Book Title: Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism
Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
View full book text
________________
PABBAJJA AND UPASAMPADA
81
connection it is remarkable to note that women, during the Vedic period, were regarded as much capable as men for persuing religious career. Naturally, not only they are alluded to to have specialised
themselves in Vedic studies but also to have taken active interest in the composition of Vedic Hymns. So also, they were deemed no less qualified than men to perform a sacrifice. Specially, sacrifices like the Sita sacrifice could be performed by women alone. This exalted position of women continued unimpaired down to the end of the Uparisadic period as several women like Gärgi and Maitreyi persisted in active religious activities. Not only this, but some of thein were discarding the pleasures and prospects of married life in favour of a life of asceticism. Thus it is not at all surprising that nuns existed in Indian society, though in small numbers, even before the rise of Buddhism. But unfortunately, the ascendancy of ascetic school in the post-Upanisadic period gradually reduced these privileges of women, and so finally women were placed on the same level with the Sudras as they were deprived of the right of Vedic studies.1
Buddhism and Jainism, as they flourished in this period, could not remain altogether unaffected. Thus, though Buddhism accepted that women could attain arhathood, still it declined that they could obtain the Buddhahood as well 2 The Digambara school, one of the two main schools of the Jaina faith, declared that women were not capable of attaining liberation, and hence, it was averse to the admission of women to its Order. The Sveta mbara school, on the other hand, assigned to women even the highest position of Thirthankarahood, but at the same time it lowered their position in its Church hierarchy.
The episode regarding the formation of the Buddhist Order of nuns gives the same impression. It is a fact that the Buddha at first was not in favour of the entry of women into his Order. The story as to how he agreed to the formation of the Order of nuns is related thus in the Cullavagga.
Once, when the Blessed One was staying in the Nigrodhārāma of Kapilavastu, Mahaprajapati Gautami, Buddha's aunt and foster mother, approached him and prayed for the entry of women into
1. Adopted from the Great Women of India, Vol. I, pp. 26-32.
2. MN. Vol., III, p. 128.
3. Pravacanasara, 3. 7.
4. Vimstivimsika, 19. 8ff. Tirthankara.
6
Princess
Malli is accepted as the nineteenth
