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Celebrating the legacy of courageous women in early Buddhism
The wisdom of Bhikkhunī Sangha in modern Buddhism
Tathālokā Therī
February 20, 2016


Watercolor painting of Mahāpajāpatī by Denise Morrison (used by permission)
Watercolor painting of Mahāpajāpatī by Denise Morrison (used by permission)

Was Mahāpajāpatī preceptor of the first 500 bhikkhunīs and many more in the early Bhikkhunī Sangha? -


Reading about her life and story today in various texts and old files... i came across this question. It seems like an important one for our picture of Early Buddhism.


First, i noticed that in the records of the first Chinese bhikkhunīs' dual ordination in China in the 5th century, the Sinhalese bhikkhunīs who travelled to China to give the ordination believed Mahāpajāpatī was ordained by the Buddha himself, and that the first 500 bhikkhunis were ordained with Mahāpajāpatī as preceptor.


This is not characteristic of the Pali-text tradition, which depicts Mahāpajāpatī ordained by the Buddha, with the Buddha then directing the bhikkhus to ordain the first 500 aspirants to bhikkhunī-hood, saying: "Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, bhikkhūhi bhikkhuniyo upasampādetuṃ."--"I allow you bhikkhus to give the upasampadā ordination to bhikkhunīs." (Vin. iv 255) There is no mention here of Mahāpajāpatī serving as the preceptor.


However -

In Ven. Damchö Diana Finnegan's excellent PhD thesis "For the Sake of Women, Too," which is based on the Mulasarvāstivāda school's Vinaya text, on p. 150 she explains, how Kṛśā Gautamī (Pāli: Kisa Gotamī) asked the Buddha for ordination, but he entrusted her to Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī who ordains her.


Furthermore on p. 363 she writes: "In story after story, when women approach monks seeking ordination, they are handed off to Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī. This is true as well of Buddha himself, who is frequently described as 'entrusting' women to Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī. According to the ordination procedures that become normative by the end of the MSV, the presence of both bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs is required to perform the full ordination procedure. Yet in many narratives, the narrative simply says, 'Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī has her ordained and fully ordained,' as we saw in the case of the otherwise idiosyncratic ordination of Utpalavarṇā. This trope is striking in that it has Buddha himself acknowledging Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī as the authority over the women’s order, and a sort of counterpart caretaker to himself. What he would have done for the candidate for ordination had that candidate been male, he sends to Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī to do when the candidate is female."


In the Pāli texts as well, the most common example that we see--we could say the "prevalent example"--is also of the Buddha sending women either specifically to Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī for ordination, or to one of the leading bhikkhunī teachers such as Uppalavaṇṇā or Patacārā, etc. for ordination. We could think that it is invisibly implied that they went to the bhikkhus afterwards, yet this is not stated; there is no trace of this implication in these stories. Even in the Pāli Therī Apadāna, which we think may be part of a very late group of Pāli Canonical texts formed between the Aśokan era and the Okkāka/Ikṣvāku Dynasty time frame, we still find this same pattern. In example, in this Canonical text also, we find depicted the ordination of Queen Anojā and her 500 companions by exemplary leading bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā Therī, at the direction of the Buddha.


Then i found another Canonical reference, from a third ancient Buddhist monastic tradition. It is from the Mahīśāka School's Vinaya Bhikkhunī Khandhaka.

[English translation from: http://santifm.org/santipada/2010/w2/]


"Ānanda went and told the Buddha. The Buddha said, ‘Now [I] allow Pajāpatī, act­ing as pre­ceptor in an assembly of ten bhikkhus, to give full ordin­a­tion [to these 500 women aspirants] by an act with four announce­ments. I allow ordin­a­tion of three people on one occa­sion, not four.’[33]"


"33 Mahīśā­saka Vinaya, Bhikkhunī Khand­haka (T22, № 1421, p. 185, b7). The trans­la­tion was assisted by Bhikkhuni Sama­cittā. This last pas­sage includes yet another pecu­li­ar­ity of this ver­sion: nowhere else, so far as I am aware, does a bhikkhuni act as pre­ceptor in an assembly of bhikkhus."


I find the Chinese text in a slightly different place at T1421 than footnoted, but nearby, here.

T22n1421_p0186a29║五百釋女今當云何受具足戒。願更為白。阿

T22n1421_p0186b01║難即以白佛。佛言。即聽波闍波提比丘尼為

T22n1421_p0186b02║作和尚在比丘十眾中白四羯磨受具足戒。

T22n1421_p0186b03║聽一時羯磨三人。不得至四。既受戒已。摩訶

T22n1421_p0186b04║波闍波提比丘尼。與五百比丘尼俱到佛所。

The reference is thus properly: T22, no. 1421, p. 186, a29-b3.


This makes me wonder if the bhikkhunīs who travelled from the Abhayagirivihāra in Sri Lanka to China in 429 CE and dually ordained the Chinese bhikkhunīs were of the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya tradition.


It could explain why "Faxian obtained a Sanskrit copy of the Mahīśāsaka vinaya at Abhayagirivihāra a few years earlier in Sri Lanka, c. 406 CE", which has been a question of scholars, who expected that he should have obtained, returned to China with, and translated the Pāli text Vinaya of the Mahāvihāra school instead.


Focusing back on Sri Lanka, the story of Sanghamittā Therī's coming from India with a bhikkhunī sanghā to grant bhikkhunī ordination to Queen Anulā and her 500 companions also appears to follow a very similar pattern to the earlier Mahāpajāpatī and her 500 companions, and also Queen Anojā and her 500 companions who were sent by the Buddha to Uppalavaṇṇā for ordination.


However, if i remember rightly, there is one other rendition of the Mahāpajāpatī & the 500's ordination story that does not have Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī serving as preceptor together with 10 bhikkhus for ordinations of the 500 women 3x3 (as in the Mahīśāka school's Vinaya text), but just depicts the Buddha directing Mahāpajāpatī alone to serve as all of the 500 women aspirants' preceptor.


I have yet to re-find that reference. If anyone of my friends know it - please share it with me -


- Tathālokā Therī at Dhammadharini


Was Mahāpajāpatī preceptor of the first 500 bhikkhunīs?

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