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Some Aspects of Indian Culture
bounties conferred so lavishly and thoughtlessly on them; but they were the outcome of the closest application and the unflinching devotion to the Goddess of Learning Let us see in the following paragraphs what light we get and gather in this connection from the Buddhistic Liteature. It cannot of course, be definitely asserted whether they received education after the fashion of the present day girls going to the educational instiutions or by way of private Tuition. This much can be culled that they got first-rate training, both academic and spiritual.
It is now an admitted fact that the gathas of the work styled Therigathas were composed by nuns of those times. 4 Religious sermons of Sukka and philosophic discussion of Dhammadinnā and Kşemā entitle us to hypothesize that they were given a techanical training regarding those subjects. We come across a reference of a learned lady named Sukka in Sannuttanikāya. She was a nun and had delivered an illuminating lecture in a great assemblage at Rājagcha. This lecture of Sukka was so impressive that a certain man of Yaksa caste wandered in every street and proclaimed to the effect that every one should go and hear her nectarine words. A nun named Kşema was very famous for reciting Vinayagranthas. She had crammed the Vinayagrathas and her melodious recital of those granthas was simply engaging.
It was considered a privilege to her here singing. Her erudition also is brought out in high relief by the dialogue about the theory of rebirth between her and the king Prasenajit who was so convinced by her brief, bold and cogent arguments that there was not a single vestige of doubt left in his mind when he departed. Another brilliant star in the person of Kuntalakesa shines resplendent in the whole galaxy. In Logic, she was discomfited only by one Sāriputta and pone else. She ruled supreme in the intellectual world of those days. We get an account in Vimanavatthu of one of the learned nuns named Latā who had mastered the art of magic. She had a wonderful command on Vinayapitakas, which she taught according to Dipavamsa not only to nuns in Anuradhapura but to monks also. Estimate of her scholarship will remain incomplete if we neglect to take into consideration the fact that she had a chance to bring out masterly edition of some of the Pitakagranthas. Uttara had undertaken to teach seven works bearing upon Vinaya Sutta, and Abhidhamma in the University of Anuradhāpura. Anjali had gone to Anuradhāpura taking sixteen thousand monks with her, to teach especially the Tripitakas, Is it not a privilege to lord over monks as large in number as sixteen thousands ? And is not a glorious achievement for a man (what to talk of a woman) to be appointed as the senior professor in a University like that of Anurādhāpnra, Nalanda and Taxilā' which is decidedly ten times bigger than any of the present day Universities of the word. It was considered red letter day in the History of Indian on which Sir Radhakrishnan's appointment as Spalding Professor of Eastern Philosphy in the Oxford University was announced. It was considered the highest pinnacle for wbich an Indian can aspire in an academic line. What to talk of those times then, in which even the ladies ruled the academic world ? It means there is a long history of female education which has still got to
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