Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the Buddhist Nuns' Order

American Academy of Religion

Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the Buddhist Nuns' OrderAuthor(s): Reiko OhnumaSource: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 861-901Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139955 .

Accessed: 21/02/2015 11:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Oxford University Press and American Academy of Religion are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 129.170.195.144 on Sat, 21 Feb 2015 11:22:48 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/4139955?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the

Buddhist Nuns' Order Reiko Ohnuma

As the founding story for female monasticism within the Buddhist tradition, the traditional account of how the Buddha first instituted an order of nuns has been subjected to extensive scholarly treatment. Nevertheless, this article argues that previous scholarship has suffered from a significant blind spot, failing to recognize a crucially important element of the story. I refer to this element as the "debt to the mother" theme, or the story's clear implication that the Buddha founded an order of nuns at least in part because it was his mother who asked him to, and despite renouncing all familial ties, he owed an enormous debt to his mother that had to be repaid. I trace the existence of this "debt to the mother" theme in several versions of the story (and other Buddhist texts), and I also attempt to account for its complete elision in the surrounding scholarship.

THE TRADITIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE FOUNDING of the Buddhist nuns' order is a justly famous story, one that has been summarized, discussed, and interpreted in a wide array of scholarly sources pertaining to Buddhism. The story is oft repeated and well known: Five years after the Buddha's attainment of enlightenment and establishment of an order of monks, his aunt and foster mother Mahaprajapati Gautami comes to him and asks that women, too, be allowed to "go forth from the home to the homeless life" and be ordained as Buddhist nuns. The Buddha, however, refuses to grant her request, even after she has repeated it three times (in some versions), and she and her followers have shaved their heads, donned monastic robes, and doggedly followed him for hundreds of

Reiko Ohnuma is in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755.

Journal of the American Academy ofReligion December 2006, Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 861-901 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfl026 @ The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] Advance Access publication October 11, 2006



862 ournal of tht Amercan Academy of Realigion

miles, distraught and weeping all the way. The Buddha's faithful attendant Ananda then agrees to intercede on the women's behalf, but he, too, is met with the same refusal. It is only when Ananda changes his tack and succeeds in getting the Buddha to admit that women are fully capable of attaining the goal of nirvana that the Buddha finally relents and agrees to create an order of nuns. However, he also decrees that all nuns hence- forth must abide by eight "strict rules" (garudharmd) that will clearly subordinate them, socially and institutionally, to the control of the monks' order. Nevertheless, Mahaprajapati gladly accepts these conditions, and the order of nuns is created.

Or so the story is usually told. Cited, summarized, and discussed repeatedly throughout the last one hundred and fifty years of scholarship in Buddhist Studies, this story, again and again, has been reduced to three fundamental elements: (1) the Buddha refuses Mahdprajapati's initial request, (2) Ananda gets him to change his mind by pointing to women's spiritual capabilities, and (3) the Buddha relents but subjects the nuns' order to certain conditions clearly marking their inferiority. It is my contention, however, that a crucially important element of this story-one that is found in virtually every surviving version and one that plays just as prominent a role as the three elements mentioned above-has been sys- tematically ignored and overlooked in the existing scholarship on this account. For in almost all surviving versions of this story, Ananda clearly offers two arguments in favor of women's ordination: Not only does he ask the Buddha whether women are capable of attaining the four grades of saintliness, including arhatship, but he also makes reference to the fact that Mahdprajiapati served as the Buddha's mother, who nourished him, brought him up, and suckled him at her breast after his own mother, Queen Mdyd, died shortly after his birth. The consistent inclusion of this second argument must have some sort of significance: Why does Ananda find it necessary to invoke the Buddha's indebtedness to his mother? Is the account perhaps implying that the Buddha owes it to his mother to institute an order of nuns? That he should do so not only because of women's spiritual capabilities but also to repay his mother for all the kindnesses she bestowed upon him? Was he acting, in this instance, as his mother's son, and not as a fully enlightened Buddha? And what implications might such a suggestion have for the status of women within Buddhist traditions and their inherent right to pursue the monastic voca- tion? This suggestion of a possible "debt to the mother" exists in virtually every version of the story, plays just as prominent a role (within the original sources themselves) as Ananda's more well-known argument concerning women's spiritual capabilities, and, I believe, should have a significant impact on how the story is interpreted, particularly by those who are



Ohnuma: Debt to the Mother 863

concerned with Buddhist conceptions of women and gender. And yet, it has been almost wholly ignored in the surrounding scholarship.

In this article, I aim to undertake the following: (1) to demonstrate the existence of this "debt to the mother" theme within the Mahipraja- pati/ordination story-paying special attention to the version found in the Pali Vinaya of the Theravada school, because it is this version that has most frequently been cited and discussed; (2) to trace, and attempt to account for, the complete neglect and elision of this theme in the substantial body of scholarship pertaining to the story; and (3) to undertake a fuller analysis of the "debt to the mother" theme itself, both in various versions of this story and in other Buddhist texts.

DEBT TO THE MOTHER IN THE PALI VINAYA ACCOUNT

It is the version of the Mahaprajapati/ordination story found in the Cullavagga section of the Pdli Vinaya of the Theravida school' that has most frequently been cited-due not only to the general dominance of Pali canonical literature within the history of Buddhist Studies but perhaps also to I. B. Horner's groundbreaking 1930 work, Women Under Primitive Buddhism, which devotes a full sixty-two pages to a close and careful analysis of this version of the story, repeatedly cited by other scholars.2 This version can be summarized as follows.

In the fifth year after his enlightenment, the Buddha is dwelling among his own people, the Sikyans, in the city of Kapilavastu, when his aunt and foster mother Mahdprajdpati Gautami approaches him to make her request.3 At the time, Mahaprajdpati has been recently widowed by the death of the Buddha's father, King ?uddhodhana, and she comes to the Buddha not only for herself but on behalf of a large group of ?akyan women who also wish to renounce the world, most of them having also been "widowed" by their husbands' ordination as Buddhist monks. Approaching her son, the Buddha, in humble submission, she states, "It would be good, Lord, if women were allowed to go forth from the home to the homeless life under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata."4 The Buddha, however, without explicitly refusing her request,

1 Cullavagga 10.1 (ed. in Oldenberg 1879-83: 2, 253-56; trans. in Horner 1938-66: 5, 352-56). A

virtually identical account also appears in the Aiiguttara Nikiya, book 8, chapter 6, No. 1 (ed. in Morris 1885-1910: 4, 274-79; trans. in Woodward and Hare 1932-36: 4, 181-85).

2 Horner (1930: 99-161). 3 For the sake of consistency, I will use the Sanskrit (not Pali) forms of all names and terms

throughout this article, even if I am talking about a Pdli source. 4 Oldenberg (1879-83: 2, 253).



864 Journal of the American Academy of Religion

issues a sort of warning: "Stop, Gautami! Don't set your mind on women going forth from the home to the homeless life under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata!"5 Mahdprajdpati then makes the same request and receives the same reply a second and a third time. Then, "miserable" and "depressed" because the Buddha will not allow women to renounce the world, she departs "crying, her face full of tears."6 The Buddha then travels from Kapilavastu to Vai'dli (said to be a distance of several hundred miles), followed all the way by Mahdprajapati and her companions, who have now shaved their heads and donned orange-colored monastic robes in an effort to prove their seriousness. She stands outside of the monastery hall in which the Buddha is staying, "her feet swollen, her body covered with dust, miserable, depressed, and crying, her face full of tears."' Ananda encounters her and learns the reason for her distress, whereupon he agrees to intercede on her behalf. He goes to the Buddha and makes exactly the same request another three times, but once again, the Buddha answers him with a similar warning.

Now comes the crucial passage:

Then the Venerable Ananda thought to himself: "The Blessed One will not allow women to go forth from the home to the homeless life under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathdgata. But suppose I were to ask the Blessed One in some other manner ... ?"

Then the Venerable Ananda said to the Blessed One: "Lord, are women who have gone forth ... capable of realizing the fruit of Stream- Entering, or the fruit of Once-Returning, or the fruit of Non-Returning, or Arhatship?"

Yes, Ananda, women who have gone forth ... are capable of realizing [all four fruits].

Since, Lord, women who have gone forth ... are capable of realizing [all four fruits], and, Lord, Mahdprajdpati Gautami was very helpful to the Blessed One-serving as his aunt, foster-mother, caregiver, and giver of milk, who breastfed the Blessed One after his mother had died-it would be good, Lord, if women were allowed to go forth ...

If, Ananda, Mahdprajdpati Gautami will agree to abide by eight strict rules, that itself will constitute her ordination.8

5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid., 254-55. The crucial passage (beginning with "Since, Lord ... ") reads as follows: sace bhante

bhabbo matugamo . . . pabbajitva sotdpattiphalam . . . [etc.] . . . sacchikatupm/bahapakara bhante mahapajapati gotami bhagavato mdtuccha Jpadika posika khirassa dayika bhagavantarm janettiyii kalakataya thaniiam pdyesi/sadhu bhante labheyya mdtugdmo ... pabbajjanti/.




He then proclaims the eight "strict rules" incumbent upon all nuns, which Mahdprajapati gladly accepts. This is followed by the Buddha's famous prediction that although the Buddhist dharma would have lasted for one thousand years, it will now last for only five hundred years, because of women's entrance into the Samgha, which he compares with such things as mildew attacking a field of rice and disease attacking a field of sugar cane.

Several conclusions can be drawn from a careful reading of this account. First of all, it is clear that when Mahaprajapati asks the Buddha to institute an order of nuns, he does not explicitly refuse her request; instead, he simply tries to deflect the question by warning her not to ask it. Nevertheless, it is also important to note that he does this six times altogether (three times to Mahaprajapati and three times to Ananda). Because it is a basic narrative convention of Indian Buddhist literature for a question to be asked three separate times, with the same answer being given all three times indicating a definitive response,9 the fact that the Buddha fails to grant this request six times altogether clearly indicates to the reader that his approval is not going to be forthcoming-at least to this particular phrasing of the question. While some scholars have used this aspect of the story to argue that the Buddha, in this text, clearly changes his mind-Horner, for example, states categorically that "this is the only instance [recorded in Pali canonical literature] of his being over- persuaded in argument"o0-other scholars have refuted this on the grounds that it conflicts with other statements made in the canon sug- gesting that the Buddha always knew that he would institute an order of nuns"1 or on the grounds that an omniscient Buddha could never be depicted as changing his mind because of the influence of somebody else (least of all, an unenlightened being such as Ananda).12 But whether one argues that the Buddha, in this passage, did change his mind or did not change his mind, the account itself makes it quite clear that he was not willing to grant the request until the request was rephrased or additional arguments were put forth-a point further reinforced by the fact that Ananda now explicitly thinks to himself: "Suppose I were to ask the Blessed One in some other manner ... ?"

9 This is apparent in much of Buddhist narrative literature; in Buddhist monastic disciplinary law, it also seems to constitute the rationale behind the ecclesiastical act known as jfiapticaturthakarman, in which a motion is first proposed and then stated three times in succession; if met with silence on all three occasions, it is considered to be approved. This act is used for especially important monastic procedures such as ordination.

10 Horner (1930: 105). 11 Barnes (1987: 107); Harvey (2000: 385). 12 Kabilsingh (1984: 31).




It is at this point that Ananda asks the Buddha whether women who have renounced the world are capable of attaining the four grades of saintliness-stream-entering, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship-and the Buddha concedes that they are. Notice, however, that he still does not accede to Mahlprajdpati's request. Ananda then makes his final statement: Since women are capable of attaining the four grades of saintliness, and since Mahdpraj'pati was the Buddha's mother and did such-and-such on his behalf, it would be good if the Buddha would allow women to renounce the world. Clearly, Ananda offers two separate argu- mentg-it is impossible to read the account in any other way-and it is only at this point that the Buddha finally relents. We might refer to Ananda's first argument as the "spiritual-capability argument"-that is, women are fully capable of attaining the four grades of saintliness, if they are permitted to renounce the world-and to the second argument as the "motherhood argument"-that is, Mahiprajdpati was the Buddha's mother and did much on his behalf. The question then becomes: Did the Buddha, as this passage presents him, agree to institute an order of nuns because of the spiritual-capability argument alone, the motherhood argument alone, or both arguments together? Did he institute an order of nuns for all women, or did he do so for his mother in particular? I would argue that although the passage does not explicitly answer this question for us, at the very least, it suggests that the two arguments were of equal importance in the Buddha's final decision, that those who composed and preserved this account felt it necessary to include both and that any discussion of this episode should therefore pay equal attention to both. Unfortunately, this is not what we find in the scholarly literature, where the motherhood argument (as I will soon demonstrate) completely drops out of the picture.

There is a second passage, as well, also contained in the Cullavagga section of the Pili Vinaya, which further suggests the importance the Theravida tradition placed on the motherhood argument in its depiction of the founding of the nuns' order. This is the passage dealing with the famous "censuring of Ananda" that is said to have taken place during the First Council, when five hundred of the Buddha's leading disciples gath- ered just after his death to codify the Dharma and Vinaya.13 Once these two collections of canonical texts had been codified, Ananda informed the assembly that just before dying, the Buddha had told him that the "lesser and minor rules of monastic discipline"'4 could be abolished after

13 The account of the First Council appears in Cullavagga 11 (ed. in Oldenberg 1879-83: 2, 284-93; trans. in Horner 1938-66: 5, 393-406).

14 Khuddinukhuddakani sikkhapadani (Oldenberg 1879-83: 2, 287).




his death. However, Ananda, in his carelessness, had failed to ask the Buddha to specify exactly what the "lesser and minor rules of monastic

discipline" were-and because the assembly could not come to any agreement, all the rules had to be maintained. This seems to have been

irritating to the other monks, for it led directly into the assembly's "cen-

suring" of Ananda, in which Ananda was criticized for five different offenses he had committed throughout his life as a monk.

This passage proceeds in a consistent manner: In each case, the

assembly states the offense committed and asks Ananda to confess to it, and in each case, Ananda replies, "I do not see this as an offence"- because of such-and-such a reason-"but out of faith in the Venerable Ones, I confess to it as an offence."'5 Thus, he is first censured for failing to ask the Buddha to specify the "lesser and minor rules of monastic dis-

cipline" but answers that his failure was merely a result of "unmindful- ness."16 Three additional censures then follow, but it is the fifth and final censure that concerns us here:

Venerable Ananda, this, too, is an offence committed by you: You worked hard so that women could go forth under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathigata. Confess to this offence!

Yes, Venerable Ones, I did work hard so that women could go forth under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata- because it was Mahaprajjpati Gautami who served as the Blessed One's aunt, foster-mother, caregiver, and giver of milk, who breastfed the Blessed One after his mother had died. I do not see this as an offence, but out of faith in the Venerable Ones, I confess to it as an offence."

Here, on the one occasion on which Ananda is depicted explaining the motivation behind his actions, the spiritual-capability argument is nowhere to be found, and only the motherhood argument appears: He worked hard on behalf of women's ordination because Mahaprajdpati was the Buddha's mother, not because women are capable of attaining the goal of nirvana. Moreover, Mahdprajapati's mothering of the Buddha also constitutes the reason why his efforts to obtain ordination for women do not constitute an offense-a clear suggestion that this mothering, at

15 Ibid., 289. 16 Asatiyd (ibid.). 17 Ibid. The crucial passage reads, aharm kho bhante ayam mahJpajapati gotami bhagavato

miituccha iipadika posikai khirassa daiyikd bhagavantarm janettiya kalakatdaya thafifzam payesiti mdtugdmassa tathdgatappavedite dhammavinaye pabbajjam ussukkam akadim. (Literally, "I worked hard [to obtain women's ordination], thinking [to myself], 'Mahaprajdpati Gautami served as the Blessed One's aunt [etc.] . ..' ".)



868 T j.....l oI•f. thl A merican . Acadern ,,,f,,... DRelxgi

least in the mind of Ananda, rightfully deserved some sort of repayment. At the very least, this secondary and supporting passage suggests that we ought to pay some attention to the role the motherhood argument plays within the Mahdprajapati/ordination story itself.

Nor is the motherhood argument unique to the Pali version of these events alone. As Ann Heirman's very thorough analysis of "all the different versions" of the Mahdprajapati/ordination story makes clear, it is a standard element in virtually every surviving version-appearing not only in the Pdli Vinaya account (and the identical passage found in the P~li Aiguttara Nikaya) but also, for example, in the accounts found in the Mahid?saka Vinaya, the MahJasaTmghika-LokottaravJda Bhikrsuni-Vinaya (MLBV), the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, the (Chinese) Milasarvdstivida Vinaya, the Sitra on Gautami of the Sarvastivadin Madhyamdgama, and a stitra extant only in Chinese, the Sitra on the Bhiksunit Mahaprajiapati (Ta-ai-tao-pi-ch'iu-ni ching).'8 In fact, according to the detailed charts provided by Heirman, the only extant version of this story that includes the spiritual-capability argument but not the motherhood argument is a Chinese text known as the P'i-ni-mu ching (T. 1463, Vinayamadtrkif?),

18 See Heirman (2001: 275-89), which analyzes all versions of the story through exhaustive charts and lists; as I am unable to access the Chinese sources directly, I have relied on this article quite heavily. Regarding the additional sources mentioned: The Mahigdsaka Vinaya is T. 1421 and exists only in Chinese. The MLBV exists only in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and is not a complete Vinaya, consisting of the Bhik 4uni-Vinaya portion only (ed. in Roth 1970; trans. into French in Nolot 1991; a somewhat abbreviated English translation of the Mahdprajipati/ordination story itself can be found in Strong 1995: 52-56). The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya is T. 1428 and exists only in Chinese. The Malasarvtstivdda Vinaya is extant in its entirety in the Dulva section of the Tibetan Buddhist canon, in large portions in Chinese (T. 1442-51), and in significant portions in Sanskrit. The surviving Sanskrit portions do not include the Mahiprajipati/ordination story, and I have unfortunately been unable to consult the Tibetan version nor is it addressed by Heirman (although the summary provided by Rockhill 1972: 60-62 does not explicitly mention the motherhood argument). Two further Vinayas extant only in Chinese-the

Mahasa'.mghika Vinaya (T. 1425) and the Sarvistivada

Vinaya (T. 1435)--discuss only the eight "strict rules" without relating the Mah5prajipati/ ordination story itself (the Bhiksuni Vinaya of the former has been translated in Hirakawa 1982). The Siltra on Gautami is Stitra No. 116 of the Sarvdstiv5din Madhyamagama, which exists only in Chinese (T. 26); a nearly identical version of this account also appears in T. 60, the Fu-shuo-ch'ii- t'an-mi-chi-kuo ching or Sitra on the Story of Gautami. The Ta-ai-tao-pi-ch'iu-ni ching (T. 1478), according to Heirman, is a later Vinaya text possibly translated in the first half of the fifth century, although according to Hirakawa (1970: 273-74), it may be a Chinese compilation. Heirman's claim (1970: 277) that her analysis is exhaustive of "all the different versions" of this story appears to be largely correct; however, as noted before, her tables do not include any reference to the version found in the Tibetan Mtlasarvistiv~ida Vinaya nor do they account for the version found in a Sanskrit Milasarvfstivlda Bhiksuni-Karmavacana fragment (ed. in Ridding and de La Vall6e Poussin 1919; re-ed. in Schmidt 1993; the relevant story trans. by Frances Wilson in Paul 1985: 83-94)-even though she mentions this version in a footnote (1970: 278, n. 23). This version contains neither the spiritual-capability argument nor the motherhood argument-but I will have more to say about what role Mahiprajdpati's motherhood might play in this version below.




which is a commentary on the Pritimoksa Saitra of an unknown school. Aside from this single exception, all surviving versions of the story that mention the spiritual-capability argument also have Ananda make reference to Mahdprajapati's mothering. Although the motherhood argument appears in a number of different manifestations, and occurs sometimes before and sometimes after the spiritual-capability argument, it is clearly an essential element of the story-which makes its utter neglect by the surrounding scholarship all the more surprising.

A SCHOLARLY BLIND SPOT

Because I have always been intrigued by the idea that the Buddhist tradition, in its depiction of the founding of the nuns' order, somehow felt it necessary to allude not only to women's spiritual capabilities but also to the lingering tie the Buddha had to his mother, it has slowly dawned on me, over the years, just how little this "debt to the mother" theme has been noticed, commented upon, or interpreted in the substantial body of scholarship pertaining to this account. The story itself has been summarized and discussed repeatedly in all kinds of scholarly sources-the vast majority of them basing themselves on the Pali Vinaya account, in which the motherhood argument is unambiguously present-yet, almost without exception, these sources take little or no notice of the "debt to the mother" theme. Indeed, I have found this to be almost universally true: In the vast majority of sources that cite this story and that do mention (and often discuss) the spiritual-capability argument, no mention at all is made of the motherhood argument; or it is present in direct quotation only, with no accompanying commentary by the scholar; or it is alluded to by the scholar very briefly and in passing, without any significant attention. This pattern appears to hold true for older works on Buddhism,19 standard introductory textbooks on Buddhism,20 biographies of the Buddha,21 and works focusing on Buddhist monasticism.22 Most surprisingly, it appears to be pervasively true of

19 Ch'en (1968: 97-98) (no mention); Coomaraswamy (1916: 161-62) (no mention); Eliot (1921: 1, 159-60) (brief mention but no further comment).

20 Gethin (1998: 90) (no mention); Harvey (1990: 221-22) (no mention); Lopez (2001: 158) (no mention); Mitchell (2002: 27) (no mention); Robinson and Johnson (1997: 74) (no mention); Trainor (2001: 39) (no mention) and (2001: 99) (no mention).

21 Saunders (1920: 41) (no mention); Thomas (1949: 107-10) (present through direct quote only); Foucher (1963: 198) (brief mention but no further comment); Armstrong (2001: 152) (brief mention but no further comment).

22 Bechert and Gombrich (1984: 55) (no mention); Dutt (1941-45: 1, 294-95) (no mention); Wijayaratna (1990: 158-60) (no mention).



870 Journal of*the Ame1rcan Academy of Religion ?f ? %/j z.Lffl,%,ff Ljr those works that have the greatest likelihood of paying attention to the story at all-that is, works focusing specifically on the role of women in Buddhism, conceptions of gender in Buddhism, or the Buddhist order of nuns.23 It is for these sources that the Maha-prajipati/ordination story has the most significant implications, and it is these sources, consequently, that give to the story the greatest amount of interpretive attention-yet they succeed no better than any others at even taking notice of the "debt to the mother" theme. The elision of this theme appears to be so complete, in fact, that in the very few instances in which I have been able to locate a clear recognition and acknowledgment of the motherhood argument, it has almost always been extremely brief and tucked away in an inaccessible place-either in a little-known source or in a discussion pertaining primarily to something other than a consideration of the founding of the Buddhist nuns' order.24

How can we account for this significant scholarly blind spot? Why is there such a persistent refusal to recognize the "debt to the mother" theme, even though it is clearly present within the story itself? One major reason is perhaps not difficult to surmise. It is related, I believe, to the story's profound implications: After all, the Mahiprajdpati/ordination story is the founding story for female monasticism. It is not only relevant to the historical contexts in which each version of the story appears but also continues to have profound and real-life consequences for Buddhist women in the contemporary present-not only in terms of general

23 Horner (1930: 99-117) (no mention); Falk (1980: 209) (no mention) and (1980: 219) (no mention); Barnes (1987: 107) (no mention); Willis (1985: 61-64) (no mention); Blackstone (1998: 38-39) (no mention); Kabilsingh (1984: 21-37) (no mention); Wilson (1996: 143-48) (no mention); Church (1975: 53-54) (no mention); Kajiyama (1982: 59-60) (no mention); Wayman (1991: 278-82) (no mention); Tsomo (1996: 19) (no mention); Gyatso (2003: 90-91) (no mention); Dewaraja (1999: 73) (no mention); Wawrytko (1994: 284-86) (no mention); Shih (1988: 95-96) (no mention); Barnes (2000: 18) (brief mention but no further comment); Malalasekera (1971: 43-47), s.v. "Bhikkhuni" (no mention); Buswell (2004: 2, 489-90), s.v. "Mahaprajapati Gautami" (no mention); Buswell (2004: 2, 606-11), s.v. "Nuns" (no mention); Demi6ville (1929-67: 1, 73-74), s.v. "Bikuni" (brief mention but no further comment). In the following five sources, all of which summarize the story and discuss it substantially, the motherhood argument appears in the summary but is absent from the ensuing discussion: Heirman (2001: 278-89); Sponberg (1992: 13-18); Gross (1993: 32-40); Harvey (2000: 383-91); Hiisken (2000).

24 For example, Wan (1988: 174) mentions only the motherhood argument, but this occurs in a short, personal essay written by a Buddhist nun rather than a scholarly source; Hellmuth Hecker (Nyanaponika and Hecker 1997: 155) clearly makes reference to the motherhood argument, but this occurs in an essay on the life of Ananda rather than a consideration of the Buddhist nuns' order; and Meena Talim's Women in Early Buddhist Literature (1972: 103) contains one of the longest considerations of the "debt to the mother" theme that I have been able to find (still just a single, short passage), but oddly enough, this appears in the chapter dealing with the Buddha's relationships with various women in his life (such as M yd, Mahaprajapati, and Yagodhara) rather than in the chapter on Buddhist nuns.




attitudes toward women within Buddhist communities but, more particularly, in the struggle of Buddhist women to reinstitute legitimate forms of female monasticism in those areas of the world from which they have disappeared. Because of these consequences, because the struggle of such women attracts sympathy from many quarters, and because of the rise of feminist scholarship and feminist awareness in the field of Buddhist Studies, I believe there has been a natural tendency in the scholarship surrounding this story to see and to emphasize the spiritual-capability argument alone. Buddhism may sometimes be misogynistic, many of these discussions seem to suggest, but at least this much is clear: Women's spiritual capabilities, their spiritual equality with men, and their inherent right to pursue equivalent spiritual goals were clearly affirmed by the Buddha-and this is the bedrock reason why there should be an order of nuns. In line with the modern, Enlightenment values that have informed Buddhist Studies from its very beginnings, the Buddha's clear enuncia- tion of women's spiritual capabilities immediately jumps out at us and garners our attention, whereas anything that has the potential of weakening or compromising this statement seems to disappear into the background.

It is my contention, however, that this reading of the account- understandable as it may be-ignores an essential element of the story as it appears. It ignores the much darker possibility that women's spiritual capabilities were not considered a sufficient basis for the existence of female monasticism. It ignores the possibility that the Buddha, as this tradition presents him, did not institute an order of nuns for all women; instead, he did it because his mother asked him to, because he owed an enormous debt to his mother for everything she had done on his behalf, and because despite renouncing the world and all social and familial ties, the tie to the mother-unlike the ties to father, wife, and son-was one that could not be broken. The debt the son owed to the mother had to be repaid, and this repayment was explicitly linked to the establishment of female monasticism-something depicted in highly negative terms as being akin to mildew invading a healthy crop and as a legitimate reason for the censuring of Ananda. These are dark possibilities, indeed, and ones that have important implications for any discussion of the role of women or conceptions of gender in the Buddhist tradition. Nevertheless, I believe that feminist scholarship, mining the story for whatever positive nuggets it might contain, has had a natural tendency to pass these possibilities over and to focus almost solely on the spiritual-capability argument.

The Buddhist tradition itself, on the contrary, clearly moves in a different direction. Not only did it choose to designate the Buddha's mother



0"7• ..-..-.. C .- A....... A--- f....... Rl)g1 juulrlu" uj uw .rri•uic(-ur"n wuu"rry Religion

as the one who requested an order of nuns in the first place, and not only did it preserve and pass down the motherhood argument as a consistent and necessary factor in the Buddha's decision to relent, but it also offers us plenty of further evidence for ongoing, creative engagement with the "debt to the mother" theme, both in other versions of the Mahiprajipati/ ordination story and in other Buddhist texts. We should take notice of the "debt to the mother" theme, in other words, because Ananda's brief reference to it in the Pili Vinaya was not the end of the story.

DEBT TO THE MOTHER IN OTHER BUDDHIST TEXTS

As we have seen, in the Pdli Vinaya's version of the Mahiprajapati/ ordination story, it is clear that the Buddha is not willing to institute an order of nuns until Ananda rephrases his request and that he agrees to do so only after Ananda has put forth both the spiritual-capability argument and the motherhood argument. What remains unclear, of course, is exactly what role the motherhood argument plays in the Buddha's decision to relent: Does the account wish to suggest that the Buddha's indebtedness toward his mother was a significant factor in his decision? But perhaps a more basic question first needs to be addressed: Did the Buddha even agree that there was such an indebtedness at all? Although unanswered by the version of the story found in the Pdli Vinaya, this question seems to have been grappled with in a serious manner by the Buddhist tradition and receives a fascinating variety of answers in other Buddhist texts.

I will begin with the version of the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story found in the MLBV preserved in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit.25 This version of the story has the same basic narrative structure as the Pdli Vinaya account, but also many minor differences. Mahiprajdpati makes her request only two times (rather than three), for example, and follows the Buddha to gravasti rather than Vaigdli. It is in Ananda's arguments on behalf of women's ordination, however, that we find the most substantial differences. The crucial passage reads as follows:

Blessed One, how many assemblies did previous ... fully enlightened Buddhas have?

... Previous ... fully enlightened Buddhas, Ananda, had four assemblies-monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen.

... Blessed One, can even a woman, if she dwells alone, attentive, zealous, and observant, realize the four fruits of the monastic life-the fruit of

25 Ed. in Roth (1970: 4-18); trans. into French in Nolot (1991: 2-10); an abbreviated English translation can be found in Strong (1995: 52-56).




Stream-Entering, the fruit of Once-Returning, the fruit of Non-Returning, and the ultimate fruit of Arhatship?

... Yes, Ananda, even a woman, if she dwells alone, attentive, zealous, and observant, can realize these four fruits of the monastic life ...

... Since, Blessed One, previous ... fully enlightened Buddhas had four assemblies ... , and since even a woman, if she dwells alone, attentive, zealous, and observant, can realize these four fruits of the monastic life ... , it would be good, Blessed One, if women were allowed to go forth under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathigata and receive ordination as nuns. Moreover, Mahiprajdpati Gautami performed some difficult deeds for the Blessed One; she nourished him, cared for him, and suckled him when his mother had died-and [for this] the Blessed One is grateful and appreciative.26

Here, we find three arguments presented on behalf of women's ordination rather than the usual two, the third argument being that all previous Buddhas had such an order of nuns. More significantly for our purposes, however, we also find that a new element is added to Ananda's motherhood argument: Not only does he describe what Mahaprajapati did on behalf of the Buddha, he also states rather bluntly that the Buddha is

"grateful and appreciative" (krtajhio k.rtavedi). This extra phrase has the effect of heightening the force of the motherhood argument, since it not

only refers to the Buddha's debt but also hints at the necessity for some form of repayment.

As if to rise to this additional challenge, however, in this version, Ananda's motherhood argument does not go unanswered by the Buddha (as it does in the Pali Vinaya). For now the Buddha, saying nothing at all about the first two arguments, addresses the motherhood argument alone:

This is true, Ananda, Mahdprajdpati Gautami did perform some difficult deeds for the Tathdgata, and she did nourish him, care for him, and suckle him when his mother had died-and [for this] the Blessed One is grateful and appreciative.

Nevertheless, the Tathdgata, too, Ananda, has also performed some difficult deeds for Mahdprajdpati Gautami.

For it is thanks to the Tathdgata, Ananda, that Mahdprajdpati Gautami has taken refuge in the Buddha, taken refuge in the Dharma, and taken refuge in the Samgha.

26 Roth (1970: 12-14). The last sentence (beginning with "Moreover, Mahdprajdpati ... ") reads as follows: duskarakirikd ca Bhagavato Mahaprajfpati Gautami iapdyiki posika janetriye kilagatJye stanyasya ddyikJ Bhagaviirm ca krtajfio krtavedi.



Q741 Jur4,,l JF1I A

Ae-rican AI ^4cade444-fy of Rei\p-gionit U/ -x1 JLILf [&"I- vj Vj LCr-t.5&v It is thanks to the Tathagata, Ananda, that Mahdprajdpati Gautami

has undertaken a life-long abstention from killing, stealing, sexual mis- conduct, lying, or drinking liquor, wine, or spirits.

It is thanks to the Tathdgata, Ananda, that Mahlprajdpati Gautami has grown in faith, grown in moral discipline, grown in learning, grown in generosity, and grown in wisdom.

It is thanks to the Tathdgata, Ananda, that Mahdprajipati Gautami understands suffering, understands the arising [of suffering], understands the cessation [of suffering], and understands the path [leading to the cessation of suffering].27

Here, we find a remarkable, new twist: The Buddha explicitly acknowl- edges his debt toward Mahdprajdpati but continues on to point out that Mahdprajipati is also indebted to him. It is not merely the case that she did much for him; instead, the Buddha makes it clear that he also did much for her. The indebtedness between mother and child moves in both directions and includes not only the mother's maternal care of her child but also the child's spiritual care of his mother.

While the exact significance of this passage is difficult to determine, it seems to me that two different interpretations are possible. The more charitable interpretation might consider this passage merely as an explo- ration of the complex and lingering bond between parent and child-a mutual, loving, and beneficial bond that persists throughout time and continues to flow in both directions despite the son's supposed renunciation of familial ties. In this interpretation, there is no concern with debt and repayment as such but only with paying respect to the continuing tie between mother and son. A less charitable interpretation, however, is also possible: Perhaps, under the surface, this passage is really concerned with the economics of debt and repayment. In other words, perhaps what the passage really wishes to suggest is that the mother's indebtedness toward her son so far exceeds the son's indebtedness toward his mother that the son's debt is effectively canceled out, and he stands fully exoner- ated of any sense of obligation he might have felt toward her. Thus, not only does the son not owe a debt to his mother but, in truth, it is the other way around: It is the mother who owes an incalculable debt to the son.

These two interpretations are not mutually contradictory; indeed, I believe the passage is complex in its significance, and both interpretations

27 Ibid., 14-15. Although I am unable to access the Chinese sources directly, a similar statement appears to be made in the version of the story found in the SiLtra on Gautami (Stitra No. 116 of the Sarv5stivadin Madhyamigama, T. 26)--at least according to the summary found in Demieville (1929-67: 1, 73-74), s.v. "Bikuni."




can be equally brought to bear. Nevertheless, it is the less charitable interpretation that seems to be supported by the Buddha's subsequent words, for immediately after this statement, he continues,

Ananda, when one person, thanks to another person, takes refuge in the Buddha, takes refuge in the Dharma, and takes refuge in the

Sa.mgha, it

is not easy for the former to repay the latter. Even if she were to serve that person for her entire life-for example, [by providing him] with the standard monastic requisites of robes, almsfood, furnishings, and medi- cine to cure the sick-even then, it would not be easy to repay him.

Ananda, when one person, thanks to another person, undertakes a life- long abstention from killing ... even then, it would not be easy to repay him.

Ananda, when one person, thanks to another person, grows in faith ... even then, it would not be easy to repay him.

Ananda, when one person, thanks to another person, understands suffering ... even then, it would not be easy to repay him.28

This is quite a remarkable passage placed into the mouth of the Buddha (even in the highly abbreviated form in which I have provided it). The crucial phrase used repeatedly here by the Buddha is na supratikararm bhavati, "there would be no easy repayment," with pratikaram being derived from the verb prati + kr, meaning "to return, repay, requite, pay back (a debt)."29 The passage thus makes explicit the Buddha's overriding concern with the issue of repayment and has the Buddha state explicitly and repeatedly that such "repayment" would be virtually impossible for Mahaprajdpati to accomplish, so indebted is she to her son. In just a few sentences, then, the text has moved from Ananda's initial suggestion that the Buddha is indebted to Mahaprajapati to the diametrically opposed position that Mahdprajapati herself is so crushingly indebted to her son that any form of worldly repayment would be insufficient. The obvious discomfort that any notion of a "debt to the mother" causes for this text is revealed by the Buddha's overeagerness in downplaying it.

The kind of anxiety that I believe lies behind this passage can be further demonstrated, perhaps, if we compare it with another passage that is quite similar in its subject matter but very different in its emotional tone. In the Purnavadina (which is part of the Divyivadafna collection), the monk Maudgalydyana-who, of course, was to become famous all over the Buddhist world for rescuing his own mother from the pits of hell- approvingly quotes the Buddha himself as having pronounced the following:

28 Roth (1970: 15-16). 29 Monier-Williams (1979: 664), s.v. prati-kr.



876/ journal of the American Academy of Religion

Monks, the mother and father of a son indeed perform difficult feats; they nourish and nurture the child; they raise him, provide milk and are his guides to the diverse beauties of this Rose-Apple Continent. Were a son to serve with half his energy his mother and with the other half his father for a full hundred years; or were he to present them with all the jewels, pearls... [etc.] ... which are found on this great earth; or were he to estab- lish them in supreme sovereignty and royal power--even having done so much, that son would not have repaid or helped his mother and father.

But a son who introduces to the riches of faith a mother or father without faith, who inspires them with it, trains them in it and establishes them in it; who introduces to the riches of moral discipline a mother or father who lacks moral discipline; who introduces to the riches of giving a mother or father who are jealous and covetous; who introduces to the riches of spiritual insight a mother or father who lack insight; who inspires them with these qualities, trains them in these qualities and establishes them therein-the son who does these things does indeed repay and help his mother and father.30

This passage is striking in terms of its contrast with the Buddha's words in the MLBV. Whereas Maudgalyayana emphasizes the enormity of the child's debt toward his parents, the Buddha emphasizes the enormity of the parent's debt toward the child. And, whereas Maudgalylyana asserts confidence that the child's gift of the dharma might constitute a sufficient repayment for all the nurturance provided to him by his parents, the Buddha expresses doubt that the parent could ever do anything sufficient to repay the child's gift of the dharma. It is interesting to note, as well, that Maudgalydyana focuses upon both parents, whereas the Buddha focuses on the mother alone. The two statements are diametrically opposed to one another, and it is against the calm confidence of Maudgalydyana's statement that we can see more clearly the high anxiety surrounding the Buddha's words in the MLBV-an anxiety explicitly connected to the mother.

It is also interesting to note, moreover, how the MLBV passage now proceeds. If there is no indebtedness to the mother, then will women's spiritual capabilities constitute a sufficient basis for female monasticism after all? Apparently not, for the MLBV account now continues by depicting the Buddha engaging in a completely different rationalization for his decision. Remembering that it is Ananda, as the Buddha's personal attendant, who will be responsible for remembering and preserving the Buddha's teaching after his death, the Buddha thinks to himself:

30 Trans. in Tatelman (2005: 203). The word used for "repayment" here is upakrtam (2005: 202).




If I refuse Ananda ... even the third time he asks me, his mind will become distracted, and the teachings he has heard from me will also become confused. I would like my true teachings to last for a full one thousand years, but I must not let ... Ananda's mind become distracted and the teachings he has heard from me become confused! And in any case, my true teachings will still last for five hundred years.31

It is immediately after this thought that he finally accedes to Ananda's request and goes on to enumerate the eight strict rules incumbent upon all future nuns.

If we compare the MLBV version with the version found in the Pali Vinaya, we can see a significant intensification of the Buddhist tradition's discomfort with both the son's debt to his mother and the existence of female monasticism. In the Pali Vinaya account, one might say, the Buddhist tradition's negative perceptions of women and hostility toward the existence of female monasticism are reflected by the fact that women's spiritual capabilities are not considered a sufficient reason for instituting an order of nuns; instead, the founding of the nuns' order must be supported by the additional suggestion of an unfortunate advantage that women had in this situation-that advantage being the debt the Buddha owed to one particular woman, his mother, and her ability to demand repayment from her son. Nevertheless, although this debt may be unfortunate, it does seem to be accepted by the Buddha, since he responds to it with silence and does not offer any refutation. In the MLBV version, on the contrary, this debt itself cannot be tolerated, and we find an implicit refutation of it placed into the mouth of the Buddha: Yes, he does owe a debt to his mother, but this debt is completely overshadowed by the corresponding debt that she owes to him. Thus, in truth, there is no debt to the mother, and no corresponding obligation to institute an order of nuns. But if this should lead us to think (optimistically) that perhaps women's spiritual capabilities will be a sufficient reason after all, the text does not grant us this possibility. For now, a brand new reason is offered: He did not do it for all women nor did he do it to repay a debt to his mother. Instead, he did it for Ananda, because he knew that Ananda would be responsible for preserving the Dharma, and he therefore had to safeguard the tranquillity of Ananda's mind. So-in a sense-it had nothing to do with women, after all!

The argument I am pursuing here might be pushed even further by citing yet another (in this case, Pali) text-one that bears many similarities

31 Roth (1970: 16).




to the MLBV account we just looked at but also some subtle and significant differences. This text is not a version of the Mahdprajapati/ordination story but seems to be closely related to it. The Dakkhiandvibhatiga Sutta (Majjhima NikJya No. 142) is well known for its detailed exposition of different types of gifts and the amount of merit deriving from each type, depending on such things as the worthiness of the recipient, the mental state of the donor, and so forth.32 But although this stitra is frequently cited in discussions of generosity and merit, virtually no attention at all has been paid to the fact that the opening section of the stitra seems to have a close relationship to the Mah prajipati/ordination story. For before engaging in its detailed exposition on gifts, the slitra opens with Mahdprajdpati making an unsuccessful request of the Buddha and Ananda interceding on her behalf-and although Mahapraja~pati's request has nothing to do with women's ordination, in every other manner, the two accounts are quite similar.

At the beginning of the stitra, Mahaprajdpati comes to the Buddha with a new pair of golden robes and says, "Lord, I have cut and woven this new pair of robes by myself, especially for the Blessed One. Lord, please let the Blessed One, with compassion, receive and accept them from me."33 The Buddha, however, refuses this request. "Give them to the Samgha, Gautami," he says, "if you give them to the Samgha, both I and the Samgha will be honored."34 Mahaprajapati then makes the same request a second and a third time but receives the same reply. Perhaps there is already the suggestion of a mother/son dialectic at work here: Mahiprajdpati has woven a pair of golden robes especially for her son and is pressing her particularistic claims upon him, whereas the Buddha tries to deflect this claim by assimilating himself to the Samgha as a whole-he is merely a monk, like any other monk in the Samgha, and she has no particular claim upon him. Even if one does not accept this loaded reading, however, this text's similarity to the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story in terms of basic narrative structure is obvious already.

It becomes yet more obvious when Ananda then suddenly intercedes on Mahiprajdpati's behalf. Here, of course, women's spiritual capabilities are irrelevant to the discussion, and it is only the motherhood argument that appears, with Ananda requesting the Buddha to accept the golden robes, because "Mahdprajdpati Gautami, Lord, was very helpful to the Blessed One-serving as his aunt, foster-mother, caregiver, and giver of

32 Ed. in Trenckner (1888-1925: 3, 253-57); trans. in •I.5namoli and Bodhi (1995: 1102-6). 33 Trenckner (1888-1925: 3, 253). 34 Ibid.




milk, who breastfed the Blessed One after his mother had died."35 In this case, however, instead of merely invoking the son's debt toward his mother, Ananda now immediately continues with an enumeration of the mother's significant debt toward her son, in much the same terms as we saw the Buddha use in the MLBV: "And the Blessed One, too, Lord, has been very helpful to Mahdprajdpati Gautami, for it is thanks to the Blessed One, Lord, that Mahaprajapati Gautami has gone for refuge to the Buddha ... "-and so forth, with a similar enumeration as we saw before.36 Despite this similarity, however, we again see a subtle intensification: This text is not content merely to have the Buddha downplay the son's debt toward his mother by also citing her significant debt toward him; now, it is Ananda himself who does this. Far from reminding the Buddha that he is "grateful and appreciative" (as before), Ananda himself now deflates his own argument. Now, in other words, we have a neutral and independent witness-someone other than the son himself- weakening the force of the son's indebtedness.

This intensification is subtle, no doubt, but it is further confirmed by the Buddha's reply. For unlike the Buddha of the MLBV, the Buddha of the Dakkhindvibhaiga Sutta does not even bother to acknowledge his debt toward Mahaprajapati (let alone the notion that he is "grateful and appreciative"). Instead, he ignores this aspect of Ananda's comments completely and focuses solely on the impossibility of Mahaprajdpati ever being able to repay him: "This is true, Ananda, this is true! For when one person, Ananda, thanks to another person, has gone for refuge to the Buddha... I say that it is not easy for the former to repay the latter... "-and so forth, just as we saw in the MLBV.37 Completely aside from the question of whose debt overshadows whose, the Buddha's comments here leave it unclear whether he owes to his mother any debt whatsoever. Thus, although these two texts are quite similar in their narrative structure and phraseology, there are subtle differences between them that cause the Dakkhitndvibhafiga Sutta to be an even stronger refutation of the son's debt toward his mother. In fact, without addressing the question of their precise historical relationships, it is clear that we can place the texts examined thus far onto a continuum of increasing discomfort with the son's debt toward his mother-a continuum proceeding from

35 Ibid. Incidentally, Peter Harvey has noted the parallel between this passage from the Dakkhin~vibhariga Sutta and the similar motherhood passage from the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story, but he refers to it merely as "a strange echo" (2000: 386, n. 15).

36 Trenckner (1888-1925: 3, 253). 37 Ibid., 254. The crucial phrase here is na suppatikdramn vadrdmi, "I say that there is no easy

repayment."




the grudging, but implicit acceptance of this debt (Pili Vinaya), to the weakening of this debt by overshadowing it with Mahdprajdpati's even greater debt toward the Buddha (MLBV), to the final refusal to acknowledge any debt whatsoever (Dakkhinavibhaiga Sutta).

What, then, might constitute the final point on this continuum? How could one go yet farther? While the MLBV, as we have seen, uses the Buddha to refute this debt, and the Dakkhin~vibhariga Sutta uses Ananda, perhaps it would be even more remarkable if the mother herself were to do this: What if Mahaprajapati herself made it clear to us that the Buddha owes her nothing? This is precisely what we find, in fact, in yet another P~li text, the Gotami Apadana from the Apadiana collection of the Thera- vida canon.38 In this biography of the life of Mahaprajapati, spoken largely by Mahiprajipati herself, we find a clear and explicit refutation of this debt addressed directly by Mahlprajdpati to the Buddha: "You do not owe any debt to me for my nurturance or my care!""39 Now, the mother herself, in other words, explicitly releases her son from any debt. In fact, not only does Mahiprajdpati acknowledge that it is she who owes an incalculable debt to her son, but in addition, going beyond either Ananda or the Buddha, she explicitly describes this debt through the metaphor of parenting. "I might be your mother," she states,

[B]ut you are my father, O Wise One ... Gautama, I've been born from you! Well-Gone One, I may have nourished your physical body, but my flawless dharma-body was nourished by you! For I fed you the milk that quenches thirst for just a moment-but you fed me the dharma-milk that is perpetually tranquil!40

Again, we see yet another intensification: Not only does the mother herself acknowledge her indebtedness to her son, but this debt itself is now described as a child's debt to her parent, thus completely reversing the expected debt/repayment equation. The Buddha's spiritual "mothering" of Mahiprajipati is so superior to Mahaprajapati's mere worldly mothering of him that any notion of the son's debt toward his mother would seem ridiculous. In fact, it is the other way around: It is the son who constitutes the true mother, and the mother who constitutes the indebted son.

38 Ed. in Lilley (1925-27: 2, 529-43); trans. in Walters (1995). For an extended discussion of this text, see Walters (1994).

39 Lilley (1925-27: 2, 532), v. 34. The passage reads vaddhandrakkhane mayharm anano tvatm, literally "you are free of debt (anano) toward me with regard to my nurturance and care."

40 Ibid., vv. 31-33.




If we return for a moment to the Dakkhiniavibhahiga Sutta, moreover, it is interesting to note that this same strategy-of inverting the parent/ child relationship, so that the child becomes the "true" parent and the parent becomes the "true" child-is also apparent in two contexts loosely related to the Dakkhiandvibhariga Sutta, although not invoked within the stitra itself. In the fifty-third dilemma of the Milindapaiih,41 King Milinda expresses his confusion to the monk Nagasena concerning the events portrayed in the Dakkhianvibhafiga Sutta: If the Buddha is the most supreme being in the world, the king asks, then Mahaprajapati would clearly have derived more merit from giving the golden robes to him than she would from giving them to the Samgha. So why did the Buddha instruct her to give them to the Sarngha? Clearly, the correct, doctrinal answer to this question would be for Ndgasena to tell the king that his basic assumption is mistaken-for, in fact, a gift given to the Samgha is always more meritorious than a gift given to an individual, even if that individual is the Buddha (indeed, this point is made in the Dakkhinilvibhafiga Sutta itself).42 But this is not how Nagasena responds. Instead, Nagasena gives a completely different reason why the Buddha redirected these robes to the Samgha: He did this out of compassion for the Samgha, Nagasena replies, because he knew that his statement would exalt the Samgha, make it worthy in the eyes of the public, and insure its future prosperity-just as a father exalts his son's virtues in public, which does not necessarily mean that the son is more worthy than the father. Not only does this answer constitute an outright refutation of the Dakkhianvibhahiga Sutta's entire exposition of gifts and merit, it also exe- cutes a rather remarkable parent/child reversal: A scenario in which the Buddha is a child who is obligated to accept a gift from his parent has now been reinterpreted by Nagasena in such a way that it is the Buddha himself who becomes the parent, graciously passing gifts directed toward him onto his children-the Samgha. The mother has been replaced by the father, and the Buddha himself has become the parent toward whom a debt of gratitude is owed rather than being the indebted son. Ndgasena's choice of this particular simile is no coincidence, I believe, but constitutes an intentional reaction against the "debt to the mother" suggested by Mahiprajdpati's attempt to give her son the golden robes.

41 Trans. in Rhys Davids (1890-94: 2, 51-56). 42 "O Ananda, I say that in no way whatsoever does a gift given to an individual ever have greater

fruit than an offering made to the Samgha"-even in future times, when the Samgha will be full of those who are "immoral and wicked." This is because such a gift is given "on account of the Samgha"-in other words, out of esteem for what the Sanmgha represents rather than its individual embodiments (Trenckner 1888-1925: 3, 256).




The same type of reversal, in which the Buddha's spiritual fatherhood takes clear precedence over Mahaprajapati's worldly motherhood, is also subtly invoked in another context related to the Dakkhianvibhariga Sutta as well-a later but well-established tradition concerning the future des- tiny of these golden robes. This tradition (discussed at some length by Lamotte)43 holds that these very same robes were subsequently given by the Buddha to one of his disciples as a marker of his prediction that this young man, in the far distant future, would one day become the next fully enlightened Buddha, Maitreya. Thus, while Mahiprajdpati, as a worldly mother, fails in her effort to give these robes to her son, he, as a spiritual "father," succeeds in giving these very same robes to his spiritual "son" and successor, Maitreya. Spiritual fatherhood trumps worldly motherhood, and the spiritual lineage existing between past and future Buddhas is seen to take precedence over the worldly lineage existing between mother and son. The fact that there are two separate traditions that both seem to execute the same kind of parent/child reversal in connection with the

Dakkhiianvibhafiga Sutta suggests to me that the tradi-

tion itself is grappling with the "debt to the mother" theme inherent within this text.

We have now come to a full circle in our analysis, and the debt/repayment equation between mother and son has become the very opposite of where we began, even though this has required me to venture away from the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story to look at several other Buddhist texts. Let me conclude this discussion by returning to the original story itself and briefly considering two additional versions-versions that might, perhaps, contain additional suggestions of the relevance of the "debt to the mother" theme.

The fragmentary Bhiksuin-Karmavdcanj manuscript preserved in Sanskrit and deriving from the Milasarvistivdda school" contains a version of the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story in which Ananda offers neither the spiritual-capability argument nor the motherhood argument; instead, he simply repeats Mahaprajapati's original request, whereupon the Buddha suddenly agrees to institute an order of nuns. In this sense, it is irrelevant to the discussion I have undertaken here. Nevertheless, there is one unusual element of this version that perhaps pertains to the "debt to the mother" theme. For at the beginning of this version, when Mahaprajapati

43 Lamotte (1988: 699-710). 4 This manuscript was first edited in Ridding and de La Vall6e Poussin (1919) and then re-edited

in Schmidt (1993). The Mahaprajapati/ordination story from this manuscript has been translated by Francis Wilson in Paul (1985: 83-94).




first asks the Buddha to allow women to be ordained, the Buddha answers that Mahaprajdpati alone should be permitted to do so:

Just you alone, Gautami, should practice, for your entire life, the monastic career which is perfectly pure and clean, with your head shaved and wearing the robes of a nun, just as you said. This will result in your welfare, benefit, and enjoyment for a very long time!45

Mahdprajapati is not satisfied by this, however, and continues to put forth the same request a second and a third time, each time being told by the Buddha that she alone should be permitted to become a nun. It is only when Ananda intercedes on her behalf that the Buddha finally agrees to allow women in general to go forth into the renunciant's life.

Not a word about motherhood is uttered, nor does any version of the motherhood argument appear. Nevertheless, this element of the story is highly unusual and would seem to demand some sort of explanation: Why on earth would the Buddha first decide that only Mahdprajdpati should be allowed to ordain? If all women are capable of attaining nirvana, then why not extend the same right to all women? And if, on the contrary, "there should be no renunciation, ordination, or nunhood for women!"-as the Buddha exclaims46-then why make an exception of Mahdprajapati alone? It is only the "debt to the mother" theme, I would argue, that can make sense of this puzzling element: Women should not be permitted to ordain, yet the Buddha felt compelled to make an exception for his mother-and the force of this compulsion was nothing other than the debt he owed to her as her son. Although there is nothing explicitly stated to confirm this interpretation, the associated literature we have already examined suggests, at the very least, its possibility-a possible subtext to the story that has heretofore been ignored.

Another such possible subtext can be detected in one final version of the Mahdprajapati/ordination story that might be brought to bear on this discussion. This is the version of the story found in the (Chinese) Sfitra on the Bhiksuini Mahdprajapati (Ta-ai-tao-pi-ch'iu-ni ching, T. 1478), which, according to Heirman, was perhaps translated in the first half of the fifth century, although Hirakawa suggests the possibility that it might be a purely Chinese compilation.47 As Heirman notes, this version of the story, like many of the others, has Ananda argue for women's ordination using both the spiritual-capability argument and the motherhood

45 Schmidt (1993: 242). 46 Ibid., 243. 47 Heirman (2001: 284-89); Hirakawa (1970: 273-74) (as cited in Heirman 2001: 284, n. 48).



884 journal of the American Academy of"Religion oo'f ,urnUtr oj mhe •rerican Acaaemy of Reigion

argument. It distinguishes itself from all other versions, however, by a significantly sharpened spirit of misogyny and hostility toward women. Thus, women are compared with venomous snakes that people fear even after they have been killed; they are described as "a threat to all living beings, including plants" because "they all have 84,000 bad attitudes,"48 and so forth. In fact, according to Heirman, in this version, "femininity itself is the cause of failure," and women are viewed as a dangerous "threat to the goals of Buddhist men personally."49

What Heirman fails to notice, however, is that this new element of severe misog)ny seems to coincide with one further, new element in this account: a particular emphasis upon mothers. Thus, whereas most versions of the story state that Mahdprajdpati is accompanied in her quest to become a nun by "many Sdkyan women" or "five hundred Sdkyan women," this version states explicitly that she is accompanied by "several old mothers.""5 It is thus a group of mothers who wish to renounce the world who provoke the Buddha's misogynistic statements. Moreover, when the Buddha refuses Mahdprajdpati's request, it is specifically the ordination of mothers (not women in general) to which he objects and the negative qualities of mothers that he cites as his justification.5" Finally, when Ananda puts forth the spiritual-capability argument, he reminds the Buddha not that women can attain the four fruits of the monastic life but rather that mothers can do so.52 It is at this point that he also makes use of the motherhood argument itself--thus implicitly linking the mother's ability to attain religious goals to the fact that she is owed an enormous debt by her son.

The extreme misogyny of this account is thus explicitly and consistently linked with a new emphasis upon the theme of motherhood. Might this confluence be more than just a coincidence? I would speculate that within this text, it is specifically the mother's dogged determination to pursue a religious life, the mother's extreme persistence in seeking this opportunity, the mother's spiritual potential (which has to be admitted), and the mother's inherent right to demand this opportunity from her indebted son that are being struggled with--and it is the discomfort and hostility surrounding these things that perhaps result in the text's sharpened misogyny concerning the dangerous and deleterious effects of all

48 Heirman (2001: 287). 49 Ibid., 288.

50 This is noted by Heirman herself (2001: 286) but passes without comment. 51 I am indebted to my colleague, Gil Raz, whose quick perusal of the Chinese text turned up these

additional references to mothers. 52 Again, this is noted by Heirman herself (2001: 286) but passes without comment.




women (but especially mothers). Again, as far as I can tell,53 there is nothing explicitly stated to substantiate this claim-but I do believe it becomes plausible once we learn to recognize and acknowledge the "debt to the mother" theme.

MAYA AND MAHAPRAJAPATI Let me now approach the argument I have been making from a

slightly different perspective. The Buddha's indebtedness toward Mahdprajapati and the intentional linking of this indebtedness with the founding of the Buddhist order of nuns can be further substantiated, I believe, if we consider the character of Mahdprajdpati herself, and more particularly, her contrast with the Buddha's other mother-his biological mother, Queen Mayd. Indeed, the very fact that the Buddha has two mothers has never adequately been considered before, nor has the relationship between them been explored at any length. It is against the background of this relationship, however, that the existence of a "debt to the mother" becomes clearer in the case of Mahaprajapati.

In brief, I would suggest that Mayd and Mahaprajapati constitute a classic case of "splitting" the mother into two. MayS is the "good" mother, who is virtuous, pure, and entirely unlike any ordinary human woman. It is a universal rule, in fact, for the biological mother of a Buddha to be such an ideal woman; as the Mahfvastu tells us, the bodhisattva is always born to a woman

[W]ho observes the fasts, who is outstanding among women, who is joyful, distinguished, holding no intercourse with what is mean, who is gracious, pure of body, and tender of passion, is of good birth and family, comely, beautiful, renowned, tall and well-proportioned and accomplished, and who is in the prime of life, learned, wise, mindful, self- possessed, in all ways right-minded and perfect-the very best of women.54

It is also a universal rule, however, that such a mother be "short-lived," for "the mothers of all Bodhisattvas die on the last of seven days following their delivery of the Supreme of Men"; indeed, this is one of the considerations the bodhisattva makes when choosing which woman will become his mother.55 Although different texts offer us various different

53 I regret that my lack of Chinese (together with time constraints in obtaining the help of appropriate colleagues) did not allow me to give fuller consideration to this text.

54 Trans. in Jones (1949-56: 2, 8). 55 Ibid., 2, 3. See also the J]itakanidana (trans. in Jayawickrama 2000: 66) and the Lalitavistara

(trans. in Bays 1983: 1, 147).



886 Journal of the American Academy of Religion .1 ---- --- -j1,./ -.1

1

-6

reasons as to why her lifespan must be so short,56 I believe that this requirement can be usefully interpreted in connection with the "debt to the mother" theme. Part of what defines Miyd as the "good" mother, in other words, is that she gives birth to the Buddha supernaturally and miraculously, and then all-too-conveniently dies just seven days later, thus leaving within the son no debt. The "good" mother is thus one who fulfills her birth-giving function in a clean and pleasant manner, quickly exits the scene, and even bears a name that suggests her possible status as mere "illusion" (mdyd).

M~yv's nature as the "good" mother who leaves no lingering debt within the son only becomes fully clear when we contrast her with the Buddha's other mother, Mahdprajdpati. For in contrast to M~iYai, Mahiprajdpati is-not exactly the "bad" mother-but at least the "problematic" mother, the focus of much ambivalence. She nourishes and cares for the baby Buddha-and for that, the tradition is grateful-yet this nourishment itself creates a lasting debt within her son, a debt, moreover, that Mahdprajdpati sticks around long enough to demand repayment for, thus resulting in the existence of nuns. I believe this "sticking around" is an essential aspect of Mahdprajdpati's character; in fact, I would charac- terize Mahdprajdpati as an overarching symbol of displaced, leftover women, women who become problematic once their men have departed on a spiritual quest, and women who do not conveniently die, as Miyd did, but instead continue to serve as living reminders of everything the son still owes to his mother, despite having renounced all familial ties.

MahSprajapati's status as a "leftover" woman whose needs demand to be accommodated is, in fact, consistently developed throughout her entire life story. In an episode from the Mahavastu,5 for example, we are told that when King Suddhodhana decided to marry, he searched the entire country for an ideal wife. The ideal wife was M5Yi, of course, but she was the youngest of seven sisters and could not get married until her older sisters had done so. Thus, Guddhodhana took all seven sisters, giving five of them to his brothers and keeping Mdyd and Mahdprajdpati for himself-Mahdprajdpati thus becoming the representative of "leftover" women (or older spinster sisters) within guddhodhana's own house.

56 In the Mahavastu, it is said that the mother must die because it would not be appropriate for one who has given birth to the Buddha to later indulge in the pleasures of love (trans. in Jones 1949- 56: 2, 3); in the Lalitavistara, it is said that the mother must die because if she were to be alive when the bodhisattva later renounced the world, her heart would break (trans. in Bays 1983: 1, 147); and in the Buddhacarita, it is said that MIyd dies because she cannot bear the joy brought about by giving birth to such a glorious son (trans. in Johnston 1984: part 1, 23).

57 Trans. in Jones (1949-56: 1, 301-2).




Subsequently, it was Maya who first produced a son for Suddhodhana and who predeceased her husband (as a good wife should), whereas Mahdprajapati outlasted him to become an inauspicious widow-an "unattached" or "leftover" woman now needing the protection of her son. As Donald Lopez and Liz Wilson have rightly noted, in fact, MahiprajSpati's attempt to become a nun could be interpreted not as the act of a feminist trailblazer but instead in terms of the traditional, patriarchal Indian notion that a woman should always be dependent upon her male kin- upon her father before she is married, upon her husband while she is married, and upon her son once she has been widowed.58 Thus, Mahaprajapati, having been widowed by the death of her husband ?uddhodhana, follows the traditional course of becoming dependent upon her son-a dependency, moreover, that results in women like her being allowed to invade the Samgha en masse. It is also pertinent to note that from this point on, Mahaprajapati becomes a corporate personality, for she is consistently associated with, and identified as the leader of, the large group of women who accompany her when she renounces the world; her name itself, in fact, means "leader of a large assembly." Many of these women seem to have been former members of the Buddha's harem who were abandoned by him when he renounced the world or women whose husbands had left them to be ordained as Buddhist monks-in other words, similarly "leftover" women.

Mahaprajapati's character as a "leftover" woman (and as a symbol of such women) thus remains consistent throughout her entire life: from the older spinster sister whose very existence complicates the ideal mar- riage between Suddhodhana and Maya, to the inauspicious widow who requires continuing protection once her husband has died, to the leader of an entire body of displaced women who are allowed to invade the Samgha based on Mahaprajapati's continuing hold over her son. It is only in death, perhaps, that Mahaprajapati finally succeeds in eradicating her status as a "leftover" woman once and for all, for according to the Gotami Apadina, she consciously decides to pass out of existence (accompanied, once again, by her large following of companions) before various close male relatives have done so, such as Rahula, Ananda, Nanda, and the Buddha himself.59 This death is celebrated in the text as being even more spectacular than that of the Buddha; it is referred to, moreover, as an attainment of parinirvana rather than simply nirvana-an appellation that is used extremely rarely except in relation to the Buddha

58 Lopez (2001: 158-60); Wilson (1996: 141-48). 59 Walters (1995).



QQ TJurnal 1F '+L Am,,ic IALI4C y j , I\.;4oRlVi

himself. Does it deserve this grand title because of its impressively corporate nature-the spectacle of five hundred women passing out of existence together? Or does it deserve it because-finally-the "leftover" woman is gone?

The contrast I have drawn between Miy~ and Mahdprajdpati as "good" and "bad" mothers is never made explicit, of course, but seems to be subtly indicated in various ways. In a jdtaka found in the Suvarnabhasottama Siitra,60 for example, two of the characters are identified as the previous births of M~y~ and Mahdprajipati, and these identifi- cations are quite telling: A benevolent and compassionate queen whose breasts spontaneously lactate when she thinks that her son, the prince, might be in danger is identified as the previous birth of My~i, whereas a starving tigress who has lost all mother love for her cubs and is on the verge of devouring them, but then hungrily devours the prince instead, thus causing his cruel and agonizing death, is identified as the previous birth of Mahiprajdpati. The prince himself, of course, is a previous birth of the Buddha. In this remarkable juxtaposition of the previous lives of Mdyai, Mahdprajdpati, and the Buddha, we have Mahdprajdpati devouring and consuming the Buddha at exactly the precise moment that M~yd's breasts are lactating in a spontaneous effort to feed him. Thus, Mdyd nourishes, whereas Mahdprajdpati consumes and devours-an odd fantasy, of course, since it was actually Mahaprajdpati herself who "served as aunt, foster-mother, caregiver, and giver of milk, who breastfed the Blessed One after his mother had died." I would interpret this psychologically as a fantasy in which the son's crushing sense of debt toward his mother is dealt with by splitting the mother into "good" and "bad" aspects, demonizing the bad aspect and falsely attributing all nourishment and care to the good aspect alone (who is conveniently dead now, anyway).61

Another such fantasy that seems to be answering to the "debt to the mother" theme is perhaps detectable in an equally odd episode found in the Mahavastu.62 Here, we learn that when the Buddha returned home to Kapilavastu and performed the famous "Twin Miracle," Mahdprajdpati was unable to witness it because when her son had first renounced the world, she had cried so much that her eyes had overgrown with scales and she had become blind. Clearly, there is a heavy sense of guilt here, the

60 Trans. in Emmerick (1970: 85-97). 61 As Young (2005: 23, 49 n. 2) has noted in her discussion of Mdyd and Mahdprajdpati, the

contrast between the good, dead mother, and the evil, living mother is a common motif in folklore throughout the world, as evidenced, for example, by the story of Cinderella.

62 Trans. in Jones (1949-56: 3, 115-16).




son's renunciation of the world and abandonment of his mother being directly responsible for her extreme grief and resulting blindness. There is also, however, a magical resolution: The healing water that shoots out from the Buddha's body (a basic element of the "Twin Miracle") is used to bathe Mahaprajapati's eyes, whereupon her sight is immediately restored. Thus, the abandonment of the mother is erased, the guilt caused by the mother is erased, the indebtedness toward the mother is erased-and all of this occurs through a sort of reverse breastfeeding, where the son showers the mother with a nourishing and healing liquid rather than the other way around (perhaps another reflection of the idea that spiritual fatherhood takes precedence over worldly motherhood). Even this willful fantasy is not enough, however, for we then learn that the Buddha similarly cured Mahdprajapati's blindness in a previous life, as well, when the two of them were mother-and-son elephants. This jataka appears in both prose and verse63 and almost strikes one as an imaginative vision of the kind of dutiful son the Buddha should have been to Mahaprajapati but clearly was not. Thus, the son elephant duti- fully cares for his mother even when he is an adult himself, grooming her, cleaning her, and giving her food; he does not leave his mother willingly (as Prince Siddhartha later did) but is instead captured by a king completely against his will; while in the king's possession, he is so overcome by worry about his mother that he broods and wastes away; finally, the king sets him free, he rushes back home to his mother, finds that his mother has gone blind out of grief, and heals her blindness by showering her with water. Thus, the Buddha, as an elephant, does everything that the Buddha, as a human prince, failed to do-he takes care of his mother, he does not willingly leave her, he is focused only upon her welfare, and he repays the debt that he owes.

MdyS, as the "good" mother, on the contrary, does not seem to become the object of such obvious guilt and subconscious anxiety. Because she dies while the Buddha is just a baby, the Buddha is free of any guilt that might be caused by later abandoning her to renounce the world. It is remarkable to note, in fact, that according to the Lalitavistara, this is the very reason why a Buddha's mother must die seven days after his birth-"because if a Bodhisattva were to grow up, his faculties fully developed, at the moment he left home, his mother's heart would break."64 The "good" mother thus spares her son the sense of guilt that the "bad" mother causes by sticking around long enough for him to

63 Ibid., 3, 126-33. 64 Trans. in Bay (1983: 1, 147).



890 journal of the American Academy of Religion

abandon her. Free of this undercurrent of guilt and subconscious anxiety, it seems to me, the continuing tie of love and mutual benefaction between Miyd and her son can be acknowledged and explored without invoking the economic language of debt and repayment. The lingering tie between mother and child is still recognized, in other words, but does not seem to become the object of such anxiety.

Perhaps the most significant manifestation of this tie is the three- month sojourn the Buddha spends in heaven preaching the Abhidharma Pitaka to May- (who has been reborn there as a deity). In the Dhamma- padatthakathiT, the Buddha decides to undertake this task after coming to realize that this is an invariable rule for all Buddhas.65 Even perfectly enlightened Buddhas, then, cannot dissolve the tie to the mother; even Buddhas-as a rule-remain dutiful sons who are responsible for insur- ing their mothers' welfare. Nevertheless, this episode is depicted in a wholly positive manner, and in some versions, Maya lovingly breastfeeds the Buddha at the very same time as he lovingly teaches her the dharma.66 Once again, the breast-milk of the mother is exchanged for the dharma- milk of the son-but this time, without any anxious calculation of whose milk is superior. The effect that the Buddha's relationship with each mother has on his teaching of the dharma is also significant: Whereas his tie to Mydy results in the existence of the Abhidharma Pitaka-a "higher" and more concentrated form of the Buddhist dharma-his tie to Mahdprajdpati results only in the existence of nuns, whose troubling presence will cut the life of the dharma in half. Thus, the tie to Maya actually condenses and intensifies the "milk of the dharma," whereas the tie to Mahiprajdpati seems only to curdle it.

The traditions surrounding Miyd thus constitute one of the interpretive backgrounds against which a "debt to the mother" theme becomes clearer in the case of Mahdprajdpati as well as serving as a necessary counterpoint to the negative depiction of motherhood inherent within this theme. Indeed, the oppressive sense of obligation the Buddha felt toward Mahiprajapati and the linking of this obligation with the founding story of female monasticism should not be taken in isolation. It is only when Mdyd and Mahiprajdpati are considered together, I believe, that we are given access to a more complete and fully rounded explora- tion of the Buddha's complex tie to his mother-a tie both nurturing and devouring, sometimes furthering and sometimes hindering his dharma.

65 The Dhammapadatthakatha's version of this story is translated in Burlingame (1921: 3, 47-56). 66 This is true, for example, of the Mahdmdyd Sitra or Mo ho mo yeh ching (T. 383), now extant

only in Chinese; see the summary and translated excerpts in Peri (1917: 30-31).




CONCLUSIONS

We have now traced the existence, sometimes explicit and sometimes only suggested, of a "debt to the mother" theme not merely in the Pdli Vinaya's version of the Mahaprajapati/ordination story but also in several other versions of the story and related Buddhist texts. Although each text offers us a slightly different resolution, all of them are dealing with the same basic problem: the son's indebtedness toward his mother and the possible relationship this indebtedness had with the existence of female monasticism and the troubling presence of women within the

Samgha. I now conclude with some general comments on the historical and sociological background that might have accounted for such a theme as well as some of its implications for the study of Buddhism and of religion.

In terms of historical and sociological background, the basic structure of the Indian family is one, very general phenomenon that would tend to support the existence of a "debt to the mother" theme, as well as some of the anxieties surrounding its expression. The original North- Indian homeland of Buddhism is, and always has been, characterized by a predominantly patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal culture-one in which descent, inheritance, and official status are passed down from father to son, leaving the mother as the natural focus of a son's love and affective emotions. Moreover, as wives are brought into the patriline from the outside to produce male heirs, and marriages are a family matter arranged by the parents and demanding obedience from the son, the son continues, throughout much of his life, to be more strongly associated with his parents than with his newly acquired wife-the mother (rather than the wife) perhaps constituting his primary female object of affection. At the same time, the status of the wife within her husband's family is relatively low until she proves herself by producing a male heir. This causes her status within the family to rise and makes her heavily invested in and emotionally attached to her son, thus further reproduc- ing and reinforcing the mother-son bond from one generation to another. Indian familial structure is thus characterized by an extreme attachment between mother and son, and the general "cult of the mother" by which male Indian authors throughout history have glori- fied and exalted her status is, of course, well known. As with any intense relationship, however, the flip side to such love and attachment might very well be ambivalence, guilt, submerged hostility, and the overbearing burden of indebtedness. In a patriarchal and patrilineal culture, moreover, whereas one's indebtedness to one's father has a recognized method of repayment in the form of producing one's own son to successfully




continue the patriline, one's indebtedness to one's mother is inchoate and free floating in nature and has no recognized outlet, thus resulting in anxiety about its repayment. Both the son's debt toward his mother and his anxiety about its repayment are thus well accounted for by Indian familial structure.

The men who composed and preserved Indian Buddhist texts, moreover, were not only the sons of their mothers but also the adherents of an elite religious tradition that often denigrates women and encourages the repudiation of all familial ties. Guilt and anxiety over repaying the debt to the mother must have been heightened in their case (one thinks of Mahdprajdpati going blind with grief after her son renounces the world) while, at the same time, combined with a socially recognized identity-that of the renunciant-that perhaps encouraged them to deny the existence of any such lingering tie. I would speculate, then, that the son's unresolved feeling of indebtedness toward his mother was an underlying trope particularly vulnerable to being invoked by monastic authors in any situation characterized by anxiety surrounding women. The Buddha's decision to admit women into the monastic order was surely one such anxiety-provoking situation, because of the threat to male celibacy posed by the presence of women, as well as the disturbing sexual ambiguity characteristic of female renunciants. One troubling issue surrounding women thus called up the image of another, and the admittance of women into the Samgha became linked with the Buddha's unresolved debt toward his mother.

The scenario I have sketched above is, of course, highly speculative and difficult to substantiate. Nevertheless, the possible influence of familial structure and kinship relationships upon religious conceptions has been well-documented before. Stanley Kurtz, for example, has made this Indian family structure the underlying basis of a very interesting attempt to provide a comprehensive, psychoanalytical account of Hindu goddess worship and an explanation of both the Goddess' unity and her diverse characteristics and forms.67 And in regard to China, which has a similar family structure, Alan Cole has written an equally interesting work on the mother-son discourse developed in a wide array of medieval Chinese Buddhist texts, with a strong emphasis on the "debt to the mother" theme (to which I myself am heavily indebted).68 As far as I know, however, similar work relating to Indian

67 Kurtz (1992). 68 Cole (1998).




Buddhism has been relatively lacking-perhaps as the result of a traditional view of Buddhism as somehow hovering "above" such familial influences and entanglements.

I believe, however, that there are any number of additional contexts that might be illuminated by considering such a "debt to the mother" theme. The elaborate and highly detailed comparison drawn between the Buddha and the mother in many texts from the Sinhalese Buddhist tradition (as described by Gombrich),69 or the Astasdhasrikaprajiiaparamita SRtra's elaborate description of the "Perfection of Wisdom" as the "mother" of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas (as described by Kajiyama and Macy),70 for example, might both be interpreted as projects of "displacement," in which the crushing debt the son owes to his mother is given elaborate and affectionate expression, but only after being rendered "safe" through its displacement onto another, suitably Buddhist object. This project of "displacement" is very far-reaching, indeed; in fact, the displacement of motherhood is accomplished at the highest level, perhaps, in the discourse-pervasive throughout Buddhism-of a repro- ductive lineage between a spiritual father and his spiritual sons." The Buddha is the "father" of his spiritual "sons"-that is, male disciples-as well as existing in a male line of descent linking him to both previous and future Buddhas. His dharma, too, is made legitimate and authoritative by being passed down from "father" to "son," through a specified lineage of male Buddhist masters. Just as we saw in the case of Mahdprajdpati's golden robes ultimately being passed on to the future Buddha, Maitreya, spiritual fatherhood trumps worldly motherhood, and a spiritual kinship between fathers and sons that leads one to enlightenment is contrasted with a worldly kinship between mothers and children that only entraps one in delusion. Motherhood is displaced, and the originary role of the mother is denied in favor of a form of origination that is purely spiritual and purely male.

In contrast, however, one could also point to traditions found in both medieval Theravada Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism that trace a person's first generation of the bodhisattva vow to save all beings back to his original, self-sacrificing love for his own mother, with Buddhahood thus depicted as ultimately originating from the love between mother

69 Gombrich (1972). 70 Kajiyama (1985); Macy (1977). 71 This paternal discourse, along with the seductive narrative strategies used by the authors of

certain early Mahayana sutras to make this discourse appealing, has been recently explored in Cole (2005).




and son.72 Such traditions might be interpreted in the opposite sense-as competing voices in the Buddhist tradition that sought to reinsert the worldly mother back into the male lineage between past and future Buddhas, thus emphasizing and heightening the son's debt toward his mother rather than trivializing, repudiating, or displacing it.

Whatever manifestation it may take, however, the relevance of narrative discourse that invokes the trope of the son's debt toward his mother should, by now, be clear. Extending far beyond the immediate context of the Mahdprajdpati/ordination story, this is a theme that touches upon the very definition of patriarchy itself and has relevance for all patriarchal religious traditions. Alan Cole, in an illuminating discussion that seeks to draw a close and intimate connection between Buddhist forms of patriarchy and "domestic" or "at-home" patriarchy, describes patriarchy itself in the following manner:

Patriarchy moves forward from father to son by negating images of differ- ence deriving from the mother .... In this sequence, father-as-patriarch is imagined to be in charge of dispensing a singular, invisible, and transcen- dent Something that he lodges in his son-to-be through rituals and narra- tives that construct and commemorate that sameness, and which is then evidenced in clan, caste, and surname legitimacy. In effecting this "mysti- cal" injection of patriarchal sameness in the son, the mother, who is obvi- ously located outside the patriline, must be completely negated as a place of origin for the boy in order for the father to reconstitute his pristine patriarchal identity in the son .... Hence patriarchy claims to have the power to install male identity first by "executing" or obliterating the maternal element (i.e., purifying the son of his nonpaternal past) and then by filling it in with the preserved essence of the patriline.73

Inasmuch as this patriarchal project can never be wholly successful, however, we should fully expect the "rejected mother" to resurface and re-exert her presence in a variety of interesting ways throughout the literature of any patriarchal religious tradition. The importance of Mary in

72 This tradition of tracing the original bodhisattva-vow back to an instance of mother love is applied to the Buddha himself in medieval period Theravidin narrative texts such as the Mahiisampindanidttna, Sota.tthakimaha&nidana,

and linakilamli; on this tradition, see Gombrich (1972) and Derris (2000: 1-11). In the East Asian tradition, a similar claim is made, for example, of the bodhisattva Dizang in Dizang pusa benyuan jing (Scripture on the Past Vows of the Bodhisattva Dizang) (T. 412), where two of the four stories related concerning Dizang's original vows involve a daughter whose love for her mother becomes the initial impetus for the bodhisattva vow. (I am indebted for this reference to Zhiru Ng and a paper she presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in November, 2002.)

73 Cole (2005: 43-44).




the Christian tradition comes to mind as one fairly obvious example. As I have tried to demonstrate here, the founding of the Buddhist order of nuns and its possible linking with the Buddha's unresolved debt toward Mahdprajdpati might perhaps be seen as another such reinsertion.74

REFERENCES

Armstrong, Karen 2001

Buddha. New York: Penguin.

Barnes, Nancy Schuster 1987

"Buddhism." In Women in World Religions, 105- 33. Ed. by Arvind Sharma. Albany: State Univer- sity of New York Press.

Barnes, Nancy J. 2000

"The Nuns at the Stuipa: Inscriptional Evidence for the Lives and Activities of Early Buddhist Nuns in India." In Women's Buddhism, Bud- dhism's Women: Tradition, Revision, Renewal, 17-36. Ed. by Ellison Banks Findly. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Bays, Gwendolyn 1983

The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compas- sion. Trans. from French. 2 vols. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing.

Bechert, Heinz, and Richard Gombrich, eds.

1984

The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture. New York: Facts on File Publications.

Blackstone, Kathryn R. 1998

Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigathi. Richmond, UK: Curzon.

Burlingame, Eugene Watson

1921

Buddhist Legends. Trans. from the Original Pali Text of the Dhammapada Commentary. 3 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. 2004

Encyclopedia of Buddhism. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference.

Ch'en, Kenneth K. S. 1968

Buddhism: The Light of Asia. Woodbury, NY: Barron's Educational Series.

Church, Cornelia Dimmitt 1975

"Temptress, Housewife, Nun: Women's Role in Early Buddhism." Anima 1/2: 52-58.

74 This article is dedicated to my son, Astro.




Cole, Alan 1998

Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

2005 Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature. Berkeley: Uni- versity of California Press.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda 1916

Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism. New York: G. P. Punam's Sons.

Demieville, Paul, ed. 1929-67

Hibogirin: Dictionnaire EncyclopCdique du Boud- dhisme d'apres les sources chinoises et japonaises. 4 vols. Paris: Librairie d'Amerique et d'Orient, Adrien Maissonneuve.

Derris, Karen 2000

"Virtue and Relationships in a Theravddin Biog- raphy of the Bodhisatta: A Study of the

Sota.tthaki- mahaniddna." Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.

Dewaraja, Lorna 1999

"Buddhist Women in India and Precolonial Sri Lanka." In Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Real- izations, 67-77. Ed. by Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Dutt, Nalinaksha 1941-45

Early Monastic Buddhism. 2 vols. Kolkata, India: Calcutta Oriental Press.

Eliot, Sir Charles 1921

Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch. 3 vols. London: Edward Arnold & Co.

Emmerick, R. E. 1970

The Siltra of Golden Light. Trans. from the Suvarnabhisottamasaitra. London: Luzac.

Falk, Nancy Auer 1980

"The Case of the Vanishing Nuns: The Fruits of Ambivalence in Ancient Indian Buddhism." In Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in Non- Western Cultures, 207-24. Ed. by Nancy A. Falk and Rita M. Gross. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.

Foucher, Alfred 1963

The Life of the Buddha According to the Ancient Texts and Monuments of India. Trans. by Simone Brangier Boas. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan Uni- versity Press.

Gethin, Rupert 1998

The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gombrich, Richard 1972

"Feminine Elements in Sinhalese Buddhism." Wiener Zeitschrift fir die Kunde Siidasiens 16: 67-93.




Gross, Rita M. 1993

Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Gyatso, Janet 2003

"One Plus One Makes Three: Buddhist Gender, Monasticism, and the Law of the Excluded Mid- dle." History of Religions 43/2: 89-115.

Harvey, Peter 1990

An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2000 An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Heirman, Ann 2001

"Chinese Nuns and Their Ordination in Fifth Century China." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 24/2: 275-304.

Hirakawa, Akira 1970

Ritsuzd no Kenkyi. Tokyo: Sankib6 Busshorin.

Hirakawa, Akira, trans. 1982

Monastic Discipline for the Buddhist Nuns: An English Translation of the Chinese Text of the

Mahasaymghika-Bhiksuni-Vinaya. Patna, India: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute.

Horner, I. B. 1930

Women Under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen. London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd.

Horner, I. B., trans. 1938-66

The Book of the Discipline (Vinaya Pitaka). 5 vols and index. London: H. Milford, Oxford Univer- sity Press.

Hiisken, Ute 2000

"The Legend of the Establishment of the Bud- dhist Order of Nuns." Journal of the Pali Text Society 26: 43-69.

Jayawickrama, N. A., trans. [1990] 2000

The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jdtaka-niddna). Reprint. Oxford: Pali Text Society.

Johnston, E. H., ed. [1936] 1984

The Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha. Trans. by AMvaghosa. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass.

Jones, J. J., trans. 1949-56

The MahJvastu. 3 vols. London: P5ili Text Society.

Kabilsingh, Chatsumarn 1984

A Comparative Study of Bhikkhuni Pdtimokkha. Varanasi, India: Chaukhambha Orientalia.




Kajiyama, Yuichi 1982

"Women in Buddhism." Eastern Buddhist 15/2: 53-70.

1985 "StFipas, the Mother of Buddhas, and Dharma Body." In New Paths in Buddhist Research, 9-16. Ed. by A. K. Warder. Durham, NC: Acorn Press.

Kurtz, Stanley N. 1992

All the Mothers are One: Hindu India and the Cultural Reshaping of Psychoanalysis. New York: Columbia University Press.

Lamotte, ktienne 1988

History of Indian Buddhism, from the Origins to the Saka Era. Trans. by Sara Webb-Boin. Publi- cations de l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, No. 36. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Institut Ori- entaliste de l'Universite Catholique de Louvain.

Lilley, Mary E., ed. 1925-27

The Apadina of the Khuddaka-nikdya. 2 vols. London: Pdli Text Society.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. 2001

The Story of Buddhism: A Concise Guide to its History and Teachings. San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.

Macy, Joanna Rogers 1977

"Perfection of Wisdom: Mother of All Bud- dhas." In Beyond Androcentrism: New Essays on Women and Religion, 315-33. Ed. by Rita M. Gross. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press for the American Academy of Religion.

Malalasekera, G. P., ed. 1971

Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. 3, Fasc. 1. Colombo: Government of Sri Lanka.

Mitchell, Donald W. 2002

Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience. New York: Oxford University Press.

Monier-Williams, Sir Monier

[1899] 1979

A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford: Claren- don Press.

Morris, Richard, ed. 1885-1910

The Aniguttara-nikdya. 5 vols and index. London: H. Frowde for the Pdli Text Society.

Nldnamoli, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans.

1995

The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Nolot, edith, trans. 1991

Rfgles de discipline des nonnes bouddhistes, le bhiksunivinaya de l'Pcole Mahiasimghika- Lokottaravadin. Paris: Collkge de France.




Nyanaponika, Thera, and Hellmuth Hecker

1997

Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy. Ed. by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Oldenberg, Hermann, ed. 1879-83

The Vinaya Pitakarm, One of the Principle Bud- dhist Holy Scriptures in the Pdli Language. 5 vols. London: Williams and Norgate.

Paul, Diana [1979] 1985

Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahdyana Tradition. 2d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Peri, N. 1917

"Hariti, la mere-de-demons." Bulletin de l'Ecole FranFais d'Extreme-Orient 17: 1-102.

Rhys Davids, T. W., trans. 1890-94

The Questions of King Milinda. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Ridding, C. M., and Louis de La Vallke Poussin, eds.

1919

"A Fragment of the Sanskrit Vinaya: Bhiksunikarmavacand." Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 1/3: 123-43.

Robinson, Richard H., and Willard L. Johnson

[1970] 1997

The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Rockhill, W. W., trans. [1884] 1972

The Life of the Buddha and the Early History of his Order, Derived from Tibetan Works in the Bkah- hgyur and Bstanhgyur, Followed by Notices on the Early History of Tibet and Khoten. Varanasi, India: Orientalia Indica.

Roth, Gustav, ed. 1970

Bhiksuni-Vinaya, Including Bhiksuni-Prakirnaka and a Summary of the Bhiksu-Prakirnaka of the Arva-Mahasamrnghika-Lokottaravddin. Patna, India: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute.

Saunders, Kenneth J. 1920

Gotama Buddha: A Biography. New York: Asso- ciation Press.

Schmidt, M., ed. 1993

"Bhiksuni-Karmavdcana, Die Handschrift Sansk. c25(R) der Bodleian Library Oxford." In Studien zur Indologie und Buddhismuskunde fiir Professor Dr. Heinz Bechert zum 60. Geburtstag am 26. Juni 1992, 239-88. Ed. by R. Grtinendahl, et al. Bonn, Germany: Indica et Tibetica.

Shih, Bhiksuni Heng Ching

1988

"The Potentialities of Women in the Mahdyina Vehicle." In Sakyadhitf: Daughters of the Buddha, 91-102. Ed. by Karma Lekshe Tsomo.




Proceedings of the First International Confer- ence on Buddhist Nuns, Bodhgaya, India, 1987. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.

Sponberg, Alan 1992

"Attitudes Toward Women and the Feminine in Early Buddhism." In Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender, 3-36. Ed. by Jose Ignacio Cabezon. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Strong, John, ed. 1995

The Buddhist Experience: Sources and Interpreta- tions. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Talim, Meena 1972

Women in Early Buddhist Literature. Mumbai, India: University of Bombay.

Tatelman, Joel, ed. and trans. 2005

The Heavenly Exploits: Buddhist Biographies from the Divyivaddna, Volume I. New York: New York University Press and JJC Foundation.

Thomas, Edward J. [1927] 1949

The Life of Buddha as Legend and History. 3d rev. ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Trainor, Kevin, ed. 2001

Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Trenckner, V., ed. 1888-1925

The Majjhima-nikdya. 3 vols and index. London: H. Frowde for the Pili Text Society.

Tsomo, Karma Lekshe 1996

Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women. A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese Dharmagupta and the Tibetan Millasarvistivida Bhiksuni Prdtimoksa SRtras. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Walters, Jonathan S. 1994

"A Voice from the Silence: The Buddha's Mother's Story." History of Religions 33/4: 358-79.

Walters, Jonathan S., trans. 1995

"Gotami's Story." In Buddhism in Practice, 113- 38. Ed. by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Wan, Bhiksuni Shig Hiu 1988

"A Bhikeuni's Observations About the Times." In Sakyadhita: Daughters of the Buddha, 174-79. Ed. by Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Buddhist Nuns, Bodhgaya, India, 1987. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications.




Wayman, Alex 1991

"The Position of Women in Buddhism." Studia Missionalia 40: 259-85.

Wawrytko, Sandra A. 1994

"Sexism in the Early Sangha: Its Social Basis and Philosophical Dissolution." In Buddhist Behavioral Codes and the Modern World: An International Symposium, 277-97. Ed. by Charles Wek-hsun Fu and Sandra Wawrytko. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Wijayaratna, Mohan 1990

Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravdda Tradition. Trans. by Claude Grangier and Steven Collins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Willis, Janice D. 1985

"Nuns and Benefactresses: The Role of Women in the Development of Buddhism." In Women, Religion, and Social Change, 59-85. Ed. by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Wilson, Liz 1996

Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Woodward, F. L., and E. M. Hare, trans.

1932-36

The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Atiguttara- Nikaya) or More-Numbered Suttas. 5 vols. London: Pali Text Society.

Young, Serinity 2005

Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography, and Ritual. New York and London: Routledge.



Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the Buddhist Nuns' Order

Documents

Transcript of Debt to the Mother: A Neglected Aspect of the Founding of the Buddhist Nuns' Order