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Buddhism," Unspoken Words: Women's Religious Lives,ed. by Nancy Auer Falk and
Rita M. Gross (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001), pp. 196-206
" ...
NANCY AUER FAlK is Professor of Comparative Religion anSWomen's Studies atWestern Michigan University. She was trained initially in History of Religions at the University of Chicago. (M.A. 1963; Ph.D.
1972), with specialization in the religions of South Asia. Her principal research interest is the study of
women's religious roles and lives, both in South .<\sia and cross-culturally, and she has written scholarly articles on aspects of women's lives and practice in both the Buddhist and Hindu traditions of South Asia.
Besides co-editing the several editions of Unspoken WVrlds, she has published WVmen and Religion in India: An
Annotated Bibliography of Sources in English 1975-92 (Kalamazoo, Mich.: New Issues Press, 1994).
Portions of the research for this chapter were supported by the National Endowment for the
Humanities (Summer Stipend, 1976) and by Western Michigan University'S sabbatical leave program
(1977-1978). An early version of this study was presented during the 1978W.Y. Evans-Wentz Lecture Series
at Stanford University,
A uthor's Note:
196
To appreciate the puzzle of the nuns' disappearance, one must have some minimal
acquaintance with the sources and facts of the
order's history in India. Overall, the history of
the nuns, like that of the larger Buddhist community in India, can be divided into three
phases.
The first, so-called primltlve, period
extends from the Buddha's first conversions
(ca. later sixth century B.C.) and the early
spread and consolidation of the tradition's
197
AN ECONOMIC MATTER
As brief as it is, I Ching's note on the nuns
provides an important clue to the crisis in the
women's order. Their singularly poorer state,
as compared to the monks', indicates that they
had problems in finding economic support.
199
ALMOST EQUAL
The reasons for the nuns' lower profile and
lesser fame seem once again to lie partly in the
institutional structure of the monastic orders.
To find them, we must widen our circle of
201
203
205
Notes
1. Therigatha, translated with the traditional
commentary by c.A.P. Rhys Davids in Psalms of
the Early Buddhists (London: Luzac, 1964). For an
excellent summary of these and other sources on
the earliest nuns, see 1. B. Horner, Women under
Primitive Buddhism (London: Routledge, 1930).
2. It may seem somewhat puzzling that nuns and
monks who had supposedly rejected most material
possessions nonetheless had the economic
resources to make donations to Buddhist building
projects and monuments. In some cases relatives
remaining within the lay community seem to have
offered donations on the monks' or nuns' behalf.
In some cases, like that of the distinguished monkscholar Vasubandhu, the monks or nuns redirected
a surplus of gifts that had been offered by laypersons for their own personal use.
3. J. J. Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions (Calcutta, 1988),
no. 70.
Further Readings
Bartholomeusz, Tessa J. WOmen under the Bo Tree:
Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Blackstone, Kathryn R. WOmen in the Footsteps of the
Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha.
Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1998.
Davids, Caroline A. F. Rhys. Psalms of the Early
Buddhists I: Psalms of the Sisters. London: Henry
Frowde, 1909.
Dutt, Sukumar. Buddhist Monks and iVIonasteries of
India: Their History and Contributions to Indian
Culture. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.,
1962. (For background information on Indian
monasticism; little attention is paid to nuns.)
Gross, Rita M. Buddhism under Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York
Press, 1993.
.
Horner, Ivy Baker. WOmen under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen. London: G.
Routledge and Sons, 1930.
Kabilsingh, Chatsumarn. A Comparative Study of
Bhikkuni Patimohkha. Varanasi: Chaukhambha
Orientalia, 1984.
Paul, Diana Y. Wbmen in Buddhism: Images of the
Feminine in Mahayana v"adition. Berkeley, CA:
Asian Humanities Press, 1979.
Tsai, Katherine Ann. Lives of the Nuns: Biographies
of Chinese Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.