Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Figures

Mahapajapati Gotami

Founders

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Mahapajapati Gotami was the younger sister of Queen Maya and, after Maya died shortly after childbirth, raised the infant Siddhartha Gautama as her own son. Following the Buddha's enlightenment, she approached him and asked to be ordained, becoming the first woman to seek admission to the monastic community he had founded. Tradition records the Buddha as initially refusing, and as relenting only after his attendant Ananda intervened on her behalf and after she and a group of women had walked a great distance and shaved their heads to press the request. She became the founding leader of the Bhikkhuni order, the first ordained community of Buddhist nuns, and verses attributed to her appear among the Therigatha, the canonical collection of poems by early Buddhist nuns.

Facts
Identity
Gender
Female 1
Scholarship
How Its Legacy Is Contested
Traditional accounts have the Buddha imposing eight special conditions, the garudhammas, subordinating nuns to monks as the price of her ordination request; the authenticity and dating of these rules is disputed among modern scholars, some arguing they were added to the canon later. 1
History
Historical Note
After the death of Queen Maya, raised the infant Siddhartha Gautama as her own son, and later became the first woman to request ordination as a Buddhist nun, founding leader of the Bhikkhuni order once the Buddha permitted it. 1
Position Profile
Key Text
The Therigatha, the canonical collection of poems by early Buddhist nuns, carries verses attributed to her. 1
Origins
Place of Origin
Kapilavastu, in the Sakya realm (present day border of Nepal and India). 1
Era of Composition
Contemporary with the Buddha, traditionally placed in the sixth or fifth century BCE. 1
Life
Office Held
Recognized as the founding leader of the Bhikkhuni order, the first ordained community of Buddhist nuns. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Siddhartha Gautama, Figures

His aunt and foster mother after Queen Maya's death, and the first woman he ordained, becoming founding leader of the Bhikkhuni order under his teaching.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Belongs to Tradition

Buddhism, Religions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Sources
1. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.