Indian Society for Buddhist Studies

Author(s): Prachya Vidyapeeth
Publisher: Prachya Vidyapeeth

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deals with various phenomena among which religion has always dominated its culture. The term 'Religion' itself deals with multidimensional aspects, in which the issue of Asceticism and Women are important and continues to add flavour in the Indian religions and society. The major ancient religions of India had a strong existence of women ascetics, generally can be termed as Nuns (Sramaneri, Bhikkhuni, Brahmacharini, Sannyasini). This paper will be an attempt to study two religions of India, Buddhism and the one in modern term Hinduism. Though Buddhism has the patent for introducing the ascetic community for women, Hinduism in modern times also followed the same with Thakur Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. The study here developed with these two Indian religions and some of their major schools which has a strong existence of the cominunity of Nuns in the modern era. From the ancient time, the lifestyle not only changed for the common people but also a huge change has taken place within the ascetic fraternity.
On the other side the idea of liberation seems to have in the same place as it was before. Although the liberated souls are few in number, the female ascetics within these two religions are not less. Living as a nun is not a ordinary decision women makes, there can be various issues behind this path. The renunciation with religious practice has the theoretical and practical significance for contemporary India. However, this study is an attempt to understand the lives of Nuns within Buddhist and Hindu tradition in modern Indian context, considering some major institutions of female ascetics through a comparative approach.
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Murals in the Holy Land: Aesthetic Perspective
Ambalicka Sood Jacob, Patiala
The aim of the paper is to understand the first hand impression of how history had a deep impact upon the present