Therigatha - The world's oldest compilation of women's literature

Therigatha literally means ‘Verses of the Senior Nuns.’ Theri were senior Buddhist bhikkuni, nuns who had experienced ‘10 vassa or monsoons’. Gatha is verses.

The Theri were senior not so much in age as in their religious achievements, and so were considered enlightened religious figures.

Some of the theri or Bhikkuni who composed the verses were friends, relatives and contemporaries of the Buddha (563 - 483 BCE). 

‘Since their words are considered buddhavachana “the words of an enlightened one” they were his spiritual equals’ says Susan Murcott in her First Buddhist Women - Poems and Stories of Awakening. 

Five hundred odd verses of 72 poets are available to us today. The oral compilation of existing verses is believed to date back to the era of early Buddhism (268 to 232 BCE). The poems survived six centuries of oral transmission down the generations of Bhikkuni, and were finally written down around 80 BCE.

The Therigatha is in Pali in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. The poems talk of the life experiences of the writers and their evolution towards nirvana. 

There is a view that both Therigatha and Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks) are ‘liberation manuals’.

However the difference is that while for monks liberation lay in escaping the world, for nuns the verses are about overcoming lived experience, facing the challenges of life and using coping mechanisms to evolve solutions.

Buddhism and its impact on existing power and gender structures

Buddhism impacted power and gender structures. 

Women joined the Buddhist Sangha in large numbers, despite several rules for them by the Buddha himself. His mother persuaded him to allow women to join, overcoming his earlier reservations. His concern had been about the tough physical difficulties they would have to endure and the social conditions that did not allow them the freedom to leave their homes. 

The sangha of nuns was a radical departure from the lifestyles of the time. This group of women lived together after taking to a life of renunciation. Nothing similar was in existence in any other religious order in the world in around 250 BCE.

What are the poems of the Therigatha about? 

The poems show the euphoria experienced by the poets, with their lives transformed by the teachings of the Buddha in a variety of ways - released from the toil and drudgery of daily life and from incompatible marriages, the healing of some deep mental and psychological wound or a release from unspoken and unhealed anxiety. They speak of the prevalent oppressions of gender and class. 

The verses highlight the importance given to knowledge and ethics by the Buddha, and of Truth as the guiding light. They often refer to the three tenets of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Dhamma (rules of Buddhist life) and Sangha (the Buddhist community).

The collection is a part of an oral tradition - the poems were meant to be chanted aloud, not read quietly. Also, they are more descriptive than lyrical. Some of the verses may have originally been wise proverbs changed to poetry for easy memorising. 

Obviously the poets knew that their poetry would be shared openly with an audience, and they wrote with full knowledge of this - not holding back, not worrying about the reception of their poetry or any repercussions to them personally. The composition has a no-holds-barred quality which was a bold stand, no matter the age in which it was written.

There was even doubt over the centuries about the authorship of the verses. Could poems of such enduring value as the Therigatha be indeed composed by women, generally not considered capable of literary endeavors ? Also, Buddhist tradition has certainly been male dominated. However, such sexist views have been effectively refuted by Pali scholars after much study of the work. 

Themes in the Therigatha

Therigatha as a collection has a variety of themes that run all through it. These are universal issues about the human condition.

1. The foremost one is liberation, nirvana (nibbana in Pali). 

      

       2.  Suffering in general and suffering of women in particular due to - 

1. losing a loved one

2. old age, childbirth, sickness, and being a widow without sons or a support system.

3. the deaths of brothers and children, of being named a witch because of this

      

      3.  That the truth can be realised by anybody who seeks it. Several courtesans realized the truth, and hence attained freedom and nibbana 

      

      4.  Friendship which spurs one to strive and finally attain freedom.

      

      5. Disgust with sensual pleasures and giving them up in the quest for nirvana.

      

      6. Of elder bhikkunis entrapped with rituals, and also of other elder bhikkunis freeing the ones thus entrapped.

      

      7. Speaking of the temporal body as subject to normal aging such as illness, weakness 

      

      8. Women trying to prevent their husbands from joining the sangha, but to no avail.

      

      9.  The very hard path of some bhikkunis before they are liberated, while others sail through the process easily

      

    10. Relatives helping each other - sons instructing mothers, mothers teaching sons, wives helping husbands, spouses marrying for the sake of parents but teaming up later to renounce and join the sangha

      

    11. Mara, the tempter and joker, constantly testing the nuns with temptation to see if they are weak-minded. There are conversations in the Therigatha between Mara and several of the nuns, but the older ones that know who he is, refuse to succumb and send him packing. 

Mara says -

“There is no escape in the world, what will detachment do for you?

Partake of delights of sensual pleasures, don’t be remorseful later.”

Sela Theri replies -

“Like spears and darts are sensual pleasures, chopping block of aggregates;

Whatever you designate ‘delight in sensual pleasure’, now it is ‘non-delight’ for me.

Pleasure if fully destroyed everywhere, the aggregate of darkness is shattered;

Know thus, O Evil One, I have destroyed you, O End-maker.”

The Theri 

How do we know such details of the Theris’ lives? 

In the 5th century CE Dhammapala of Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu wrote a review on the Therigatha in Pali. In his work each verse is accompanied by a commentary, the Paramatta Dipani, which provides explanatory notes. The biographies in it detail the previous lives of the poets, how they were enlightened and released from the cycle of death and rebirth.

The poets

The women whose poetry comprises the Therigatha were of varying backgrounds, ages and personalities. The poems unabashedly reflect myriad moods and life situations - sadness, beauty, poverty, untold riches, women tired of being in arranged marriages, women in love, women who sold their bodies, abandoned daughters, grandmothers who spent their lives as sometimes unwilling caretakers, women whose children had died and who yet carried on against all odds, women who were not obedient and didn’t do as they were told, women who did not give up…. 

How many of these nuns are legendary or actual persons? Although some of the 72 are mentioned in other texts, several are not referenced anywhere else in the entire canon of Buddhist literature. However, there is no doubt that many of them existed.

These poems offer a glimpse into the lives of women in ancient India. For many the Sangha offered refuge and they blossomed in ways that had not been possible earlier. 

Others joined the community in their old age when abandoned by their families, but soon found their niche. They were able to use their experience and talents for the good of the Sangha and thus found fulfilment. 

The poetry, gatha

Each shloka (stanza) comprises four pada (verses) of eight syllables each. 

Around 32 verses include a nun’s name as the title. Hence it is assumed that the Bhikkuni is the author of the verse, which may or may not be correct.

Like much of ancient Indian art such as sculpture or painting, the motivation for creating the work was not personal glory. The poets had no sense of ownership, anybody was free to use or borrow the verses. 

The motives for composing the poems were twofold - for the audience to learn the higher truths and live better lives, and for the nuns to attain the Buddha’s experience of enlightenment. 

Buddhism offered a way for women to negotiate their lives and counter outside influence that tried to control them. 

The format of the verse

The verse or stanza offers a contrast between life before joining the Sangha - limited and restrictive - and the life afterwards of peace and freedom. 

Each verse has the same format - an autobiographical element, the pain the poet underwent and the transformation in life after following the teachings of the Buddha. 

Although the message of the Buddha is the crux of the verse, strong evocative imagery highlights the transformation experienced.

Verses of Muttā

So freed! So thoroughly freed am I!—

from three crooked things set free

from mortar, pestle,

& crooked old husband.

Having uprooted the craving

that leads to becoming,

I’m from aging & death set free.

Therigatha - a study in human nature

The bhikkuni were not docile and accommodating women, although they were nuns. Their poetry upturns popular, even currently prevalent perceptions. These include the thinking that the need for agency and autonomy in many areas of women’s lives are modern concepts - they are not. The Therigatha shows the fallacy that women of ancient India were meek and obedient. Again not so, obviously, as these poems illustrate.

 Sumangalamata 

“Freed, freed, good to be freed from pestle;

Shameless is my husband, stinking is rice-cooker.

I have fully destroyed lust and hate, [like hot iron dripped in

the water cools] making hissing sounds;

Having approached tree root, [saying] ‘Oh happiness’,

Happily I do jhana.” 

Even in Buddhist life the behaviour expected of nuns was of being pliant and docile. Obedience was their foremost credo. In part, the Terigatha is a revelation of an inner world of turmoil and emotion, offering a contrast to the visible calm exterior presented by the bhikkuni to the world.

Sama

Four times, five times, having left the monastic dwelling;

Not having gained peace of mind, uncontrolled in mind;

On the eighth night, her craving was fully destroyed.”

The bhikkuni whose work forms the Therigatha lived at different times, most were not contemporaries. The powerful ideas and attitudes of the nuns influenced and gave courage to others who came after them. The Therigatha clearly spells out in many poems the choices that the writer made to explore her mind, and learn.

The Theri asserted their positions and individual views as female Buddhist renunciates. The verses show the conflict between women and the social institutions around them, bent upon making them conform to pre-set standards of behaviour and life style. Many of these poets violate patriarchal images of the ideal woman. 

These women assumed agency over their bodies and their lives, not waiting for permission for anybody. 

Why is the Therigatha unique?

The Bhikkuni mentally escaped societal constraints by composing poetry and ensuring their names were remembered centuries later by their poetry. All this as nuns living secluded lives.

Gautama Buddha himself was against the idea of having nuns in the Buddhist order. The insistence and sheer persistence of the Buddha’s first female disciple and foster mother, Mahaprajapati, made him change his mind and accept the establishment of the nuns’ order. 

In spite of several rules laid down for the Sangha by the Buddha himself that were unfair to women, they came in large numbers to join the Sangha. 

The teachings of the Therigatha

Some commentators mention that the biggest teaching of the Terigatha is that there is no one right way to live life or attain learning. There are a myriad paths to one’s goal and no path is better than the other.

The Therigatha is the result of the Buddha’s teaching that good daughters are as good as good sons. This at a time when the concept of equality of the genders was unheard of. 

The nuns detached themselves from the outer manifestations of the corporeal body, of fighting the ever-present ideas of inferiority, weakness and impurity of the female gender. 

They instead turned to nurturing the inner spirit, overcoming the traditional derogatory view towards the feminine and celebrated femininity instead. 

The nuns chose to attune themselves to their inner voices and speak up in their poetry, be true to their own selves, voice wildly different ideas than the traditional. 

Buddhism takes the view that victimhood incapacitates. Victimhood prevents taking initiative, and is hence self-defeating. It results in hatred for the victimiser, hatred creates oppression, oppression creates suffering. 

The women who wrote the Therigatha did not pity themselves, did not see themselves as victims. They took charge of their lives against all odds and worked towards their Nirvana.

Ref. -

1. The First Free Women - Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns by Matty Weingast [Google Scholar]. Also at https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/OJ_Nov2020_Weingast.pdf

2. First Buddhist Women - Poems and Stories of Awakening by Susan Murcott [Google Scholar]

3. IMAGES OF NUNS IN (MULA-) SARVASTIVADIN LITERATURE - Peter Skilling

4. ‘Radical Grace’: Hymning of ‘Womanhood’ in Therigatha - KAUSTAV CHAKRABORTY

5. https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Thig/thig1_1.html

6. Voices from the Yore: Therigatha Writings of the Bhikkhunis - Asha Choubey

7. Therigathapali, Book of Verses of Elder Bhikkunis. A Contemporary Translation, Bhikku Mahinda (Anagarika Mahendra)