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The Funeral of Mahåprajåpata Gautama and Her Followers in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya

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The Funeral of Mahåprajåpata Gautam¥ and Her Followers in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya

Bhikkhun¥ Dhammadinnå


This is the second article in a two-part study of the hagiographic narrative of the parinirvå˜a of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her five hundred bhikΣu˜¥ companions, as told in the KΣudrakavastu of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya extant in Tibetan and Chinese translation. Here I take up for translation and study the story of the nunsfuneral, in the aftermath of the parinirvå˜a itself.

The whole parinirvå˜a account is inserted within a Vinaya narrative and functions as the origin (nidåna) for the promulgation of a minor rule on how a monastic should behave when someone sneezes. In the introductory setting, while teaching the Dharma to the nuns, the Buddha sneezes, leading Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ to wish him long life. The Buddha reproaches Gautam¥ for such an unsuitable reaction.2 Next comes the nuns’ parinirvå˜a, followed

Department of Buddhist Studies, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, Taiwan.

The first part has appeared in the previous issue of this journal, see Dhammadinnå (2015a). I focus only on the MËlasarvåstivåda versions; a comprehensive study and translation of the narrative in its parallel versions is under preparation by Jan Nattier. A Sanskrit fragment of Kumåralåta’s Kalpanåma˜∂itikå, SHT 638aa IX in ed. Lüders (1926: 206) [= 1979: 324] that contains a parallel to the first part of the parinirvå˜a narrative should be added to the Sanskrit fragments mentioned in Dhammadinnå (2015a: 29–30 note 3).

2 The introductory setting is found in D 6, ’dul ba, tha 110a6 to 111a6 [= Si-K 6, vol. 10, ’dul ba, tha 277,3 to 279,13, with notes on p. 805] and P 1035, ’dul ba, de 105b8 to 106b6 and T 1451 at T XXIV 248a18 to b12. I translate and discuss the Vinaya introductory setting and the promulgation of the rule that The Indian International Journal 26 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 by their funeral and a discourse on impermanence delivered by the Buddha. When back in his monastery after the nunscremation, the Buddha declares that from then on improperly responding to a sneeze is considered a light offence of the wrongdoing class (duΣk®ta). After the promulgation of the rule the Buddha relates an avadåna, the story of a past life of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her followers at the time of the dispensation of the Buddha Kåßyapa. She was the chief queen of King K®k¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s were his royal concubines. Neglected by the king when they became old, they wished they could have, life after life, youthful bodies until the end of their lives. Through the power of a meritorious action the women performed together, their wish came true in every birth up to the last. Funerary Homage and the Avadåna of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and Her Followers: Translation of the Tibetan Version3 When they saw that Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her retinue of five hundred had attained parinirvå˜a, they [i.e., the bhikΣus] thought: “When the Buddha’s aunt has attained parinirvå˜a, an effort should be made in the duties of homage to her body. We must go!” They went to Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s residence carrying finely fragrant wood. The Blessed One too, accompanied by his great disciples, including Ójñåtakau˜∂inya, Mahåkåßyapa, VåΣpa, Mahånåma, Aniruddha, Íåriputra, Maudgalyåyana and others, as well as another large group of bhikΣus, together went to Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s residence.

In the same way the King of Koßala, Prasenajit, attended by his retinue of queens, princes, ministers, citizens and people of the countryside, the householder Anåthapi˜∂ada surrounded by his own following, M®gåra’s mother *Sagå, chamberlains *‰Σidatta4 encapsulate the parinirvå˜a hagiography in a study in preparation on rules of sneezing in the canonical Vinayas. 3 The section translated here is from D 6, ’dul ba, tha 113a1 to 114b4 [= Si-K 6, vol. 10, ’dul ba, tha 283,12 to 287,18 with apparatus on pp. 806–807] and P 1035, ’dul ba, de 108a6 to 109b8. The folio numbers within square brackets refer to the text in the Derge edition. 4 The proper name of the chamberlain *‰Σidatta, drang srong byin (D 6, ’dul ba, tha 113a4 [= Si-K 6, vol. 10, ’dul ba, tha 284,4] and P 1035, ’dul ba, de 108b2), corresponding to 仙餘in the Chinese version translated below (T 1451 at T XXIV 249a5) and Isidatta in the Pali tradition, cf. Malalasekera The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 27 and PËra˜a, and, in addition to them, crowds of people who had gathered from various places, went to Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s residence. Then King Prasenajit offered five hundred biers decorated with variegated gems and garments, perfumes, incense, flowers, garlands, parasols, banners and ensigns, and all kinds of musical performances [were executed].5 Then the venerable ones Nanda, Aniruddha, Ónanda and Råhula lifted up Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s bier. The Blessed One, too, grasped it with his right hand. The rest of the bhikΣus lifted up the biers of the remaining bhikΣu˜¥s. Then they carried them very reverentially and placed the biers in a secluded open area. Then the Blessed One removed the upper robes from the corpses of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s and addressed the bhikΣus thus: [113b] “Behold, O bhikΣus! Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and these five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s, even though they are one hundred and twenty years old, have no wrinkles on their bodies, and no grey hair,6 just as if they were sixteen-year-old virgins!” Then the King of Koßala, Prasenajit, his retinue of queens, princes, ministers, citizens and people of the countryside, made piles of different varieties of fragrant woods and cremated Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s. The Blessed One taught the Dharma on the subject of impermanence, and returned to his residence.7 After [the Buddha] had returned [to the monastery], he sat (1997 [1938]: I.320–321, s.v. 2. Isidatta), is, to the best of my knowledge, unattested in the extant Sanskrit sources.

5 This scene echoes that of the Malla crowds flocking to pay homage to the Buddha upon hearing of his death; cf. the Sanskrit MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå ˜a-sËtra, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.418,16–420,7) (§ 47.21–23), the Tibetan MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.419,18– 421,7) (§ 47.21–23), and the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1451 at T XXIV 401a3–8, translated in Waldschmidt (1951: III.419–421); for a comparative study of this episode in the different discourse parallels to the Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra cf. Waldschmidt (1948: II.282–284). 6 The absence of wrinkles and grey hair is not mentioned at the corresponding juncture of the Chinese parallel. 7 On the recitation of a Dharma discourse on the theme of impermanence in this passage in the context of monastic funerals in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya cf. Schopen (1997a: 208 with note 25). The Indian International Journal 28 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 down on a seat arranged in the midst of the assembly of bhikΣus. When he had sat down, he told the bhikΣus, “BhikΣus, if somebody sneezes, it is a fault to say: ‘May you recover.’ When a bhikΣu sees someone who is sneezing, he should refrain from saying: ‘May you live on.’ If one says that, it is an offence of wrong-doing (duΣk®ta).”

The bhikΣus were perplexed, and questioned the Buddha, the Blessed One, who cuts through all doubts: “What sort of deed did Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s personally perform,8 whereby, even when they were one hundred and twenty years old, their bodies were without wrinkles and grey hair, with an appearance like sixteen-year-old maidens?” The Blessed One replied: “BhikΣus, [the result of] the accumulation of [good] deeds is personally received by Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s,9 the conditions have ripened – persisting almost like a flood – and surely have to be experienced. Who else would experience the deeds that were personally performed and accumulated by this Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s?10 BhikΣus, the deeds that are performed and accumulated do not ripen in the exterior earth element, water element, fire element and wind element. [114a] On the contrary, the deeds that are performed and accumulated, be they good or bad, ripen in the aggregates, the elements and the sense bases that are being grasped at. Not even in hundreds of millions of aeons Do deeds dwindle away.

When the [necessary] accumulation [of karma has been reached] and the time has come, The fruit [of karma] matures for embodied beings.11 8 All editions read skye dgu’i bdag mo chen mo la sogs pa dge slong ma lnga brgya po dag nyid kyis, in which the reading dag nyid kyis could be grammatically improved to dag bdag nyid kyis or bdag nyid kyis; see also notes 9 and 10 below.

9 For an improved reading see note 8 above. 10 For an improved reading see note 8 above. 11 The module with the Buddha’s exposition is available in Sanskrit in a number of Sanskrit texts stemming from the MËlasarvåstivåda tradition, e.g., the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya’s Sa∫ghabhedavastu, ed. Gnoli (1977: I.145,21–32): kiμ bhadanta åyuΣmatå yaßaså evaμ bhikΣavaḥ karmå˜i k®tåny upacitåni The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 29 BhikΣus, in the bygone past, in this same fortunate aeon, when the life span of human beings used to be twenty thousand years, a Sage (muni), the Teacher by the name of Kåßyapa had emerged in the world. He was living in dependence on the city of Vårå˜as¥, at the

  • ‰Σivadana, in the M®gadåva … the same as above … .

At the time when the Rightly Fully Awakened One Kåßyapa had already performed all the deeds of a Buddha (buddhakårya) and had attained parinirvå˜a – nirvå˜a without remainder like a flame that is extinguished – a king called K®k¥ performed the worship of the body (ßar¥ra-pËjå) for his body. At the main crossroad he had a stËpa built. Made of the four kinds of precious stones, it was one yojana in circumference and half a yojana in height.

When King K®k¥’s five hundred women, headed by the chief queen, had become old, and wrinkles and grey hair appeared on their bodies, the king abandoned them. They started to talk to each other: ‘Why does the great king abandon us now?’ [Some] concubines said: ‘Why is the lord now abandoning us? Is it because of some action that has been committed by one [of us]? What do you think about it? Is it the case that he abandoned us because our bodies have now become wrinkled and grey-haired?’ Others replied: ‘It is indeed so. Now what should we [do] for our lord? Our female bodies being aged, is there anything else we can do together to please him? For that purpose, we should go to the site of the stËpa of the Blessed One Kåßyapa, make offerings,12 and make the aspiration (pra˜idhåna): ‘From now on, as long as saμsåra lasts, may our body be without wrinkles and grey hair.’ They said: ‘It will be good, let us do in this way.’ They labdhasaμbhårå˜i pari˜atapratyayåny oghavat pratyupasthitåny avaßyaμ- bhåv¥ni; yaßaså karmåny upacitåni ko ’nyaḥ pratyanubhaviΣyati; na bhikΣavaḥ karmå˜i k®tåny upacitåni båhye p®thiv¥dhåtau vipacyante, nåbdhåtau, na tejodhåtau, na våyudhåtau, api tu upåtteΣv eva skandhadhåtvåyataneΣu karmå˜i k®tåni vipacyante, ßubhåny aßubhåni ca; na pranaßyanti karmå˜y api kalpaßatair api, såmagr¥μ pråpya kålam ca phalanti khalu dehinåm, the Divyåvadåna II, ed. Cowell and Neil (1886: 54,1–10) and the Avadånaßataka XVI, ed. Speyer (1902–1906: I.91,5–12). The Tibetan is a very close rendering. The module is abbreviated and marked accordingly in the Chinese parallel translated below.

12 My translation follows the variant reading mchod pa byas (cf. the apparatus in Si-K 6, vol. 10, p. 806).

The Indian International Journal 30 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 made offerings to the stËpa of the Rightly Fully Awakened One Kåßyapa consisting of perfumes, garlands, [114b] ointments, parasols, banners and ensigns, spread bouquets of various kinds of sweetly fragrant flowers that would not fade and lovely garlands, and made the aspiration: ‘By whatever wholesome root (kußalamËla) there may be, by our having made these offerings to Kåßyapa, the Blessed One, the Rightly Fully Awakened One who is worthy of offerings and unsurpassable, may we, even when being one hundred and twenty years old, have a body without wrinkles and grey hair.’

BhikΣus, what do you think? Those who were the chief queen and the five hundred women of King K®k¥ are this Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s. When making offerings to the stËpa of the Rightly Fully Awakened One Kåßyapa they had made the aspiration that, whatever result might derive from that deed, might it be such that, even when being one hundred and twenty years old, they might have a body without wrinkles and grey hair and with a bodily appearance like that of sixteen-year old maidens.” Funerary Homage and the Avadåna of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and Her Followers: Translation of the Chinese Version13 At that time all of the bhikΣus thought thus: “The loving foster mother of the World Honoured One has attained parinirvå˜a. We should go and assist each other to pay homage to her bodily remains.” Having had this thought, each according to their ability took hold of different varieties of fragrant wood and went to pay homage to the place where Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the other [bhikΣu˜¥s] had attained parinirvå˜a. [249a] At that time the World Honoured One came together with Kau˜∂inya, VåΣpa, Mahånåma, Aniruddha, Maudgalyåyana, Íåriputra, and others, as well as another large group of disciples, to pay homage to the bodily remains of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the other [bhikΣu˜¥s].

13 The section translated here is from T 1451 at T XXIV 248c27 to 249b18; a summary is given by Dash (2008: 147–149). The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 31 At that time King Prasenajit, the princes, the ministers and the whole entourage arrived at that place [where the corpses were] in order to pay homage to the bodily remains.14 The honourable Anåthapi˜∂ada, the honourable *‰Σidatta, the honourable ones PËra˜a and M®gåra-måtå and others, also with their own retinues, arrived at that place too. Furthermore, there were various regional kings with their innumerable entourages of hundreds of thousands who all came together.

At that time King Prasenajit had five hundred gem-studded biers completely adorned with variegated gems, garments and ornaments. And then [the people] held various types of incense, flowers, banners and precious canopies, and [played] music of different kinds.

Then the venerable Nanda, Aniruddha, Ónanda and Råhula – four bhikΣus in total – lifted Mahåprajåpat¥’s bier. The World Honoured One, too, held up the bier with his right hand. The other bhikΣus lifted all the biers of the [other] bhikΣu˜¥s. With sincerely respectful hearts, having lavishly adorned and decorated [the biers], they carried and placed them in a wide and secluded area. At that time the World Honoured One lifted the upper robes that were covering Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s, and told the bhikΣus: “Behold! Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the other [bhikΣu˜¥s] are one hundred and twenty years old, but their bodies have no sign of old age, and they look like sixteenyear- old virgins.”

At that time King Prasenajit and [the members of] his large entourage each took hold of various fragrant woods and cremated the bodies [with them]. After the World Honoured One gave the assembly a teaching on impermanence, he returned to his monastery. He washed his feet, sat down on the seat that had been arranged, and told the bhikΣus: “You should know, these sorts of things are all due to wishing for long life when seeing someone sneezing. Therefore, bhikΣus, when someone sneezes you should not say, ‘Long life.’ One who says it incurs an offence of wrong-doing (duΣk®ta).”

14 For a literary parallel to this passage see note 5 above. The Indian International Journal 32 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 Then the bhikΣus who had witnessed this event were all perplexed. They said to the Buddha: “World Honoured One, what deed have Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s performed in the past so that, due to the power of that deed, they had bodies which, being aged one hundred and twenty years, showed no sign of old age and were like sixteen-year-old maidens?” The Buddha told the bhikΣus: “Listen carefully to the deeds performed by Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s. On account of their own deeds ... up to ... they in turn received their own retribution.

BhikΣus, in the distant past of this fortunate aeon, when the life span of humans was twenty thousand years, a Buddha, a World Honoured One by the name of Tathågata Kåßyapa, an arhat,15 fully awakened, endowed with the ten epithets, had emerged in the world. He was living in Vårå˜as¥, at the ‰Σipatana, in the M®gadåva. At that time that World Honoured One had already accomplished [the purpose of his] appearance [in the world]16 and had entered nirvå˜a without remainder, like the extinguishing of a flame when its fuel is consumed. At that time the regional king, named K®k¥, in order to make offerings to the relics of the Tathågata, had a stËpa raised which was made of the four [kinds of] precious stones, one yojana in length and width, and half a yojana in height. The king had a chief queen and five hundred concubines. They had become old, and the king disregarded them. They said to each other: ‘Why does the great king now disregard us and ignore us?’

They congregated and discussed it together: ‘Because we are getting old, he ignores us.’ Then a concubine said: ‘Sisters, 15 The text has , which, I take as abbreviation for 應供, a literal rendering of the epithetworthy of offerings”, “to whom offerings should be made”, dakΣi˜¥ya or dakΣi˜eya in Sanskrit and dakkhi˜eya in Pali. In the present string I understand 應(供) as representative of arhat, rather than as one of its epithets (being endowed with the ten epithets is in fact mentioned later). On this term see the discussion in Nattier (2003: 215–217). The Tibetan version translated above does not mention the ten epithets. 16 An alternative rendering of the sentence 時彼世尊化緣已盡 (T 1451 at T XXIV 249b2) could be: “At that time the World Honoured One had already accomplished [the task of] guiding (已) [[[beings]] to liberation])”. The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 33 what deeds should we cultivate to make our wish be fulfilled that we do not become old?’

The chief queen replied: ‘If we make offerings to the stËpa of the Buddha Kåßyapa’s relics, all our wishes will be fulfilled.’ They all said: ‘Very good.’ They requested the king’s permission and immediately gathered various types of incense powder, unguents, flower garlands, diadems, banners, jewelled canopies and fine foods. They went to the stËpa, lavishly arranged offerings, paid homage to it with five-limbed [[[prostrations]]], praised and circumambulated it, keeping it to their right. Kneeling down and with palms joined, they made this aspiration: ‘By this offering to the supreme field of merit, by whatever wholesome roots we possess, we wish that, birth after birth, our bodies will not show signs of old age until the end of our lives.’

BhikΣus, the king’s chief queen and the five hundred concubines are now Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s. Because of the power of this merit, until this present life, at the age of a hundred-and-twenty years they did not show signs of old age, being like sixteen-year old maidens. BhikΣus, you should know, this is all because of the power of their own deeds, as I have expounded at length earlier.”

Study

The nuns’ parinirvåna (translated in the first article of this study) was spectacular, and their funeral continues to display prodigious and supernormal features, post mortem. The corpses of the old, decrepit nuns, just deceased, turn out to be exquisitely well preserved, maidenly physiques, a detail that, on first reading, may appear bizarre, all the more so since it is the Buddha himself who invites the monks to behold them. In appreciating this scene, it needs to be kept in mind that he is not necessarily exposing them in their nudity, as I discuss in more detail below. In my previous article I have shown how the existential and ideological absolute of nirvå˜a (and parinirvå˜a) motivates Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her followers’ choice to approach their final physical and mental extinction willingly and intentionally. This overarching value shapes the rest of the narrative and the praise of the old nuns’ youthful corpses.

The Indian International Journal 34 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 The main questions raised by the description of the funerary proceedings seem to be: (a) What is the function of the role played by the Buddha and his monks in the funeral proceedings, and (b) What is the function of the display of the youthful bodies? These two questions can best be tackled by situating all these events at the interface between ancient Indian social conventions and funerary practices on the one side and the early Buddhist value system on the other side. I will start from the first.

Significance of the Funerary Proceedings

The Buddha expresses his filial devotion by participating in the funeral and taking hold of his aunt and foster mother’s bier with his right hand. As I show in the next few pages, the way the ßar¥ra-pËjå or pËjå for the corpse is performed is in tune with the practices common in early and mediaeval India (as well as the present-day).17

In terms of Buddhist monastic etiquette or spiritual values, that the Buddha and the monks honour the dead bodies of the nuns does not seem to present any real problem to the monastic transmitters of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya. The carrying of the biers in a reverential manner cannot be compared to the normal monastic paying homage or worship, at least not in the sense of bowing, or of performing the añjali gesture 17 As explained by Schopen (1997b: 106), “ßar¥ra-pËjå was understood to be an activity directed toward the body of the deceased which took place after the individual’s death, but before or as a part of his cremation. It could not, therefore, have anything to do with relics for the simple reason that there were none.” Schopen refers to the present account of the funeral of Mahåprajåpat¥ and her companions as a passage confirming that only after “the full performance of the ritual worship of her body” had been carried out by the monks did the actual cremation take place, as in other descriptions of eminent funerals in MËlasarvåstivåda text. He further adds (p. 108) that “[a]ll of the evidence we have … would seem to argue for the fact that ßar¥ra-pËjå did not originally mean ‘the worship of relics’ and did not have anything to do with a relic cult. It would seem to strongly suggest—if not establish—that, originally, it referred to that part of the funeral ceremony that took place primarily between the time of death and the cremation and construction of a stËpa, and involved primarily what we would call ‘preparation of the body.’ The construction of a stËpa—if it is included at all—signaled the end of the ßar¥ra-pËjå, not its beginnings.” On ßar¥ra-pËjå in general see de La Vallée Poussin (1937), Schopen (1997a), Silk (2006) and Werner (2013).

The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers

to a spiritually or socially superior person. Performing reverential salutation to a nun is not allowed to monks and would entail an offence of wrong-doing;18 this would be relevant to the case at hand only as a behavioural guideline in general, given that the nuns are dead. Carrying a bier is also not part of activities that seem to constitute types of paying homage. With this observation I am not suggesting that we should be necessarily applying the legal specifics of Vinaya to a narrative context that was likely not to be really concerned with the issue of homage or worship (vandanå) per se. Within narrative contexts that specifically provide the aetiology for the promulgation of a specific rule concerned with a certain behaviour there could be other behaviours described without being censored that are nonetheless not acceptable from a Vinaya perspective. However, since the Buddha (in himself not subject to Vinaya 18 The list of the four individuals who should receive homage, catvåro vandyåḥ, in the Íayanåsanavastu of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, after stating that all those who have received upasampadå later should pay homage to those who have received upasampadå earlier, specifically indicates that this is so with the exception of a bhikΣu˜¥, sarveΣåm upasaμpannånåμ pËrvopasaμpannå vandyåḥ sthåpayitvå bhikΣu˜¥m, to which it adds that a bhikΣu˜¥ who has received her upasampadå even a hundred years earlier should pay homage to a newly ordained bhikΣu, see ed. Gnoli (1978: 4,37–5,5), and D 1, ’dul ba, ga 188b2–4 [= Si-K 1, ’dul ba, ga, vol. 3, p. 453,9–18 with apparatus on p. 780] and P 1030, ’dul ba, nge 180b2– 4: bsnyen par rdzogs pa thams cad kyis phyag bya ba ni sgra bsnyen par rdzogs pa yin no. dge slong ma ma gtogs te (the references are to the entire list, which is not included in the Chinese translation of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, cf. the concordances in Clarke (2014b: I.69)). The latter injunction corresponds to gurudharma no. 8 (Sanskrit and Tibetan) and no. 6 (Chinese) for nuns in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, cf. the BhikΣu˜¥-karmavåcanå ed. Schmidt (1993: 246,8–12), the Tibetan translation of the KΣudrakavastu, D 6, ’dul ba, da 103a3–4 [= Si-K 6,’dul ba, da, vol. 11, p. 247,15–20 with apparatus on p. 860] and P 1035, ’dul ba, ne 100a4–6, the Abhidharmakoßopåyikå-†¥ kå, Up 4024 at D 4094, mngon pa, ju 213b5–6 [= Si-T 3323,

mngon pa, ju, vol. 82, p. 521,10–14] and P 5595, mngon pa, tu 243b6–8, and the Chinese translation of the KΣudrakavastu, T 1451 at T XXIV 351a16–18. The Íayanåsanavastu’s subsequent passage listing the ten individuals who should not receive homage from the monks, daßåvandyåḥ, does not specifically mention women, but women in general would be covered by the heading of all householders, sarvo g®h¥, see ed. Gnoli (1978: 5,7–10), and D 1, ’dul ba, ga 188b4–6 [= Si-K 1, ’dul ba, ga, vol. 3, p. 453,18–454,2 with apparatus on p. 780–781] and P 1030, ’dul ba, nge 180b4–6. Women are instead explicitly mentioned in the list of puggalå avandiyå in the Senåsanakkhandhaka of the Cullavagga of the Theravåda Vinaya at Vin II 162,23–28.

The Indian International Journal 36 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 law in his capacity of law-maker) and arhat bhikΣus, exemplary in conduct, are shown as behaving in a certain way in the context of a Vinaya text, this means that the Vinaya transmitters must have felt comfortable with the actions in question as these were being portrayed. The ceremony described in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya entails the monk’s management of a customary ritual (pËjå) and is best considered as an expression of respect rather than ceremonial paying homage or worship. As already noted by Werner (2013: 82), the performance of a pËjå as a ritual or ceremonial act before the cremation is different from performing vandanå or reverentially saluting a living person or the body of a departed person. The present instance seems to me to be a sign of dutiful and affectionate performance of the funerary ceremony and at the same time a sign of respect – although not vandanå – for fellow arhats. In fact, the Buddha is on record in other discourses for requesting the monks to take care reverentially of the bodily remains of monks who have passed away as arhats.19 That there can be no ‘homage’ as such involved is made clear by the traditional Buddhist idea that if the Buddha (or the Bodhisattva) were to bow down to the feet of someone, that person’s head would split apart.20 The Íar¥ra-p¨jå for Gautam¥ in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa (大智度論)

A version of Gautam¥’s funeral as presented in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa (大智度論) throws some light on the way the later Buddhist tradition conceptualised the conventional dimension of this funerary performance.

In this work, the episode of the Buddha doing so-called homage to Gautam¥’s body is taken to exemplify a case of the Buddha expressing respect towards a disciple. In the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa, the Buddha’s paying tribute to Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ is in turn part of an answer to the 19 For instance, the Buddha’s injunction to the monks to build a thËpa for the deceased arahant Båhiya in Udåna I.10 at Ud 8,21–9,2, and SÓ 1025 at T II 268a15–16.

20 See, e.g., the Nidånakathå to the Pali Jåtaka collection at Jå I 54,22–29, translated in Jayawickrama (1990: 72). The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 37 question as to why the Buddha pays tribute to the Buddhas in the East. The answer to the question is that the Buddha has no superior but can nevertheless express homage. Even though the Buddha does not seek (karmic) reward, he does pay homage. The Buddha’s homage to Gautam¥ – in this case an homage to her bodily remains, a ßar¥ra-pËjå – is classified as an instance of a lower type of ritual of reverence (pËjå) that can be performed by a Buddha. This in turn is one of the three kinds of pËjås – superior, middling, and lower – that are general, not particular to Buddhas.21 The lower type is homage to someone lower than oneself, the superior type is to a superior, and the medium type to an equal. Homage to other Buddhas (by a Buddha) is a medium ranking homage, whereas the Mahåprajåpat¥ episode is given as an example of lower homage. In passing, the pËjå in question is classified as of a lower grade in contrast to the medium-range pËjå performed by Íåkyamuni in honour of other Buddhas as his equals. This highlights that a reading of Gotam¥’s parinibbåna such as that advocated by Walters (1994) – with Gautam¥ put on a par with the Buddha, considered a ‘female Buddha’ – is inconsistent with traditional Buddhologies. In the funeral the Buddha does not treat Gautam¥ as his peer, an alter Buddha, but as an arhat and stepmother with a lower status. The *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa’s tradition is different from that of the Pali materials read by Walters, but it is a significant source that concurs with the general Buddhist position on the distinct roles occupied by the Buddha and Gautam¥.22 Here is a rendering of the narrative part found in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa:


“… It is like the bhikΣu˜¥ Mahåprajåpat¥ with the five hundred arhat¥ bhikΣu˜¥s who attained parinirvåna on one day, at one time. On that occasion, laymen who had attained the three paths held up the five hundred biers [with the bodies of the bhikΣu˜¥s] and the Four Great Kings held up the bier of the Buddha’s foster mother 21 T 1509 at T XXV 132a2, translated in Lamotte (1949: I.587–588). 22 Cf. also Schopen (2004: 358 note 66) and Crosby (2014: 251–252): “Mahåpajåpat¥ Gotam¥ functions as a female Buddha or ‘quasi-Buddha’ in the Apadåna … being on a par with Gotama Buddha and in some ways preceding him.” See the critical appraisal of Walter’s (1994) position given by Anålayo (2015a) as well as the conclusions in Dhammadinnå (2015a: 53). 23 T 1509 at T XXV 132a6–13, already translated into French by Lamotte (1949: I.587–588).

The Indian International Journal 38 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 Mahåprajåpat¥. The Buddha, at the front [of the funeral procession], himself expressed respect by burning incense, holding an incense burner. The Buddha told the bhikΣus: ‘You should help me. I am expressing respect to the body of [my] foster mother.’ Then the arhat bhikΣus went up to the top of the Malaya Mountain by supernormal power.24 Each took red sandal incense firewood [back with them] and assisted the Buddha making a pile [of wood for the cremation]. This is a low [[[form]] of] paying respect.” With this remark on paying respect the relevant narrative excerpt in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa concludes. Even though the storyline in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa is abridged, it is clear that the tradition underlying this summary differs substantially from that of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya versions. In this version, the Buddha and the monks do not carry the biers, but gods and non-returner laymen do, while it was also felt that only laymen who were noble ones (“laymen who had attained the three paths”) could hold them. The Buddha, the ‘son’ of his foster mother Mahåprajåpat¥, carries an incense burner at the front of the funeral procession. This appears to mirror the Brahmanical funerary ritual of the eldest son holding an earthen pot with the sacred domestic fire (with which he will light the pyre) in front of the funerary procession of the parent.25 The eldest son is the one who opens the 24 T 1509 at T XXV 132a12: 摩梨山 ‘Mali Mountain’.

25 Cf. also the remark by Dash (2008: 156) with reference to the parallel passage in the Ekottarika-ågama, EÓ 52.1 at T II 823a21–23: “[i]n the Ekottarågama, the Buddha himself with Nanda, Råhula and Ónanda carry the four legs of Mahåpajåpat¥’s bier – a deep-rooted custom in the countries of South Asia in general and India in particular, that the first privilege comes to the sons and grandsons to carry the bier.” According to Dash (2008: 144) when Indra and Vaißrava˜a step forward and request the Buddha to be allowed to handle the dead bodies on his behalf, it is Íåriputra who stops them and explains that this should be done by the Tathågatha himself in recognition of his debt of filial gratitude rather than by devas, någas and yakΣas, as all past Buddhas have done for their mothers who all passed away before them; cf. also Heirman (2015: 48 note 56). This seems based on taking 舍利佛 (舍利弗in the Ming () edition) as representing Íåriputra and thus functioning as the subject of the following declarative construction. Legittimo (2009: 60) understands this passage differently, with the Buddha speaking, thus taking 舍利 (ßar¥ra) as the object of the previous verbal clause, after which the Buddha tells the devas (佛告諸天) to stop, see EÓ 52.1 at T II 823a7–17.The same passage from the Ekottarika-ågama is also cited at length by the Chinese Vinaya master Daoshi (道世), see T 2122 at T LIII 1000a15–29 (here it is the Buddha who speaks to the gods). In a The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 39 funeral procession and is appointed to celebrate all the rites once the officiating Brahmin has completed the preliminaries within his purview. In the excerpt translated above, apparently the monks kept to the side, since only upon the Buddha’s request did the arhat monks help him to build the cremation pyre for his foster mother, which again seems to mirror the Brahmanical ritual, wherein the eldest son lights the pyre.26

Putting aside the textual differences vis-à-vis the MËlasarvåstivåda version, the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa’s description of the funerary honours paid to Gautam¥ helps situate them within the Indian ritual setting. A closer look at such ritual setting will also clarify a few other features of the narrative. A Closer Look at Gautam¥’s Íar¥ra-pËjå in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya

Apropos the funeral description in the Tibetan

MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, Finnegan (2009: 235) comments that “[t]he final curious gesture of revealing Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s naked upper body to the monks foreshadows Ónanda’s removing Buddha’s robes after his passing so that a group of bhikΣu˜¥s could see the one feature among the 32 that mark a great person that women had not been able to view—an act for which Ónanda will discussion of filial piety and debt to one’s parents, the Chinese Vinaya master Daoxuan (道宣) refers to the Ekottarika-ågama’s account of the Buddha’s personal involvement with Mahåprajåpåt¥’s funeral, by helping to lift her deathbed, and also mentions that when his father Íuddhodana passed away, the Buddha also transported his corpse, see T 1804 at T XL 140c26–28. On this passage Heirman (2015: 46) comments that that such remarks “focus on the continuous respect paid to their parents by Buddhist monastics, despite their having left homeDaoxuan is quite concerned to ascertain that a monastic life does not in any way undermine the respect one owes to one’s parents, both mother and father.”

26 For an instance of a son paying funerary homage to his grandmother, see SÓ 1227 at T II 335b10–11, in which King Prasenajit is reported to take care of his greatly esteemed and beloved grandmother’s bodily remains. Two Chinese Vinaya commentaries by Daoshi repeat the argument that the Buddha is unable to acquire merit but nonetheless pays homage to his deceased foster mother as a token of gratitude and in order to set an example for others, showing them how to gain merit by honouring their parents, see T 2122 at T LIII 606b24–c16 and T 2123 at T LIV 40a25–b17 translated and discussed by Heirman (2015: 46 with note 51), who also notes the reliance of this presentation on the exposition in the *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa. The Indian International Journal 40 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 be harshly criticized later by Mahåkåßyapa. Since it is Buddha who uncovers the nuns publicly, there is no question that it be seen as inappropriate, but it bears asking just how we are to take this postmortem display of the women’s bodies.”27 (emphasis mine.)

Now, taking the rules on nunsrobes and the ancient Indian context into account may give us some useful clues on how we are to take these seemingly peculiar events. That the Buddha would be “revealing Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s naked upper body to the monks”, may not be what is actually meant. Nuns are supposed to wear a vest to cover their upper bodies. So, the naked upper bodies of the nuns would not have been exposed if only their upper robes (uttaråsa∫ga) had been taken off.28

Although all Vinayas agree that a nun must wear one or two pieces of undergarments to cover the breasts, the exact shape and the differences among the different types of robes adopted by the various Vinaya traditions is uncertain. In the case of the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, two pieces of robe, a saμkakΣikå and a kusËlaka, are used to cover the upper body (breasts and presumably shoulders in this case).29

Conceivably, the upper robes that the Buddha removed were covering the nunsbodies from top to toe, similar to the way a funerary cloth is used to cover the corpses in traditional Indian 27 Cf. D 6,’dul ba, da 308b2 [= Si-K 6, vol. 11, ’dul ba, da 745,19] and P 1035, ’dul ba, ne 291b7, and T 1451 at T XXIV 405b25. 28 The ‘upper robe’ (uttaråsa∫ga) is translated as bla gos in D 6, ’dul ba, tha 113a7 [= Si-K 6, vol. 10, ’dul ba, tha 284,16] and P 1035, ’dul ba, de 108b5, and as 上衣 in T 1541 at T XXIV 249a14.

29 E.g. the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1443 at T XXIII 944b9, has the phonetic transcriptions 俱蘇洛迦 (with the variant reading 俱蘇落迦 in the Song (), Yuan (元), Ming () and the Old Song (宮) editions) and 僧脚崎 for kusËlaka and saμkakΣikå respectively; the Mahåvyutpatti 8936–8937, ed. Sakaki (1926: 573), has rngul gzan for saμkakΣikå and rngul gzan gyi gzan for pratisaμkakΣikå; cf. also the Sarvåstivåda BhikΣu˜¥pråtimokΣasËtra in ed. Waldschmidt (1926: 157). The saμkakΣikå is one of the five robes a Buddhist nun must possess at the ordination ceremony. A nun wears it when entering a village according to the Theravåda, Dharmaguptaka and Mahåså∫ghika Vinayas, påcittiya no. 96, påcittika 160 and påcattika 181 respectively. According to the survey in Kabilsingh 1984: 120, this rule is absent in the MËlasarvåstivåda and Sarvåstivåda BhikΣu˜¥pråtimokΣa-sËtra påyåntikas. On the saμkakΣikå, see von Hinüber (1975) [= 2009], Heirman (1997: 52–53 note 90), Heirman (2002: II.802–805 note 199) and Heirman (2008: 150–151 and 154 note 25); cf. also Dhirasekera (1984: 184). The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 41

Brahminical funerals to this day. The description might also assume that the outer monastic robe (sa∫gh冥) was used as a further layer to cover the nunscorpses, which may have been fully clothed with all of the five robes of a bhikΣu˜¥ and thus cremated wearing the complete requisite set of a nun’s robes. Thus the Buddha would have just exposed the nuns’ faces and arms.

In Brahminical funerals, normally the eldest son is at the fore during the procession, leading and carrying the sacred home fire in a pot or carrying a firebrand kindled from the home fire, with which he will ignite the cremation fire. The eldest son, with his head ritually shaven and clad in white, is also responsible for cutting the shroud of the deceased open before igniting the pyre from the home fire. This suggests a connection between the Buddha taking off the upper robe of Gautam¥ and the eldest son cutting open the shroud in the funerary performance.

As described by Filippi (2010: 131–132), “[t]he corpse is laid on a straw mat on top of a stretcher in the form of steps, made of udumbara wood. This mat substitutes the black antelope skin or perhaps the skin of the sacrificial anustara˜¥ cow, which represented the placenta in which the being was enfolded while awaiting a new birth, during ancient times. The dead man is invited to take off his old clothes and wear new and purer robes. … Then his big toes and also his thumbs are tied together, his arms are tied tightly along his sides, and his legs in their winding sheet are tied together. The shroud must be of unused new silk, and the body is tied to form a bundle resembling an Egyptian mummy. … The silk chosen for men is white, sometimes yellow, while it is always red for women, symbolizing the whiteness of semen and the redness of blood, in view of a new conception.”

In the case of (elderly) Gautam¥ and her nuns, the ßrama˜a robes of a shaven headed bhikΣu˜¥ replace the symbol of the red clothing of a potentially or effectively fertile woman in a new birth. The nuns’ saμsåric journey ended when they became arhat¥s. With the death of their physical bodies any remainder of their earlier saμsåric existence ends altogether. Their funeral is not a rite de passage for the continuation of existence into new life, a ritual towards a new conception and sustained fertility. From the perspective of early Buddhist ideology, the funeral is empty of the ritual purpose that serves Vedic and Brahminical ontology. It rather celebrates its opposite, the passing out of existence. How this was The Indian International Journal 42 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 exactly perceived by Middle-Period audience and text transmitters in India, with several Buddhist communities undergoing a process of Brahmanisation, is open to question.30

In short, the description of the funerary homage paid to the nuns follows a standard pattern of similar rituals in India. 31 Therefore it might be no coincidence that in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya account the relatives of the Buddha and Mahåprajåpat¥ carry and hold the bier of Mahåprajåpat¥ – the Buddha’s cousins and Mahåprajåpat¥’s nephews Aniruddha and Ónanda and Nanda, the latter the son of Mahåprajåpat¥, and the Buddha’s son Råhula and Mahåprajåpat¥’s ‘grandson’.32 Just as in Brahminical funerals, the men who carry the corpse of Gautam¥ are her close relatives. 30 See for example the Buddhist reframing of fire rituals in Gandharan Buddhism discussed by Verardi (1994), with remarks in Muldoon-Hules (2011: 250–253).

31 On the carrying of the bier in Indian funeral sacraments, the ‘sacrament of death’ (m®tyu-saμskåra) or ‘last sacrifice’ (antyeΣ†i-saμskåra or antyeΣ†ißråddha), see, e.g., Filliozat and Renou (1947–1949: 365–368 [§§ 740–744] and 582 [§1196]), Auboyer (1961: 263–274), Pandey (1969: 263–274), Filippi (1996: 89–100), especially Filippi (2010: 129–145) and Klostermaier (2007: 152–155).

32 On the personal bonds between Gautam¥ and the monks, of whom she takes leave before her parinirvå˜a, see Dhammadinnå (2015a: 49). This is an example of the extended family and clan (kula) dimension of monastic clan-cum-family early Buddhist history, family networks etc., which is one facet of the ‘family matters’ in Indian Buddhist monasticism examined by Clarke (2014a), reviewed by Ohnuma (2014) and with a critical response in Anålayo (2014a). For a study of the monastic significance of family ties focusing on two Buddhist nuns in Tang China see Chen (2002), and, on the early social history of the nuns’ sa∫gha in China, Georgieva (2000). Daoshi’s Vinaya commentaries conclude a citation of the Ekottarika-ågama version of the funeral account by explicitly remarking that Mahåprajåpat¥ is not only the Buddha’s foster mother but she is also a biological mother, namely, of Nanda, who is assisting the Buddha with her funeral (referring therein to the Saμyukta-ågama, T 99 at T II 277a11, where Nanda is presented as the biological son of Mahåprajåpat¥), see T 2122 at T LIII 1000a28–29 and T 2123 at T LIV 179c15, noted in Heirman (2015: 47). An early Pagan mural depicting the parinirvå˜a of Gotam¥ includes a caption translated as follows in Luce (1969: I.383): “This is when the lady Pajåpat¥ Gotam¥ came and addressed the Buddha; and after performing miracles of various kinds, made her parinirvå˜a. At that time all of the Buddhas, together with Devas and men, went and cleansed (the corpse), and the Rev. Ónan took the Relics of Pajåpat¥ Gotam¥ and brought and gave them to the lord Buddha.” The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 43

Notably, no bhikΣu˜¥s – the closest disciples of Gautam¥ and her arhat¥ nuns – are on record as having attended. There is also no mention of bhikΣu˜¥s being present in the earlier part of the funerary rite, though women may be present before the actual cremation.33 In Indian funerals only close male relatives are supposed to do the cremation. Women are expected to stay at home (except for the widow) while men carry out the cremation rituals at the cremation ground. Once the body has been smeared with ghee or other ointments and covered with flowers it is carried by male relatives on a bier to the cremation site, the procession being led by the eldest son or the eldest living male blood relative, as mentioned above. On a more literalist reading of the narrative, one gets the impression that there are no bhikΣu˜¥s left on the scene because all those who are present in the area have passed away together with Gautam¥. In the

short period between death and cremation, no other bhikΣu˜¥s arrive either in person or by psychic powers.34 The absence of nuns on the scene seems to be the combined result of the narrative time framework and the standard performance of Indian funerals. Last, it has to be kept in mind that this is hagiography and not factual history. In sum, the point I am trying to make is that, as it stands, the MËlasarvåstivåda tradition can be profitably and coherently explained in the light of ancient Indian funerary customs. There are a variety of ways to perform the funeral sacrament (saμskåra) in India. The covering of the body, the scattering of flowers on the body, the eldest son walking in front with the sacred fire, close relatives (sons and grandsons) carrying the bier (arthi) (with members of the same clan and friends also following, in the order of their age), the pyre being made from fragrant wood, the place chosen as cremation ground being situated outside the city gates (with the exception of special locations such as for example the cremation ghats in Varanasi), are the basics common to different forms of the procedure.

33 A detailed comparative study of the presence and role of various male and female individuals and groups of individuals in the various versions of the funeral narratives is outside the scope of this article. 34 Filippi (2010: 131) explains that “[t]he waiting period, from ascertained death to the elimination of the corpse by cremation, can extend up to three and a half days. However, the climate furnishes the definite unpleasant proof of the j¥va’s detachment from his gross body (sthËla ßar¥ra). Often, when putrefaction is evident, the funeral takes place a few hours after death. Because of the horror provoked by bodily corruption, it is now the custom to carry the corpse to the cremation site as soon as death has been ascertained.” The Indian International Journal 44 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 Ideologically, the Vedic and Brahminical home fire carried in order to ignite the funerary pyre is out of the question, since the sacrificial fire was renounced by the Buddha and after him by all Buddhist monastics. The *Mahåprajñåpåramitopadeßa version, as we have seen, replaces this with an incense burner carried by the Buddha. Also obviously missing in Gautam¥’s funeral is the presence of an officiating Brahmin priest. Whether in Middle-Period Buddhist communities that transmitted the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya Brahmanical rituals always remained historically out of the question is of course another matter.

The funerary proceedings are presented as the bhikΣusa∫ gha’s respectful tribute to Gautam¥ and the nuns, formally carried out in accordance with the conventions of the time. In conclusion, the Vinaya record memorialises the founder of the bhikΣu˜¥-sa∫gha and her arhat¥ bhikΣu˜¥ followers. Absence of StËpas and Memorialisation of Nuns The account of the funeral concludes without mention of the raising of a stËpa or stËpas for Mahåprajåpat¥ and her fellow nuns. Such an absence is not particularly striking. If stËpas were raised at all – in reality or reportedly – that did not need to be considered as part of the main body of the narrative and therefore did not necessarily require inclusion.

Schopen (2004: 348) observes that: “[b]oth the Påli Canon and the MËlasarvåstivådin Vinaya … explicitly mandate the erection of stËpas by monks for deceased fellow monks, but in neither is there – as far as I know – a similar statement in regard to nuns. This omission is also narratively or hagiographically highlighted in at least the MËlasarvåstivåda-Vinaya: when the Monk Íåriputra dies he gets a stËpa; when the Monk Kåßyapa dies he too gets a stËpa; when the Monk Ónanda dies he gets two – he also refers to the stËpas of the others when, on the point of dying, he describes himself by saying “I am alone, isolated, like the remaining tree in a forest of stËpas.” When, however, Mahåprajåpat¥ – the most senior nun and in a sense the foundress of the order of nunsdies, she gets none, and the funeral proceedings, The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 45 which are elaborately described, are entirely in the hands of the monks.”35

This elicits a few comments. From the viewpoint of Vinaya jurisprudence, a distinction obtains between skandhaka (KΣudrakavastu in the present case) rules and pråtimokΣa rules.36 As regards skandhaka rules, in the absence of a prohibition expressly issued to nuns, the lack of a mandate (in this case to raise a stËpa) specifically addressed to the nuns does not automatically mean that a rule does not apply to them. Needless to say, the same holds for descriptions in non-Vinaya materials such as the discourses.37 Unless a certain behaviour or element is implicitly inapplicable or inappropriate to nuns on account of gender or other differences, or a rule is adjusted so as to apply to their situation, it is safe not to draw any inference based on a perceived omission. Skandhaka rules issued to monks are also applicable to nuns.

Moreover, in his article Schopen analyses the narrative found in the Theravåda Bhikkhun¥-vibha∫ga on nuns’ påcittiya no. 52, which tells the story of the notorious group of six nuns who had made a thËpa after the cremation of an eminent nun.38 The nuns were mourning at that thËpa and the noise annoyed the monk Kappitaka who angrily demolished and scattered the mound around. The nuns, upset, planned to go to kill the monk, but 35 For the relevant textual references see Schopen (2004: 358 note 66). 36 For the canonical Vinaya references see Bareau (1962). 37 E.g., the above quoted Buddha’s injunction to the monks to build a thËpa for the deceased arahant Båhiya, Udåna I.10 at Ud 8,21–9,2, an example given also by Schopen (1997b: 92). In passing, Båhiya here is declared a bhikkhu by the Buddha, even though he attained arhatship and died before he could receive admission into the sa∫gha. He is referred to as one of the monks’ fellows in the holy life, sabrahmacår¥ vo, bhikkhave. According to the A∫guttara-nikåya

commentary, Mp I 282,18–283,9, after Båhiya’s cremation monks were wondering whether he was a såma˜era or a bhikkhu. The Buddha said that Båhiya was wise, and declared him an arahant. Later he declared Båhiya as the foremost bhikkhu in quickly attaining higher knowledge. The Udåna commentary, Ud-a 97,6–12 explains that since he practised the brahmacariya equal to the bhikkhus’ he was a sabrahmacår¥. An arahant as asekho bhikkhu is also given in the Vibha∫ga among a whole list of possible bhikkhus, Vin III 24,3–12 (in terms of legality the Vibha∫ga settles only for the last type of bhikkhu, the bhikkhu ordained by the sa∫gha through a ñatticatutthakamma). 38 The evidence in the Theravåda Vinaya for thËpas for deceased nuns, which were built by nuns, is given by Schopen (2004: 330–336) [1996]; for bhikkhun¥-påcittiya no. 52 see Vin IV 308,8–309,22.

The Indian International Journal 46 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 another nun reported the plot to the venerable Upåli, who in turn warned Kappitaka. Kappitaka left his dwelling and remained in hiding. The nuns reached the venerable’s dwelling, covered it with stones and clods of earth, and left claiming the venerable was dead. The following day Kappitaka came out of his hiding place and went into town for alms. The nuns saw him still alive and heard that it was certainly the venerable Upåli who had told him of their plan, so they verbally abused and insulted Upåli. The Buddha, informed about the events, promulgated a rule for nuns against verbally abusing or reviling a monk.

Thus, the rule in question has nothing to do with stËpas (thËpas), but it is about nuns verbally abusing or reviling a monk. Neither in this rule nor elsewhere in the Theravåda Vinaya does one find a prohibition concerning nuns raising stËpas for their fellows in the holy life. Nor is there even an indication that such raising of stËpas is inappropriate in itself. Here it needs to be kept in mind that a behaviour or an action featured in a narrative, which illustrates the laying down of a rule that is related to quite a different behaviour or circumstance, does not in itself imply that the behaviour or action described is not censurable, as already remarked in passing above. The same behaviour might in fact be targeted by different Vinaya rules. In this case, however, rules limiting nuns from raising stËpas are completely absent in the Theravåda Vinaya (as well as other extant canonical Vinayas).

A third point is that, as regards the description of Mahåprajåpat¥’s funeral proceedings as being “entirely in the hands of the monks”, I would take this description as (a) reflecting the normal state of affairs as per the ancient Indian custom, and (b) functioning as an expression of a complimentary and laudatory attitude towards the arhat¥ nuns on the part of the transmitters of the Vinaya, as I have discussed in the foregoing pages. In fact, stËpas are not absent in other versions of the funerary proceedings not taken into account by Schopen. In the Ekottarika-ågama, once the pyre is extinguished, the Great General (Vaißrava˜a) collects the relics and erects a stËpa for Gautam¥, at which the Buddha proclaims that he should do the same for the other five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s as this will bring about immeasurable merit for a long time. Next, the Buddha affirms that there are four individuals for whom a stËpa should be raised, namely, a Buddha,

The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 47 a cakravartin, a ßråvaka, and a Pratyekabuddha.39 In the version of the story included in Kumåraj¥va’s translation of the Kalpanåma ˜∂itikå (大莊嚴論經), it is rather the venerable Ónanda who exhorts all who are present to collect the cremation’s remains in order to raise a stËpa so that all beings could revere it. An unspecified person expresses doubts as to who is worthy of a stËpa and veneration, at which the Buddha proclaims that there are three categories of individuals worthy of a stËpa and of veneration, namely, a Buddha, an arhat, and a cakravartin.40 According to Schopen’s proposed reading of the Vinaya

narratives that feature two monks demolishing stËpas erected by 39 EÓ 52.1 at T II 823b8–14, translated in Dash (2008: 146); cf. also note 25 above. The statement in Legittimo (2009: 60) that “[t]he Buddha then orders the construction of stËpas over the relics of all of these holy women” seems not accurate in that the Buddha is not portrayed as ordering the construction of the stËpa or taking the initiative himself, but it is the Buddha’s disciple Íåriputra who speaks; cf. also Heirman (2015: 48 note 56). The Ekottarikaågama account is cited by the Chinese Vinaya master Daoshi, who relates how the Buddha praises the practice of respectfully taking care of the funeral of one’s parents, just as done by former Buddhas, and states that a stËpa should be erected in honour of Gautam¥, see T 2122 at T LIII 1000a15–28 and T 2123 at T LIV 179c1–14, discussed and translated in Heirman (2015: 47–48) (in this case it is the Buddha who speaks). In a summary of the ‘SËtra of the Mahåparinirvå˜a of the Buddha’s Mother’ (T 145 at T II 870b18–23), Daoshi

relates that, after the funerary homage and cremation, Mahåprajåpat¥’s relics are brought to the Buddha. The Buddha declares that his mother and her followers have been freed from their dirty (female) bodies full of negative emotions and are now able to act as men, which will lead them to arhatship (!). He then orders a temple to be built, see T 2122 at T LIII 1000a12–14 and T 2123 at T LIV 179b27–179c2 in Heirman (2015: 47). Thus in this passage Daoshi implies that there is a further rebirth for Mahåprajåpat¥ and that, by inference, she would not have yet attained full emancipation from existence in spite of her present passing into parinirvå˜a. Such a proposition (females must be born as males to attain the highest goal, here worded in terms of arhatship), which is extraneous to arhatship soteriology and ideology, would be quite at home in the fully-fledged Mahåyåna soteriological model that was prevalent at Daoshi’s time in seventh-century China. It reads as if Daoshi is projecting Mahåyåna ‘gendered soteriology’ on the parinirvå˜a of a female arhat who has in fact attained full liberation well before the time of her death and thus could not be reborn at all, be it in a female or male body. In addition to the necessity of a change of sex to attain bodhisattva investiture in Middle- Period Indian Buddhism (on which cf. Dhammadinnā (2015b)), an overall ideology of masculinisation seems to have affected Chinese monasticism down to this very day, see Crane (2001).

40 T 201 at T IV 336b6–10, translation in Huber (1908: 402). The Indian International Journal 48 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 nuns, the two groups of nuns involved are left “with neither an important means of support [derived from the cultural activities connected to the stËpa] nor an organizational focus.” This would be “not just ritual murder but something more akin to political assassination of a group’s special dead.” Schopen (2004: 349) then suggests a possible explanation of the lack of surviving archaeological and inscriptional evidence for nuns’ stËpas: “[t]hat such actions did occur in Buddhist India may account, far better than does historical accident, for the fact that nowhere in either the archaeological or epigraphical records do we find an instance of a stËpa having been built for a nun. It is perhaps unlikely that once having built such structures, and having had them pulled down, groups of nuns would have continued doing so knowing that this would be again for them – as it must now be for us – the end.”41

As regards the absence of archaeological, epigraphic and artistic evidence, it is true that the nuns contributed enormously to the Tathågata’s caityas but their own caityas did not seem to be marked.42 Nor, usually, did those of the monks, however. It appears as if the early sa∫gha did not conceive of the stËpas of the ‘local monastic dead’ as long-term memorials and perhaps not as places of sustained devotion.

We know very little of the material culture of the early Buddhist communities. The early caityas in the Gangetic plain were made of clay, mud-bricks (in some cases, to be eventually covered by layers of baked bricks). These have mostly vanished, with a few exceptions, such as the stËpas at Lauriya Nandangarh and Piphrawa. Their disappearance was often due to poorly executed or documented excavations. In the Vindhyas such caityas were mostly built with stone blocks, and those of Andhra were made of brick and stucco. At a later but still comparatively early date, there are 41 Schopen (2004: 359 note 69) does sound a final note of caution, in that “much remains to be seen … [m]ore may well show up”, and he also refers to a then unpublished paper by Silk (1997: 244) in which reference is given to a parallel story in the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya of a meditating monk who is annoyed by the nuns and destroys the stËpa built by them; cf. T 1428 at T XXIV 766c3–10. I have not been able to find comparable stories in the other canonical Vinayas.

42 For donative inscriptions featuring nuns as donors see Khan (1990), Barnes (2000) and Milligan (2015) (all on Såñc¥), Skilling (1993), Schopen (1997c), Schopen (2014) and Skilling (2014b: 167–168); see also the remarks in Kieffer-Pülz (2000: 302–303). The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 49 the remarkable exceptions of the preserved stËpa galleries at Bhaja, Kanheri, Karle, which do show a convention of recording the name and even the status of the occupants. These are, however, all males.43 Yet even this is not conclusive, since these sites were located outside settlements, where nunneries could not be built and nuns could not take up residence. Moreover, it needs to be taken into account that excavations of urban settlements are only exceptional – for instance the site of Taxila (Sirkap). Unless they come with inscriptions in situ, the excavated stËpa structures, be their urban or outside settlements, cannot be attributed to either monks or nuns. Thus, it seems to me that we are not in the position to arrive at a

balanced assessment of the situation due to territory imbalance between suburban or wilderness stËpas for others (in whose construction nuns could and did participate and to which they contributed financially but which were outside their direct control), and urban stËpas, possibly including also stËpas built by nuns for nuns, where the nuns could also take cultual initiative with regard to the relics of the members of their own communities. In relation to urban stËpas the nuns could have been in charge to varying degrees, possibly challenged by the competition – as Schopen points out – with Buddhist monks and other religious groups as well. In terms of historical records, in Xuanzang’s (玄奘) ‘Records of the Western Countries’ (大唐西域記) mention is made of a stËpa he visited in the Vaißål¥ area at the site where Mahåprajåpat¥ and her followers were believed to have passed into parinirvå˜a. The site is associated with the former residence of a woman (菴沒羅, Ómra[påli]?), possibly the former courtesan who offered a garden of mango trees on the outskirts of Vaißål¥ to the sa∫gha and later went forth as a bhikΣu˜¥.44 It is not possible to establish when this attribution first appeared.

43 See the inscriptions in Gokhale (1991).

44 T 2087 at T LI 908b27–29: 去此不遠有窣堵波,是菴沒羅女故宅,佛姨母等諸 苾芻尼於此證入涅槃, translated in Beal (1884: 68); on the association with Ómrapåli see Beal (1884: 68–69 with note 79). A case of a stËpa raised for a nun, the Buddha’s former wife who also became a fully awakened saint, is recorded in the Bimbåbhikkhun¥-nibbåna, a Pali work transmitted in Thailand, which relates the cremation of the nun Bimbå and the erection of a stËpa with her relics (reference from Peter Skilling, 16 November 2015; on this work see Skilling (2014a: 355–357)). A parallel tradition is found in the Sinhala Yasodharåvata ‘The Story of Yasodharå’ (also known as Yasodharå The Indian International Journal 50 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 In sum, given the present state of the evidence at our disposition, the absence of documented nuns’ stËpas has as much historical weight as the general absence of monks’ stËpas, which are not found at all or, at best, only rarely.

vilåpaya ‘Yasodharå’s Lament’), see stanza 117 translated in Obeyesekere (2009: 55–56): “Her relics were enshrined in a beautiful stËpa. All paid their respects with a rain of flowers. Siddharta (sic), now a Buddha, rained Merit on her, With his Buddha-hand placed flowers on her bier.” The Sinhala prose Yasodharåpadånaya (a text expanding on the Pali Yasodharåpadåna in the Khuddaka-nikåya) includes Yasodharå’s ritual farewell from the Buddha before attaining her parinirvå˜a, after which “the Buddha with a host of gods, Brahmas and a huge crowd [of people] gathered and performed the funeral rites. Thereafter the Buddha took the relics and had a stËpa constructed, offered flowers and lights, and instructed the residents of Dambadiva to make daily offerings in order to acquire the blessings of heaven and nirvå˜a. Thus, because of that great stËpa all men could perform Acts of Merit and arrive at the city of heaven and the city of nirvå˜a and escape the sufferings of saμsåra”, translated in Obeyesekere (2009: 79). As regards archaeological evidence of nuns’ stËpas outside India, for China see for example a recent study by Assandri (2013: 20 note 69), who discusses

entombed epitaphs of Buddhist nuns in Luoyang, which commemorate their leaving behind this world expressed with a combination of Buddhist concepts of liberation and Daoist lexicon. More nuns among the donors of Luoyang are recorded and studied in McNair (2007: 56–59, 189 note 35, 130–131, 133–135, 139, 205 notes 147–149, 170–171). McNair (2007: 130– 131 and 205 note 35) also brings attention to a Tang-period nun’s stamped brick from Xi’an; these bricks with Buddha figures and inscriptions were known as “good karma clay” images because they were moulded from clay mixed with the cremation ashes of a monk or nun. In his detailed study of the ecclesiastical careers of two nuns in Tang China, Chen (2002) points out that in both cases the epitaphs were authored by the nunsmale relatives, whose values and interests are reflected through the medium of epigraphic convention. Adamek (2009a) explores a unique collection of seventh-century memorial niches for Chinese Buddhist nuns at Lanfeng shan, a site in the Bao shan area. The two memorial epitaphs studied by Adamek (2009a: 12 and 17) mention the collection of the relics and the building of stËpas for the nuns. In the case of Bao shan’s nuns, according to Adamek (2009a: 15), there is no reason to discount the claims of female disciples that they wrote

such highly literary memorials for their teachers (as well as family members). See also Adamek (2009b) on poems inscribed on a memorial niche at the same site dedicated to another nun of the same period. StËpas were also erected for the two Tang-period nuns studied by Chen (2002). For a reliquary stËpa in Western Tibet believed to contain a nun’s robe, that of the well-known dge slong ma dPal-mo from Kashmir, see Vitali (1999: 101 with note 110) and Linrothe and Kerin (2015: 74 fig. 6); on dge slong ma dPal-mo see Vargas-O’Brian (2011). These are just a few examples. The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 51 It is possible that the description of the thËpa raised by the nuns for their eminent elder in påcittiya no. 52 in the Bhikkhun¥- vibha∫ga is a simple reflection of the real-life situation on the ground. Disposing of the cremation remains in funerary mounds would have been normal practice. Funerary mounds of especially eminent local nuns would have been a focus of worship and cult at

least for some time. It is possible that in the early days of the Buddhist community stËpas were simple and unsubstantial funerary mounds where the ashes – unless scattered elsewhere – would be deposited, perhaps not intended as ‘perennial’ memorials and for special maintenance and preservation, while of course all markers for the dead, however they may fare, are at least ‘meant’ to endure. As Schopen (2004: 343) himself remarks, “in the Påli text the thËpa appears to have been a small, relatively insubstantial construction – it could be destroyed by one man in a short time – in or near a cemetery; in the MËlasarvåstivådin text the stËpa was at least more substantial – it took five hundred men to destroy it, although they made quick work of it – it was made of brick and sited ‘at a spacious spot.’ … what little we know about stËpas for local monks in Sri Lanka suggests that they were insubstantial affairs. Long ago Longhurst [(1936: 14)] reported in regard to what he had

seen in Sri Lanka that ‘the stËpas erected over the remains of ordinary members of the Buddhist community were very humble little structures’; Richard Gombrich [(1991: 142)], more recently, [reported] that ‘small stËpas (closer to molehills than mountains) cover the ashes of monks in Sri Lanka to this day.’” In fact, stËpas in Thai monasteries, of monks, nuns, and lay people, are very common, whereas almost absent in Sri Lanka.

Thus, Schopen’s argument on the absence of nuns’ stËpas seems substantially an argument from silence, which I think needs to be considered interpreting both the archaeological evidence for early Buddhist material culture and the principles of Vinaya jurisprudence in a different way. 45 It is, in my opinion, too far-fetched to build a political argument on the basis of Vinaya narratives whose purpose is at best tangential to the topic at hand. Certainly, because the material is somewhat incidental, it is particularly useful and informative. But I find it also noteworthy that narratives with a clear didactic function are taken at face value 45 Not to say that an argument from silence can never be a meaningful or a strong argument when no other coherent explanation is possible. The Indian International Journal 52 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 as historical documents whenever this suits a particular scholar’s purpose.46

As to the monkspolitical assassination of the nuns, unquestionably the female monastic community presented a challenge to the male monastic community in terms of competition for patronage, support, power and prestige (and this would also hold for other groups of monks). The very textual history of the canonical Vinayas testifies to these tensions, tensions that appear aplenty throughout the history of Buddhist monasticism. From conflicting ideologies to monastic faults in daily life in ancient India, one could well imagine a real-life vignette of a monk intent on his intensive meditation practice knocking down the thËpa where raucous nuns would gather for devotional chanting and perhaps to socialise with each other, with laywomen joining the group from time to time. This being said, an exercise in historical imagination should not slip into losing perspective on the didascalic and legal rather than historical nature of Vinaya narrative. The stories studied by Schopen may not be incredible stories, but I fail to see how they could provide primary evidence for the type of

historical interpretation he suggests. The main point is that the Vinaya stories are conceived as didactic tales rather than factual records. The presence of factual or likely elements or details in the construction of any form of didactic literature does not document the historicity of the tale, in the same way as an edifying fable written in fifth-century Greece or eighteenth-century Europe would be based on the material culture, ideas and prevalent ideologies of the time, encoded into fantastic and phantasmagorical stories which certainly should not be read as factual reports of what actually happened. In sum, regardless of the historical events – whether a stËpa was raised or not – there may be various reasons of narratological economy why the construction of a stËpa may not have been inserted at all in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya account. After the group parinirvå˜a, no nuns are left on the scene who could have

46 It is then easy for an argument such as the one built by Schopen to be taken as an authoritatively established fact by scholars working in adjacent fields, as exemplified by a remark in Adamek (2012: 51), that “[a]s Buddhist scholar Gregory Schopen has pointed out, reliquary stËpas … sometimes became the focus of violent contestation.” This is not to say that Buddhist holy places do not become the focus of, at times, violent contestation, competition and division within the Buddhist communities themselves. Schlingloff (1964), von Hinüber (1996: 13– 15) (§§ 22–25), Anålayo (2012a) and Anålayo (2014a) put into perspective the nature of Vinaya narrative in general and in its relationship to the rules. The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 53 erected a stËpa, but it would have been easy enough to have some nuns standing by. With narratives, it is often futile to speculate on what and why is not present in the picture. In the present case, with the funerary proceedings being

respectfully carried out by the Buddha himself together with the most eminent members of the bhikΣu-sa∫gha, the description is quite different from a ‘murdering of the dead plot’ or of a conflict between two communities of monks and nuns. It is a textual memorialisation – in lieu of a stËpa – rather than a damnatio memoriae. I would now like to look at the second question to be addressed in the reading of the funeral account, that is, the question of the function of the Buddha’s display of the nuns’ youthful bodies. Physio-morals of Corpses & Teaching the Dharma The post mortem condition of the bodies of the bhikΣu˜¥s being shown off by the Buddha is described as resembling the appearance of sixteen-year-old maidens, with the Tibetan version adding that they have neither wrinkles nor grey hair.47 The avadåna recounted by the Buddha gives the background story of meritorious intentions, deeds and aspiration

(pra˜idhåna) that matured not only in Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her followers’ present life but in many of their previous lifetimes as well. The story serves the didactic purpose of educating and inspiring the audience to merit and virtue. Since the story is transmitted in the KΣudrakavastu, a Vinaya section shared by the two monastic communities, as I have already noted above, the story of these women’s virtue is considered exemplary and thus suitable to instil positive values in both male and female monastic audiences. In the Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra of the MËlasarvåstivådins, the Buddha himself is on record as having displayed his own body and having invited the monks to look at it. The Buddha proclaims that the monks should behold the body of the Tathågata because the appearance of a Samyaksambuddha is extraordinarily rare, like the blossoming of the (semi-mythical) udumbara flower.48 47 Cf. note 6 above.

48 Sanskrit and Tibetan in ed. Waldschmidt (1951: II.394–395) (§ 42.10) and Chinese in T 1451 at T XXIV 399a27, translated in Waldschmidt (1951: II.395) (§ 42.10).


However, here the Buddha’s aged body is not as extraordinary as that of Gautam¥ and the bhikΣu˜¥s. Its physicality, frailty and impermanence are not erased. It is still his ageing mortal body. In a version of the Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra independently translated into Chinese, the Buddha tells the bhikΣus that even if he now has “this vajra-body” – indestructible by definition – he too is not exempt from being changed by impermanence.49 The bodies of the nuns and the invitation to contemplate them appear instead to function as the fulcrum of an incipient discourse on both body and persona extraordinaire, quite a departure from the earlier humanity of the Buddha and the ordinariness of his body. 50 Thus the parallelism between the Buddha uncovering his own body just before passing away – whose original point would have been to deliver a graphic teaching on impermanence – and the Buddha showing off of the

nunsbodies to give a Dharma teaching appears to have got somehow obscured due to the tendency to increasingly embellish narratives that become more and more miraculous. While from a strictly chronological perspective it may be said that the uncovering of the bodies of the nuns by the Buddha does foreshadow Ónanda’s uncovering of the Buddha’s body after the Teacher’s parinirvå˜a, as pointed out by Finnegan in the quoted passage above, from an ideological viewpoint I think it is useful to make a distinction between the teachings and messages involved.

The Dharma teaching conveyed by the Buddha ‘revealing’ the nunscorpses after the funeral differs from the showing of the Buddha’s private parts to women in the aftermath of the Buddha’s parinirvå˜a. The doctrinal significance of the Buddha’s gesture could have been just about pointing out impermanence (even of 49 T 7 at T I 204c26, translated in Waldschmidt (1967 [1939]: 82); cf. the comments in Waldschmidt (1967 [1939]: 87–88), Waldschmidt (1948: 248) and the discussion in Anålayo (2014b: 7 with note 24). On the notion of vajrakåya in general, see Radich (2012). 50 Anålayo (2014b: 6–7), who takes up the parallel passages in other versions, suggests that “[a]n earlier version of this description might have been about the Buddha displaying how old age had affected his body, thereby providing a vivid reminder of impermanence to the assembled disciples. With the growth of docetic tendencies this would then have become an act of revealing the extraordinary nature of the Buddha’s body.” The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 55

unchanged bodies), and then in the course of creative embellishing this would have become a display of their youthfulness. Ónanda’s showing the Buddha’s private parts to women is quite different. To expose the private parts of the corpse of a celibate monastic to members of the opposite sex feels difficult to imagine in ancient India. Such an incident seems related to the trajectory of the development of an emphasis on the marks on the Buddha’s body – here the koßagatavastiguhyatå, the Buddha’s pudenda hidden in the abdomen, comparable to the retracted penis of a horse or an elephant.51

Ónanda’s initiative is recorded in the MËlasarvåstivåda and Sarvåstivåda accounts – among others – of the first communal recitation of the Dharmavinaya, the first sa∫g¥t¥. One of the many allegations to be levied against the Master’s attendant by the emerging traditionalist sectors of the sa∫gha during this first sa∫g¥t¥ is precisely that he showed the Buddha’s pudenda to a group of female disciples.52 Thus, the criticism of Ónanda’s display of the Buddha’s private parts needs to be positioned against the backdrop of the first sa∫g¥t¥’s institutional currents and the textual dynamics they gave rise to.

51 On this lakΣa˜a see, e.g., Verardi (1999/2000), Sferra (2008), the remarks in Egge (2003: 205 note 18), Anålayo (2009: 181–182 note 54) and Anålayo (2011: 46 with note 53). 52 The MËlasarvåstivåda version is found in D 6, ’dul ba, da 308b2 [= Si-K 6, vol. 11, 745,19–21] and P 1035, ’dul ba, ne 291b7, and T 1451 at T XXIV 405b25; for the Sarvåstivåda parallel see T 1435 at T XXIII 449c12–14. Przyluski (1920: 13–14) [= 1920: 175–176] comments: “Dans plusieurs récits du Premier Concile, Mahå-Kåçyapa fait encore un autre reproche à Ónanda. Il le blâme d’avoir exposé aux regards des pleureuses les organes sexuels du grand ascète. Ónanda répond qu’il espérait qu’après avoir contemplé la nudité du Buddha, les femmes seraient délivrées des passions. L’excuse est aussi étrange que l’acte qu’elle tend à justifier. Mais tout s’explique très simplement, si on admet que la toilette funèbre du

Bienheureux fut confiée aux femmes de Kuçinårå. On verra plus loin que, selon l’usage brahmanique, le corps du défunt devait être lavé. Que ce rite eût été accompli par des femmes ou simplement en leur présence, c’en était assez pour scandaliser les prudes théologiens de certaines sectes et pour leur fournir un nouveau prétexte de censurer Ónanda dont la coupable faiblesse avait toléré de tels abus.” The implications of this allegation are discussed in Anålayo (2016: 159–177).

The Indian International Journal 56 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 The two occasions on which the Buddha shows off bodies, his own to the monks and those of the nuns to the monks, are instead considered by the tradition in a positive light (and naturally so as the Buddha is the agent). The gesture is clearly considered as appropriate. Ónanda’s revealing of the Buddha’s private parts to women is, conversely, seen as inappropriate. The contrast between a focus on just the body in the first case and the zooming in on a limited and private part of a celibate body is also noteworthy. In sum, the early story of the Buddha uncovering his own body is likely to be the textual antecedent. The motif of Ónanda’s revealing the Teacher’s body after the parinirvå˜a seems to be grafted into it.

As for the nuns’ one hundred and twenty year-old bodies – to which not only the king and the populace, but also the Buddha and the bhikΣus, render homage – these seemingly imply, I feel, a subtle interplay of aesthetics and ethics. These are bodies that are at once ‘prodigious’, if not miraculous, super-natural and un-natural. It seems to me that this praise of the corpses as eternally youthful presumes an aesthetic of ‘physiomorals’ that pervades the cultural and religious dimensions of body discourse across many communities of Middle-Period Buddhism in India. Bodies are ‘virtuous bodies’ that express the physical dimension of morality in Buddhist ethics. 53 The nunsbodies defy decay, old age and death, in stark contrast to the reality of impermanence and cessation. This is a result of the nunspast merit, as the avadåna related by the Buddha makes clear. It is

rather doubtful that the different elements of the hagiography – the meditative performance, its marvels, the supernormal preservation of the maidenly bodies and the avadåna anecdote – came into being at the same time. Notwithstanding the historically layered nature of this account of supernormal feats and supernatural physiques, all such elements appear all well harmonised in a synchronic reading that serves the didactic purpose of the narrative. These supernatural bodies are dead and ready to be cremated. Living bodies that were once ‘ascetic’ in the sense of 53 For a reading of ‘Buddhist bodies’ in the light of physiomoral discourse theories on bodies see Mrozik (2007) reviewed by Clayton (2009), and for a reading of Gautam¥’s miraculous passing away methodologically inspired by Mrozik (2007) see Finnegan (2009: 213 note 422, 233–236 and 240). The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 57

being vehicles for the spiritual self-discipline of cultivation (ásk„sis), become now ‘ascetic corpses’ to teach others. They are meant to teach not only that the non-beautiful and impure body (aßubha and aßuci) contemplated in meditative practice is constantly decaying and will eventually rot away, but also that the excellent, apparently ageing-free, bodies of saints such as Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s are not worthy of being attached to and will have to be discarded. Whether they are painful to bear, old, decrepit, and falling apart like an old cart as with the Buddha’s own eighty-year-old body before his final extinction,54 or whether they are intact and seemingly still youthful like those of Gautam¥ and the five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s, the bodies served as vehicles for spiritual practice when alive, and now, when dead, serve as a communication code for Buddhist teachings. The bodies of the nuns have become embodiments of the

teachings, embodiments of spiritual excellence, of attaining to the deathless, and of the truth of death and cessation at once. There is yet another contrast between the miraculous bodies of the nuns and their respective literary antecedent in the MËlasarvåstivåda tradition provided by Dravya Mallaputra’s selfcremation. 55 Dravya Mallaputra also goes up into the sky, enters and emerges from the fire-element attainment, and passes away into parinirvå˜a, at which his body goes up in flames without leaving any remainder.56 Because he has become ‘quenched’ or ‘extinguished’ (parinirv®ta), his body immolates but, miraculously, there are no ashes left; the body burns up completely. In contrast, the nuns in the MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya go up into the sky, display their prodigious meditative feats based on the fire-element attainment, go through their samådhi-progression, and attain parinirvå˜a. There is no mention that they come down again from the sky, so presumably the narrative module is abridged. Dravya’s self-cremation is a miraculous textual development built 54 D 6, ’dul ba, da 246b7 [= Si-K 6, vol. 11, ’dul ba, da 596,13] and P 1035, ’dul ba, ne 235b4; cf. also Finnegan (2009: 235–236). 55 I have discussed the model provided by the case of Dravya Mallaputra narrative discussed in the earlier part of this study, see Dhammadinnå (2015a: 32 note 10 and 48).

56 On meditative attainments connected to the fire element see, e.g., Dantinne (1983: 272–274), Anålayo (2015b), and the first article of my study, Dhammadinnå (2015a). The Indian International Journal 58 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 on the fire-attainment.57 The nuns do enter the fire attainment but their bodies are not burnt. They are miraculously preserved and have even become young thanks to their virtue and merit. This seems also a manifestation of a tendency to textual development, embellishment and amplification in the direction of the miraculous. Thus the fire-element attainment, the ‘physio-moral’ tapas and the final attainment of timelessness and deathlessness with parinirvå˜a (rather than, needless to say, the attainment of Brahminical immortality) provide a symbolic continuum and the key to decode the imaginaire of the nuns’ youthful bodily remains. The hagiographic account of Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥’s

parinirvå˜a and funeral is intertextually positioned in relation to the literary model of the Master’s parinirvå˜a and funeral. It is worthwhile to recall a sequence of verses in the MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra that encapsulates the essence of the Dharma teachings conveyed. The famous stanza pronounced by Íakra just after the Buddha’s parinirvå˜a highlights the supreme happiness of cessation: “The moment when the Buddha, the Blessed One, became fully extinct, Íakra, the Lord of the devas, pronounced the verse: ‘Formations are impermanent, They have the nature of arising and disintegrating. Having arisen, they cease. Their stilling is happiness.’”58

57 The case of Dravya Mallaputra’s self-cremation is discussed at length in Anålayo (2012b) [= 2015c: 389–414]; Anålayo (2015b) further discusses the textual developments of fire-miracles observable across early Buddhist texts transmitted by various traditions of reciters. 58 Sanskrit MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.398,17–23) (§ 44. 4–5); cf. the Tibetan MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.399,20–26) (§ 44.4–5), translation by Lévi in Przyluski (1918: 494–495) [= 1920: 14–15]; and the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1451 at T XXIV 399c28–400a1, translation Przyluski (1918: 489–490) [= 1920: 9–10] and Waldschmidt (1951: III.399) (§ 44.4–5); SÓ 1197, T 99 at T II 325b16–18, translation Przyluski (1918: 500) [= 1920: 20]. Cf. also Avadånaßataka X.10, ed. Speyer (1906–1909: II.198,8–10), translation Feer (1891: 431). The Pali counterpart, DN 16 at DN II 157,8–9, is recited to this day at funerals and cremations, both monastic and lay, in the Theravåda societies of South and Southeast Asia.

The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 59 In the Ekottarika-ågama parallel version of the funeral narrative, this stanza is pronounced by the Buddha as he prepares Gautam¥’s sandalwood pyre.59 Following suit, the MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra continues with the god Brahmå affirming the mortality even of excellent bodies of excellent beings.60 The venerable Aniruddha extols the excellence of final extinction of a fully liberated mind with the imagery of an extinct flame.61 Lastly, Ónanda celebrates the flames that consumed the Buddha’s body,62 again with a poetic and evocative use of the imagery of fire.

59 EÓ 52.1 at T II 823b2–6, translated in Dash (2008: 145–146). 60 Sanskrit MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.398,18–340,7) (§ 44.6–7); cf. the Tibetan MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.399,27–401,9) (§ 44.6–7), translation by Lévi in Przyluski (1918: 495) [= 1920: 15]; and the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1451 at T XXIV 400a2–6, translated in Przyluski (1918: 489) [= 1920: 9] and Waldschmidt (1951: III.399) (§ 44.6–7); SÓ 1197, T 99 at T II 325b19–23, translated in Przyluski (1918: 500) [= 1920: 20]. Cf. also the Avadånaßataka X.10, ed. Speyer (1906–1909: II.198,8–10), translated in Feer (1891: 431).

61 Sanskrit MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.400,8–14) (§ 44.8–11); cf. the Tibetan MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.401,10–16) (§ 44.8–11), translation by S. Lévi in Przyluski (1918: 500) [= 1920: 20]; and the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1451 at T XXIV 400a7–13, translated in Przyluski (1918: 500–501) [= 1920: 20–21] and Waldschmidt (1951: III.401–403) (§ 44.8–11); SÓ 1197, T 99 at T II 325b24–325c1, translated in Przyluski (1918: 500–501) [= 1920: 20–21]. Cf. also the Avadånaßataka X.10, ed. Speyer (1906–1909: II.198,11–199,2), translated in Feer (1891: 431) with the remarks in Przyluski (1918: 490 note 2) [= 1920: 10 note 2].

62 Sanskrit MËlasarvåstivåda Mahåparinirvå˜a-sËtra, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.430,10–21) (§ 49.22–24); cf. the Tibetan MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, ed. Waldschmidt (1951: III.431,16–29) (§ 49.22–24), translation by S. Lévi in Przyluski (1918: 495) [= 1920: 15]; and the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya, T 1451 at T XXIV 401b19–22, translated in Przyluski (1918: 495) [= 1920: 15] and Waldschmidt (1951: III.431) (§ 49.22–24). Cf. also the Avadånaßataka X.10, ed. Speyer (1906–1909: II.199,3–199,11), translated in Feer (1891: 432). On the mahåparinirvå˜a narrative transmitted in the Avadånaßataka and the series of stanzas, see in more detail the study by Vaudeville (1964). The flames burnt all five-hundred layers of cloth in which the Buddha’s corpse had been wrapped with the exception of the innermost and the outermost layers. For a comparative study of the evolution of the description of the funeral of the Buddha, and the tendency to represent his cremation as that of a mahåpuruΣa-cakravartin rather than The Indian International Journal 60 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 Read against the backdrop of these verses in the Teacher’s parinirvå˜a description, the presence of the fire imagery through the nunsextraordinary meditative performances, based on the fireelement attainment, and then their final cessation without residue, feels particularly poignant.

However, the body-and-corpse discourse that emerges from the Buddha’s own parinirvå˜a in the same MËlasarvåstivåda tradition, while not devoid of its own marvels, does not hold comparison with that of the arhat¥ Mahåprajåpat¥ Gautam¥ and her five hundred bhikΣu˜¥s. In this the nuns excel the Teacher.63

Conclusion

The portrayal of (arhat) monks behaving so respectfully towards (arhat¥) nuns is in accordance with the funerary ritual conventions of the time, without infringing conventional principles of Vinaya hierarchy and etiquette. The Indian funerary rites influenced the details, yet the fact that this depiction has come into existence is not just because of ancient Indian funerary rituals. The physiomoral excellence of the nunsbodies reflects a positive attitude towards nuns in this narrative. I find it remarkable that a Vinaya text – a canonical narrative transmitted by male monastics that inherently sets a normative and exemplary paradigm for all monastics – should have been able to negotiate these aspects so successfully.

The MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya corpus has long been known – as testified by the various embellishments and amplifications evident in the narrative studied here – for its comparatively long redactional history through the Middle Period of Indian Buddhism, which made it (or parts of it) naturally more open to development and reconfiguration. It is therefore also notable that alongside its creative embellishments, this canonical Vinaya narrative has as that of a monk, see the classical study by Przyluski (1920) and, more recently, von Hinüber (2009) (with references to earlier literature). 63 A ‘body discourse’ – in this case centered on the notion of the authentic body of the Tathågatha – surfaces again in a Vinaya quotation in the *Karmavibha∫ gopadeßa related to the theme of parinirvå˜a and to the same rule that is formulated at the end of Gautam¥’s narrative; cf. ed. Lévi (1932: 158,17– 159,18) and Kudo (2011: 25–28), translated in Lévi (1932: 173–174). I discuss it in a study in preparation.

The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 61 preserved a positive attitude towards nuns on the part of the male monastics who were in charge of the textual transmission. This Vinaya narrative is thus significant in that it has preserved one among the widely dispersed voices in the multiplex gender discourse(s) that emerged in the early and mediaeval Buddhist communities in India. Vinaya narrative and monastic Buddhism in India – which no doubt in many instances evolved to reflect and sanction male hegemony and institutional control over nuns individually and communally – was not all about power over nuns, misogyny, or “aggression by one religious group against another”, or other such dynamics.64

64 In the words of Schopen (2004: 337). As noted by Dimitrov (2004: 17), “[w]e hear different voices, and this multivocality … is but the normal state of affairs.” Sponberg (1992: 3) clarifies well the existence of such a multiplicity of voices “each expressing a different set of concerns current among the members of the early [and mediaeval] community [communities].” I return to the role of male monastic transmitters, with special reference to the female audience of the oral and aural performance of narrative texts, in Dhammadinnå (2015b). An overall evaluation of the multivocality of early and mediaeval Buddhist attitudes to nuns and of the complex historical developments in this area falls outside my present scope. The Indian International Journal 62 of Buddhist Studies 17, 2016 Acknowledgments

I thank bhikkhu Anålayo, bhikkhu Ariyadhammika, Ann Heirman, Karashima Seishi, Petra Kieffer-Pülz, bhikkhu Ñå˜atusita, Peter Skilling, Dan Stuart, Vincent Tournier and Giovanni Verardi for comments and criticism, and Hung Peiying for reading the Chinese MËlasarvåstivåda Vinaya with me.


Abbreviations

Ap Apadåna
D Derge edition (TØhoku)
DÓ D¥rgha-ågama
DN D¥gha-nikåya
EÓ Ekottarika-ågama (T 125)
H Lhasa (zHol) Kanjur edition
Mp Manorathapura˜¥
N Narthang edition
P Peking edition (÷tani)
SÓ Saμyukta-ågama (T 99)
SHT Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfan Funden
Si-K Sichuan (Beijing) collated Kanjur (= dpe bsdur ma)
Si-T Sichuan (Beijing) collated Tanjur (= dpe bsdur ma)
T TaishØ edition (CBETA, 2014)
U Urga (= Phyi sog khu re) Kanjur
Up Abhidharmakoßopåyikå-†ikå (P 5595)
Y Yongle (g.Yung lo) Kanjur
Note


For Pali texts, all references are to the editions of the Pali Text Society, unless otherwise indicated. For all text editions I have
adjusted the sandhi, punctuation, capitalisation etc., and simplified
some of the text-critical conventions for ease of readability.
The Funeral of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers … 63


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