Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 03-09-08
Theri (500s-200s
BCE)
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"SHE TAUGHT ME THE DOCTRINE...."
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Although he appears to have had reservations about the wisdom of doing so, Siddharta Gautama, the historical Buddha (500s BCE), established in northern India communities of women as well as of men. At first the nuns (the theri) were itinerant preachers like the men; later they lived in community, although they continued to teach.
The gatha (chants and sayings) they used in their teaching were repeated over the centuries until they were collected c.80 BCE into the Therigatha (Songs of the nuns) and made part of the Buddhist canon in the Pali language. The biographical information on each woman was written down in the 400s CE; the writer, Dhammapala, apparently worked with existing texts as well as recording what had been passed down orally.
Therigatha contains 73 separate songs made up of 522 verses, attributed to different theri. The voices of the singers are young and old, and represent the whole range of Indian society; the goal of all was to share with their hearers the way they had found to an inner freedom. Their freedom lay in the realization of the impermanence of all things; from this realization came detachment.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translations in print.
Information about secondary sources.
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1. From the "Celebration of Women Writers" site, Psalms of the Early Buddhists: I. Psalms of the Sisters, Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids' 1909 translation of the complete Therigatha. The 73 songs are organized by length; each is prefaced by Dhammapala's commmentary of the 400s CE. The appendix gives translations of 10 songs by theri from another source, the Bhikkhuni-samyutta, apparently contemporary with the Therigatha. Note especially the second section of Rhys Davids' introduction, in which she discusses the lives and beliefs of the theri, and from which you can link to songs that deal with specific themes, e.g., freedom, peace.
2. Another translation of the ten songs of the Bhikkhuni-samyutta. All of the songs deal with encounters with Mara, "the evil one." The translations are by Bhikkhu Bodhi, who also gives a useful introduction and notes.
3. Translations of individual songs; there is some repetition, but also alternative versions of the same poems:
(a) Links to 23 songs, by various translators.
(b) Ten stories of the theri by Hellmuth Hecker, translated by Ayya Khema; the prose narratives include many of the hymns.
(c) Seven songs, translated by Susan Murcott; also given are excerpts of Murcott's introductions to individual songs. At another site, passages from Murcott's descriptions of individual theri and a few songs. (For more from Murcott. see below, under "In print.")
(d) Three songs, in the prose translation of K.R. Norman (for more from Norman, see "In print").
(e) Translations by Andrew Olendzki: the song of Pajapati; the story of Gotami; and (from the Bhikkhuni-samyutta) the meeting of Soma and Mara.
(f) Two songs: "Sumangalamata's "A woman well set free!" (translated by Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy), and Mettika's "Though I am weak and tired now."
(g) Jane Hirshfield's version of the first song given just above, "At last free," by Sumangalamata.
(h) In a 1998 essay by R. Parthasarathy. "Translation as an Afterlife: Making Dead Indian Poets Speak," go to the section on the Pali language (about half way down the page) for a translation and discussion of Vimala's "Young and overbearing, drunk with fame."
(i) The story of Subha, with a song by her, "Listen well, my mother and relations," translated by Panadure Vajira Dasasilmatha.
4. Essays, etc.
(a) "Damming the Dhamma: Problems with Bhikkhuniis in the Pali Vinaya" (1999), by Kathryn R. Blackstone, discusses why the ordination of women was seen as a threat to the early Buddhist community; Blackstone uses the story of Mahapajapati (Gautama's aunt) to illustrate the danger (dhamma means doctrine, vinaya refers to the community's discipline).
(b) In this 1997 essay by John C. Powers, "Buddhism, an Introduction," go to the section on "Ordination of Women" (about one-third down the page) for the traditional story of the origin of theris. In the following four sections, you will find three of their hymns, translated by Hermann Oldenberg and Richard Pischel.
(c) "Inspiration from Enlightened Nuns," (1988) by Susan Elbaum Jootla, on the theri and on their significance for modern Buddhists; the essay includes translations by Rhys Davids and by Norman.
5. Reviews (for information on both books' treatment of the theri, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Rumina Sethi on the 2003 essay collection, Re-searching Indian Women.
(b) Nancy J. Barnes on Blackstone's 1998 study Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha (and at another site, a brief article by Blackstone on the purpose and findings of her study).
6. For historical background:
(a) The first two pages of Patti Nakai's 2002 four-part essay, "Women In Buddhism," deal with the theri.
(b) And for a broader view, a 1999 essay by Karen Andrews, "Women In Theravada Buddhism."
6. And, to compare with the songs of the women, the 264 songs of their male contemporaries, gathered in the Theragatha (Songs of the monks), from various translators.
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[Susan Murcott's book is perhaps the best place to start for the general reader; Murcott translates 61 songs (although some incompletely) and gives some of the stories from Dhammapala. The chapters are arranged by theme; the book is good on background information. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
The first Buddhist women: translations and commentaries on
the Therigatha / Susan Murcott. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax Press,
c1991. (ix, 219 p.)
LC#: BQ1452.E5 M87 1991; ISBN: 0938077422.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-219).
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"I have been mother, son, father, brother, grandmother."
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[By Mahapajapati Gotami, sister of Gautama's mother Maya:]
Homage to you Buddha,
best of all creatures,
who set me and many others
free from pain.
All pain is understood,
the cause, the craving is dried up,
the Noble Eightfold Way unfolds,
I have reached the state where everything stops.
I have been
mother,
son,
father,
brother,
grandmother;
knowing nothing of the truth
I journeyed on.
But I have seen the Blessed One;
this is my last body,
and I will not go
from birth to birth
again.
Look at the disciples all together,
their energy,
their sincere effort.
This is homage to the buddhas.
Maya gave birth to Gautama
for the sake of us all.
She has driven back the pain
of the sick and the dying. [p.18-19]
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"Mutta, free woman, be free."
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[By Mutta:]
Mutta, free woman,
be free
as the moon is freed
from the eclipse
of the dragon Rahu's dark jaws.
With a free mind,
in no debt,
enjoy what has been given to you,
this almsfood. [p.166]
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"A mere woman can't get there."
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[By Soma: a dialogue with Mara (illusion):]
Mara: "That place
the sages gain
is hard to reach.
A mere woman can't get there."
Soma: "What harm is it
to be a woman
when the mind is concentrated
and the insight is clear?
("If I asked myself:
'Am I a woman
or a man in this?'
Then I would be speaking Mara's language.") [p.158-159]
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[K.R. Norman gives a literal prose translation of Therigatha's 522 verses; arranged, as is the original, by length:]
The elders' verses II: Therigatha / translated with an introduction
and notes by K.R. Norman (Pali Text Society translation series;
no. 40). London: Published for the Pali Text Society by Luzac
& Co., 1971. (xci, 199 p.)
LC#: BQ1452.E5 N6713
Includes bibliographical references (p. ix-xiv) and index.
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"...having gone forth, giving up son, cattle, and what was
dear...."
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[By Sangha:]
Giving up my house, having gone forth, giving up son, cattle, and what was dear, giving up desire and hatred, and having discarded ignorance, plucking out craving root and all, I have become stilled, quenched. [p.3]
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"I went forth into the houseless state."
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[By Nanduttara; devatas are gods:]
I used to revere fire, and the moon, and the sun, and devatas. Having gone down to river-fording places, I used to go down into the water.
Undertaking many vows, I shaved half my head; I made my bed on the ground; I did not eat night-food.
Delighting in ornament and decoration, by means of bathing and anointing indeed, I ministered to this body, afflicted by desire for sensual pleasures.
Then obtaining faith I went forth into the houseless state, seeing the body as it really was. Desire for sensual pleasure has been rooted out.
All existences have been cut out, and wishes and longings too. Unfettered from all this, I attained peace of mind. [pp.12-13]
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"Having heard her utterance, taking her advice...."
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[By Vijaya; a bhikkhuni (literally, "female wanderer") is a Buddhist nun:]
Four or five times I went forth from my cell, not having attained peace of mind, being without self-mastery over the mind.
Having approached a bhikkhuni, having honoured her, I questioned. She taught me the doctrine, and the elements, and sense-bases,
the four noble truths, the faculties, and the powers, the constituents of enlightenment and the eight-fold way for the attainment of the supreme goal.
Having heard her utterance, taking her advice, in the first watch of the night I recollected that I had been born before.
In the middle watch of the night I purified the deva-eye. In the last watch of the night I tore asunder the mass of darkness.
And I then dwelt suffusing the body with joy and happiness. On the seventh I stretched forth my feet, having torn asunder the mass of darkness. [p.19]
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[This is an older two-volume translation of the songs of both the nuns and the monks, by Caroline Rhys Davids. The first volume (available online) contains both the complete Therigatha and, in an appendix, songs attributed to the theri from another source, Samyutta Nikaya; the second volume contains the Theragatha (Songs of the monks). Rhys Davids' introductions are thorough:]
Davids, Caroline Augusta (Foley) Rhys, Mrs., tr. Psalms of
the early Buddhists. London, Pub. for the Pali text society by
H. Frowde [1909]. (2 v.: plates)
LC#: PK4541 .P5 no. 1, 4
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[In this selection, Anne Waldman translates 24 songs from the Therigatha, and Andrew Schelling translates 32 from the Theragatha. The translations are sometimes incomplete, but the book's introduction and "afterword" are of interest. There is a useful glossary and a brief bibliography:]
Songs of the sons & daughters of Buddha / translated by
Andrew Schelling & Anne Waldman; illustrated by Robert Schelling.
Boston: Shambhala, 1996. (xv, 112 p.: ill. ; 19 cm)
LC#: BQ1442.E54 S25 1996; ISBN: 1570621721
Includes bibliographical references (p. 111)
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[Kathryn R. Blackstone's study analyses Therigatha and compares it to Theragatha to show how the women's poems differ from those of the men; Blackstone uses K.R. Norman's translations, with occasional quotations from Caroline Rhys Davids. The bibliography is thorough: it includes not only translations and studies on theri, but studies on women in Buddhism; there is also a brief glossary of terms. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Blackstone, Kathryn R. Women in the footsteps of the Buddha:
struggle for liberation in the Therigatha (Curzon critical studies
in Buddhism). Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998. (xiii, 185 p)
LC#: BQ4570.W6 B53 1998; ISBN: 0700709622
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[This collection includes Kumkum Roy's essay "Of Theras
and Theris: Visions of Liberation in the Early Buddhist
Tradition," which also looks at Therigatha and Theragatha
to see how gender affected the ways in which the men's and women's
stories were told. Roy sees the stories representing not only
the speakers' individual voices but also the needs of the listeners
to whom the songs would be sung over the centuries. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Re-searching Indian women / edited by Vijaya Ramaswamy. Delhi:
Manohar, 2003. (380 p.: ill.)
LC#: PK2903 .R566 2003; ISBN: 8173044961
Includes bibliographical references and index
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[This 1930 book by I.B. Horner has two useful chapters on
the theri, and a valuable 1975 preface by Caroline Rhys
Davids. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Horner, I. B. (Isaline Blew). Women under primitive Buddhism:
laywomen and almswomen. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975. (xxiv,
391 p., 6 leaves of plates: ill.)
LC#: HQ1742 .H6 1975
Reprint of the 1930 ed. published by G. Routledge, London. Includes
bibliographical references and index.
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[Romila Thapar's history of India to 1300 provides useful background information on religious and other aspects of Indian history. Note especially pages 164-73, on the rise of Buddhism and of Buddhist monasteries. The book has a helpful chronology and glossary. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Thapar, Romila. Early India: from the origins to A.D. 1300.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. (555 p.)
LC#: DS436.A3 T43 2004; ISBN: 0520238990
Includes bibliographical references and index
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Updated 03-09-08