black stopped, transformed, and
became Asoka the Benevolent.
Two hundred and six years had passed between the Blessed One's
Parinibbana and the birth of Asoka's noble daughter, the great Lady
Sanghamitta, later remember as The Wise One. And upon this noble
daughter's reaching the age of eighteen, ninety-six thousand bhikkhunis,
the majority of them Holy Ones, converged upon the beautiful capitol
city of the realm, Pataliputra, together with six kotis of such holy
bhikkhus, for the dedication of 84,000 monasteries and reliquary stupas
across the land, as called together by her father, now Dhamma-Asoka, the Emperor, Uniter of the Continent. And to fulfill his wish that
he become true relative of the Sasana by gift of his own flesh and
blood, with her father's blessing, she too went forth, received the Pabbajja
ordination. With her Preceptor Dhammapala Theri and with Ayupala Theri as
her teacher, the princess undertook the preliminary Sikkha training and then the
full training of a bhikkhuni, no long time passing before she joined these Noble Theris
in destroying the fetter of individual existence, entering and then
fulfilling the Arahant Path.
Her blessed brother
Mahinda also went forth and awoke, excelling in the Buddha's Path, and after the passing of a
decade, joined with other excellent messengers of the Dhamma who
went far and wide to foreign lands, sharing the word of the Blessed
One's noble and liberating Doctrine, enlightening the
multitudes everywhere. For the Blessed One had told the bhikkhus: "Go
forth for the weal and welfare of the manyfolk..." "'There are those
with little dust in their eyes'... the gates to the Deathless are open."
And then he called for her as well.
The great Thera, her brother the Noble Mahinda, sent word by
messenger from that lamp of an island Sri Lanka, far to the South where
he had traveled teaching. For there Anula Devi, queen of the king's
noble brother, together with 500 of her retinue of royal virgin
companions, assembled and whilst listening to the Discourse on the Noble
Truths, the Sacca Samyutta, had attained
Sotapanna, entering that most noble of all streams, opening the Dhamma
eye, gaining vision of Nibbana. Then telling her king Tissa Beloved to
the Devas, "Lord, I would go forth," she made known the
inclination of her heart to renunciation. Faithful as he was to the
Doctrine, the king in turn told this to the Noble Thera Mahinda, his
teacher. For this the Great Thera called for the Great Theri, making it
known: "It is not for a bhikkhu to do, when there are bhikkhunis
such as this sister of mine, Noble and Enlightened, Friend of the
Sangha, Sanghamitta. May she come here."
And then for Queen
Anula, at his direction, the king built for her and the saintly ladies,
noble in birth and Noble in Dhamma vision, the Upasika Vihara that they
could live at ease with the dasasila ten precepts and await she who would ordain them.
Although
reluctant that his daughter the Venerable Lady Sanghamitta too should
leave his land, faithful in his dedication, Dhamma-Asoka, Lord of the
Continent, then made ready for her both ship and company, and as the
Thera Mahinda had named them, the Wise Theri's companions:
The
Noble Ones: Uttara, Hema, Pasadapala (Masagalla), Aggimitta, Dasika,
Phegu (Tappa), Pabbata[-cchinna], Matta, Malla and Dhammadasiya,
bhikkhunis free from desire and firm, with pure thoughts and wishes,
firmly established in Dhamma and Vinaya, their passions subdued, with
senses under control, attained to the three knowledges and supernormal
powers, and well grounded in the Highest Bliss.
With
sapling of the winter blossom-covered Bodhi, southern branch of the fair
and sacred fig under which the Blessed One awoke, she came with her
bhikkhuni retinue across the land and sea, blessed and
accompanied by both devas and nagas; calming storms, subduing the wilds
of the ocean; until they could see the shore, and the Lankan King
Beloved to the Devas, waist deep in the waters, hands held high in
reverence above his head in welcome and exalted joy. It was the first full moon of the Indian cold season when they descended, came ashore and then up
and into Anuradhapura, that most beautiful and beloved city, with
streets clean-swept in anticipation, lined with banners and strewn with rain of flowers
showered down by devas.
The five hundred royal virgins surrounding Anula and five hundred palace women, all free from passion and steadfast, received the Pabbajja ordination
from the Great Theri, not long after fulfilling the Arahant Path in the
illustrious Doctrine of the Conqueror. And from them arose a great
history, the Dipavamsa, the Chronicle of the Lamp or Chronicle of the Island, and a great tradition of excellence
in enlightenment, long lasting, undying, to this day.
~ analysis ~
In modern times, if
we look back to the example of the Ancient Arahants we find a very
interesting picture. It seems that in the very earliest days of the
Buddha Sasana that the Buddha himself ordained bhikkhunis and that he
himself instructed the Bhikkhu Sangha to do so, calling for them to
fully ordain many hundreds of women. It also appears that the bhikkhunis
themselves were active teachers both of lay people in all strata of
society as well as teachers and leaders of their own monastic followings, numbering in
several cases into the hundreds and even thousands.
When we study the women's monastic discipline of the modern Pali-text Bhikkhuni Patimokkha, we find that a bhikkhuni may not ordain more than one student every other year, ostensibly due to shortage of lodgings (Bhikkhuni Pacittiyas 82 & 83).
It has thus been logically theorized that these precepts must have
arisen late in the Buddha's lifetime, after the Bhikkhuni Sangha was
very well established, with large numbers of women entering the Order,
and the provision of lodgings a concern. For this theory to hold true,
we would then expect to find, at least in records postdating the
Parinibbana, particularly for those knowledgeable in Vinaya and for
those who were Arahantas, that these precepts would be most
excellently followed in both letter and spirit.
However, when
we look carefully at the story of the international foundation of the
Bhikkhuni Sasana in the 3rd century BC on the Isle of Sri Lanka by the
Arahant siblings Elders Sanghamitta Theri and Mahinda Thera, as well as the extant
records of all of the other Asokan Missions, we find that these Arahant
Elders seem to have been either:
(1) unaware of these precepts because they had not yet been established, or
(2)
aware of these precepts and aware of reasonable exceptions to them,
that is, of variant cases where they applied and didn't apply - a
knowledge now lost in modern renditions of the Vinaya.
This is interesting in two ways related to our modern circumstances.
If
(1) were true, then this might lend credence to the theories that there
were precepts established to control the Bhikkhuni Sangha and subjugate
it to the Bhikkhu Sangha that were instituted at least several hundred
years after the Parinibbana of the Buddha, and notably after the time of the Asokan Missions.
This
would also importantly tend to not support speculations amongst some contemporary Theravada Buddhists that the Buddha
himself established these precepts for the sake of controlling and even
stifling the Bhikkhuni Sangha because he did not want it to exist, or
wanted it to remain very small and ineffective, or to die out quickly.
If
(2) were true, it would also prove, through the authoritative example
of the early Arahants, that these precepts, in the way that they
were practiced in the early days, as understood by fully enlightened Masters
of Dhamma and Vinaya, were circumstantial in application, as other
precepts also are, in details that are now lost to us. That is, these
precepts were not meant to be kept under every circumstance, but
rather that there were exceptions, such as when the women to be ordained
were replete with offered lodging and requisite support, as well as
support in good quality training and instruction in Dhamma and Vinaya, much as the case of Queen Anula and her large following of several hundreds of women.
It
would also prove, once again, that according to the understanding of
the Ancient Arahants who lived within the first five hundred years after
the Parinibbana -- at a time that all traditions agree that the Dhamma
was still present in its pristine purity in practice and realization
within the Sangha -- that it was (and is) a desirable thing to ordain
larger numbers of both men and women who faithfully aspire to the full and complete
living of the Holy Life in the monastic Sangha.
This does seem
to be the prevalent mood of both the early Sasana in the Buddha's
lifetime up to the pre-missionary period Buddhism in India under the
Emperor Asoka as well as in the ensuing period of the great
missions, as evidenced by the early missionary records from this period
which proudly relate the numbers of both men and women brought into the
Sangha by the Dhammadhuta Arahantas who traveled and taught far and
wide, ordaining both men and women.
The case of Sanghamitta and
Mahinda is unique, however, as it is the only record in which the
presence and the name of the ordaining female Arahanti is recorded for
posterity. All other records show only bhikkhu Arahant
emissaries ordaining both men and women, or ordaining what in some
cases may have meant men alone, or in other cases such as that of
Suvannabhumi meant simply ordaining "people" without distinction of
gender in one record, the Mahavamsa, but with distinction of gender inclusive of both men and women in other records such as the Samantapasadika and the Sudassanavinayavibhasa.
The numbers below are of ordinations given by Arahant Dhamma emissaries of the Asokan Missions period resulting from their initial teaching in these lands.
- Mahinda Thera ordains 30,000 men and Sanghamitta Theri ordains 1000 noblewomen (Sri Lanka)
- Sona and Uttara Thera ordain 3,500 noblemen and 1,500 noblewomen in Suvannabhumi (mainland SE Asia)
- Rakkhita Thera ordains 37,000 persons in Vanavasa (South India)
- Yonaka Dhammarakkhita Thera ordains 2,000 persons, more than half being women, in Aparantaka (Indian West Coast)
- Mahadhammarakkhita Thera ordains 13,000 persons in Maharashtra (West India)
- Maharakkhita Thera ordains 10,000 of the Yonas (in the Greek lands along the Arabian Sea)
- Mahadeva Thera ordains 40,000 persons in Mahisamandala (Avanti)
- Majjhima with Kassapagotta, Dundubissara, Sahadeva and Mulakadeva Thera each ordain 100,000 (Himalayan Region)
The
apparent uniqueness of the case of Sanghamitta and Mahinda is largely,
if not completely, due to the uniqueness of there being
an extant record, the Dipavamsa. This, in turn, may be largely
due to the fact that the bhikkhunis of the tradition founded by the most venerable Sanghamitta, as recorded in the Dipavamsa, were
highly educated and skilled in practice and teaching of both Dhamma and
Vinaya, and for unknown reasons seem to have taken a particular
interest, whether earlier or later in their tradition, in recording
their own history over a several hundred year period. It was the
authoring of the Dipavamsa - the "Lineage of the
Lamp," "Chronicle of the Lamp" or "Chronicle of the Island" - that is
thought to have inspired the later Bhikkhu Sangha authored Mahavamsa
- the "Great Chronicle" - and perhaps even inspired other Buddhist
histories of lineages and traditions such as the Chinese "Transmission
of the Lamp". Or it may simply be that this one particular record has
happened to survive the ages, while others have not, or have yet to be
discovered.
It is important to acknowledge, however, that
Northern and Southern records differ in their inclusion of Sanghamitta
Theri in the history of the conversion of the Isle of Lanka, for the
Northern records mention Mahinda (Skt: Mahendra) alone, and do not say
how many people he ordained, but simply that he firmly established the
Sangha in that land. This suggests the tendency in at least some
branches of the tradition to record only the names of the great male
leader for posterity.
Nonetheless, these early records, fully
half of which record both very large numbers of men and women being
ordained by early Arahanta Dhamma teaching emissaries, whether by
bhikkhus alone or by bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, do show one thing: They
show an attitude of tremendous positivity to the ordination of women
alongside the ordination of men in this early original period of the
Buddha Sasana, within the first five hundred years following the
Parinibbana. And significantly, for the Theravada tradition, it is
useful and important to acknowledge that Sanghamitta Theri and Mahinda
Thera are the co-founders of the International Theravada tradition that
has been passed on and lasted until this present day, in the Theravada
traditions of Thailand, Laos, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Burma. Thus, the
example of the attitudes and behaviors of the founding Arahants of this
tradition, in its early and pristine days, might be considered most
excellent precedent and example for those who would like to conserve and
perpetuate the authentic and original Theravada Buddha Sasana.
~ post script ~
The
most important question, that of the prevelent attitude within the very
early Theravada tradition on the ordination of women, both in the
Buddha's lifetime and in the early missionary period within the three
hundred years following the Parinibbana, is answered here clearly.
However, there are further technical clues related to the possible
later development of the Pali text Vinaya over time which emerge from
analysis of the Dipavamsa records of Sanghamitta and Mahinda that may be worthy of consideration.
(1) The presence (mention) of the sikkhamana training stage in the lifetime of Sanghamitta Theri from her ages 18-20 - suggesting the sikkhamana training for underage women may be an
earlier Vinaya practice, already in place in the Asokan period;
(2)
The apparent absence (or non-mention) of restriction on the number of
women (and men) to be ordained at one time - suggests this
restriction might be of later addition to Vinaya (post-Asokan period), or appropriate
exceptions to the restriction where known then;
(3) The apparent
absence (or non-mention) of dual ordination by both the Bhikkhu and
Bhikkhuni Sanghas, with ordination mentioned for women by the Bhikkhuni
Sangha only - suggesting the requirement of dual ordination might be of
later post-Asokan period addition to or adaptation of Bhikkhuni Vinaya under later circumstances.
---
References
Sutta Pitaka
- Anguttara Nikaya: Book of the Ones
- Khuddhaka Nikaya: Therigatha, Theri Apadana
Vinaya Pitaka
- Vinaya: Culavagga, Bhikkhuni Vibhanga
Vinaya Commentaries
- Samantapasadika, Sudassanavinayavibhasa
Chronicles and Histories
- The Dipavamsa: An Ancient Buddhist Historical Record, translated by Hermann Oldenberg
- Mahavamsa: The Great Chronicle, translated by George Turnour
Contemporary Publications on the History of Buddhism
- Light of Liberation: A History of Buddhism in India, Nyingma Crystal Mirror Series VIII
- History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, Lamotte
---
Originally published 19 Dec 2009, Hemanta 2552; edited 7 Dec 2019, Hemanta 2562
---
The author expresses gratitude to the venerable Bhikkhu Analayo for his review of the original draft of this article and to
the venerables Ajahn Brahmali, Bhikkhuni Sudhamma and Bhikkhuni
Sobhana for their helpful editorial suggestions.
---
Private
Copyright by the Author, 2009. Contact the author at tathaaloka [at] gmail [dot] com if you wish to quote from or link to this publication