Negotiating Cultural Identity: Landscapes in Early Medieval South Asian History

299 Pages·2015·3.221 MB·English

by  Himanshu Prabha Ray (editor)

Women and Monastic
Buddhism in Early South Asia
This book uses gender as a framework to offer unique insights into the
sociocultural foundations of Buddhism. Moving away from dominant
discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic, homogenous
category – thus rendering them invisible within the broader religious
discourse – this monograph examines their sustained role in the larger
context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffi rms their agency. It high-
lights the multiple roles played by women as patrons, practitioners,
lay and monastic members and the like within Buddhism. The volume
also investigates the individual experiences of the members, and their
equations and relationships at different levels – with the S amgha at
large with their own respective B hikşu or Bhikşunī Samgha , with the
laity, and with members of the same gender (both lay and monastic). It
rereads, reconfi gures and reassesses historical data in order to arrive at
a new understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which
it developed and fl ourished.
Bringing together archaeological, epigraphic, art historical, liter-
ary as well as ethnographic data, this volume will be of interest to
researchers and scholars of Buddhism, gender studies, ancient Indian
history, religion and South Asian studies.
Garima Kaushik is assistant archaeologist in the Chandigarh Circle of
the Archaeological Survey of India. She has excavated at a number of
important historic and protohistoric archaeological sites in the coun-
try including Sravasti, Dholavira, Govishana and Adi Badri. She has
been actively involved in academic as well as fi eld research on early
Buddhist historical sites for over 15 years.
Archaeology and Religion
in South Asia
Series Editor: HIMANSHU PRABHA RAY, Chairperson, National Monuments
Authority
Editorial Board: GAVIN FLOOD, Academic Director, Oxford C entre for Hindu
Studies; JESSICA FRAZIER, Academic Administrator, Oxford Centre for Hindu
Studies; JULIA SHAW, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London;
SHAILENDRA BHANDARE, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; DEVANGANA DESAI,
Asiatic Society, Mumbai; VIDULA JAISWAL, Jnana Pravaha, Varanasi, former pro-
fessor, Banaras Hindu University.
This Series, in association with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, refl ects
on the complex relationship between religion and society through new per-
spectives and advances in archaeology. It looks at this critical interface to
provide alternative understandings of communities, beliefs, cultural systems,
sacred sites, ritual practices, food habits, dietary modifi cations, power and
agents of political legitimisation. The books in the Series underline the impor-
tance of archaeological evidence in the production of knowledge of the past.
They also emphasise that a systematic study of religion requires engagement
with a diverse range of sources such as inscriptions, iconography, numismatics
and architectural remains.
Also in this Series
Negotiating Cultural Identity: Landscapes in Early Medieval South Asian
History
Editor: Himanshu Prabha Ray
ISBN 978-1-138-82252-8
Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia
Garima Kaushik
ISBN 978-1-138-10001-5
Women and Monastic
Buddhism in Early South Asia
Rediscovering the invisible believers
Garima Kaushik
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2016 Garima Kaushik
The right of Garima Kaushik to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-10001-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-65788-2 (ebk)
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For Sensei
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Contents
List of illustrations viii
Preface x
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xii
Diacritical marks xiii
Introduction 1
1 Sacred spaces and the feminine in Buddhism 19
2 Locating the bhikşunī : identifying nunneries 42
3 Exploring women’s space: conflict between the social
and the asocial worlds 93
4 Women as patrons 148
Conclusion 221
Tables, site plans and plates 233
Bibliography 259
Index 279
Illustrations
Map of Buddhist sites in South Asia xiv
Figures
4.1 Distribution of laywomen donor or upāsikās at
different sites 174
4.2 Distribution of b hikşunīs as donors at different sites 175
4.3 Comparative visibility figure, showing upāsikās and
bhikşunīs at various sites of donation 179
4.4 Comparative figure showing percentage of men
donors versus women donors 180
Tables
1 (Sites) native place and the place of residence of upāsikās
and bhikşunīs 233
2 Social identification categories used by bhikşunīs and
upāsikās in the donor records 235
3 Spread of donors from various sites in relation to
the sites of donations, as known from the epigraphic
records 236
4 Buddhist stūpa sites in India, with āyaka projections 239
5 Present-day identifiable geographical location of Buddhist
sites mentioned in the epigraphic records 241
6 List of probable monastic sites 243
7 Buddhist sites with different types of structures,
compiled on the basis on archaeological, epigraphic
and literary sources 244
Site plans
1 Kasia, site plan showing excavated structures along
with monastery E 246
2 Nāgarjunakonda, site no. 6, plan of stūpa , chaitya
and manḍapa 247
Illustrations ix
3 Sravasti 248
4 Sahēth , Jetavana, ground plan of monasteries F and G 249
5 Sannathi, site plan 250
6 Ratnagiri Hill: contour map, showing excavated sites 251
7 Nalanda, site plan 252
8 Sanghol site plan showing excavated structures 253
9 Plan of circular chaitya (after Mitra 1980) 254
Plates
1 Birth of Siddhartha; c. second century A .D .,
Chandigarh Museum 255
2 Adoration of the Buddha by Viśākhā and her associates,
Sikrai, c. second century A .D ., Chandigarh Museum 255
3 Gift of Āmrapāli, Gandhara, c. third century A .D .,
Chandigarh Museum 256
4 Donor figures on the pedestal, c. second century A .D .,
from the erstwhile North-West Frontier Province,
Chandigarh Museum 256
5 Khujjuttara, Sanghol, c . second century A .D .,
Archaeological Museum, Sanghol 257
6 Stūpa dedicated to Sujātā, Bakraur, Bodh Gaya,
c. eighth to tenth centuries A .D . 257
7 Circular structure, SGL 5, c . second century A .D ., Sanghol 257
8 Nāgarjunakonda (site VIII B): circular structure with
inscribed pillar lying within it i n situ . Indian Archaeology:
A Review , 1955–6, p. 24, pl. XXXVI. 258
9 Stūpa with āyaka platform, Chaneti, c. third century B .C . 258
Source: All figures and photographs unless otherwise
mentioned are by the author.