MAH?PRAJ?PAT? GAUTAM?

According to the Gotam?-apad?na and the Ther?g?th?, Mah?praj?pat? Gautam? (P?li, Mah?paj?pat? Gotam?) was Siddh?rtha Gautama's maternal aunt and foster mother. When Mah?praj?pat? was born, an astrologer predicted her leadership qualities and she was named Praj?pat? (P?li, Paj?pat?), "leader of a large assembly." She and her sister M?y? were both married to ?uddhodana, the ruler of Kapilavastu. M?y? gave birth to a son who was named Siddh?rtha and then died just seven days after his birth. After M?y?'s death, Praj?pat? suckled the boy and raised him as her own child. Praj?pat? also gave birth to two children of her own, Nanda and Sundar?nand?.

Mah?praj?pat? is widely regarded as the first bhik?u?? and progenitor of the Buddhist order of nuns (Bhik?u?? Sa?gha). After Siddh?rtha became "an awakened one" (a Buddha) and visited Kapilavastu, Mah?praj?pat? began to practice the dharma and achieved the stage of a stream enterer (?rot?panna). According to tradition, she thrice requested the Buddha's permission to join the sa?gha, but was refused each time. Finally, she cut her hair, donned renunciant garb, and, accompanied by five hundred ??kyan noblewomen, walked to Vai??l? where she once again sought admission to the order. This time, when ?nanda interceded on Mah?praj?pat?'s behalf, the Buddha affirmed that women are indeed qualified to achieve the fruits of dharma (i.e., liberation), and granted her request.

The Buddha is said to have stipulated eight special rules (gurudharma) as the condition for Mah?praj?pat?'s admission to the sa?gha. These rules, which later came to be applied to Buddhist nuns in general, make the Bhik?u?? Sa?gha dependent upon (and, to a certain extent, subordinate to) the Bhik?u Sa?gha (order of monks) with regard to ordination, exhortation, admonishment, and reinstatement, thereby delimiting the nuns' independence.

In addition to being the first Buddhist nun and the leader of the Bhik?u?? Sa?gha from its origins, Mah?praj?pat? achieved higher spiritual attainments, including the six higher knowledges and supernormal powers. She often served as a trusted intermediary in communications between the bhik?u??s and the Buddha. In the later part of her life, she reached the state of an arhat, as evidenced in her own verse, recorded in the Ther?g?th?: "I have achieved the state where everything stops." Within the patriarchal social context of her time, Mah?praj?pat? became an exemplar of women's potential for leadership and spiritual attainment, and her achievements have inspired Buddhist women ever since.

Bibliography

Blackstone, Kathryn R. Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Ther?g?th?. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 1998.

Horner, Isaline Blew. Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.

Walters, Jonathan S. "The Buddha's Mother's Story." History of Religions 33 (1994): 350–379.

Walters, Jonathan S. "Gotam?'s Story." In Buddhism in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Karma Lekshe Tsomo