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)

  

Queens of Travancore and Mysore  

Champions for Universal Education and 

Immunisation against Smallpox

Health and education are important markers of progress in any society. Two specific goals that independent India aimed for were universal immunisation against Smallpox and universal education. Both these issues were on the radar of many rulers and the British Indian government before 1947 too. 

Today India sees mixed results - the efforts for universal immunisation and the eradication of Smallpox in 1975 have seen resounding success. Universal education has also made great strides - more than 90% of urban children and more than 85% of rural children go to school. However, we have a way to go before every child in India goes to school and every adult is literate. 

Efforts at smallpox immunisation by vaccination and universal education were given a fillip by the pioneering Queens of Travancore and Mysore in pre-independent India. 

   

Gowri Parvati Bayi of Travancore

Uthrittathi Thirunal Gowri Parvati Bayi (1802-1853 CE) was ruler of the state of Travancore in the years 1815 -1829. 

Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Travancore

Travancore followed the matrilineal system of succession in which the eldest daughter of the family was the ruler, with executive powers being with her son. Gowri Parvati Bayi was only 13 years of age at the time of her ascension to the throne but had the counsels of her brother-in-law and her husband to manage the affairs of the state.

Kowdiar Palace of Travancore

Gowri Parvati Bayi’s reign is known for the several pathbreaking reforms that she carried out in the territory of Travancore. Two among them are universal education and vaccination.

Universal education was introduced in Travancore by Royal Rescript on June 17, 1817. Gowri Parvati Bayi was just 15 years of age at the time. This decree had far-reaching effects on the education system in the kingdom, whose impact is still being felt more than two centuries later. 

Today the present state of Kerala (of which Travancore became a part after State Reorganisation on November 1, 1956) has achieved near 100% literacy, an achievement no other state in India has been able to match.

State funding for education in the State of Travancore

The Travancore Royal Rescript was the first ever attempt in the world to provide complete state funding for education. 

The concept of universal education was novel in 1817, with very few governments ensuring that their citizens - regardless of gender and economic standing - were educated. This was due to several reasons. One, education was simply not considered a priority. Two, many kingdoms did not have the resources to ensure universal education. Three, the British who ruled over large sections of the Indian mainland were only interested in providing just enough education to ensure workers who were Indian by race but British in their thinking, in order to further their own colonial agenda.   

The rescript (decree) of 1817 on universal education issued by Gowri Parvati Bayi clearly states “The state should defray the entire cost of education of its people in order that there might be no backwardness in the spread of enlightenment among them, that by diffusion of education they might become better support and public servants and that the reputation of the state might be advanced thereby.”

The rescript decreed that every school would have two trained teachers paid by the state. 

Education in Kerala down the ages

The modern state of Kerala was founded after the amalgamation of the princely states of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar, after Indian Independence in 1947. 

In the Sangam Era (approximately 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD) the women of the areas that comprise the modern state of Kerala were well educated. In later times there was a drop in literacy due to a decrease in women’s status in society. 

It is to the credit of Gauri Parvati Bayi that the tide started to be reversed with sound state patronage for universal education.

Popularisation of vaccination

The second important reform, introduced by the earlier ruler Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, was of vaccination against Small Pox. It was the first ever large-scale public health measure to combat the historically dreaded disease. 

Gowri Parvati Bayi took it forward by introducing new initiatives and policies, avoiding coersion. 

She thus did not hesitate to introduce and take forward reforms that were revolutionary for the times, but were much-needed for the benefit of the population at large.

Three Queens of Mysore

The history of Smallpox vaccination in India

Edward Jenner discovered the smallpox vaccine in 1796 in England. Within six years the British tried to introduce inoculation in the areas in India governed by them.

 

However the task was not as easy as it seemed. They met with vigorous resistance which grew stronger as time went by. 

People resisted the idea of being injected with cowpox bacteria to build resistance and were unwilling to listen and be convinced with the scientific reasoning behind vaccination. 

They were also very wary of foreigners tampering with their health and introducing strange invasive processes such as vaccination.

The British were oppressors in all aspects of the people’s lives. Hence the distrust carried over to any and every measure that was proposed by the government. 

A native version of ‘vaccination’ was already in place in some parts of North India. The scabs taken from an infected person were first washed in the Ganga and placed on healthy people to develop Smallpox pustules. This was the non-invasive and well-known method, but not always effective. 

Another method of inoculation entailed extracting pustules and spots from recovered patients which were ground to dust and blown on the noses of people not yet infected. This process was called variolation.

This early vaccination process was arduous and involved painful lacerations, and of having to wait a week for a pustule to develop on the arm of the person to whom it had been transferred. Once it developed, the lymph from the arm of the infected person had to be dried to be transported in a sealed container for further vaccinations. Very often the smallpox germ being transported died due to heat, nullifying all the earlier effort.

The British effort to overcome vaccination resistance

The British, in turn, were determined to vaccinate the population because of several reasons. 

Firstly they wanted to prevent smallpox among the several Europeans who lived among the civilian populations in India. 

Secondly, they wanted to safeguard the working population in India so that the hugely lucrative British commercial enterprises which exported goods to England would not be impacted by smallpox epidemics.

Traditional caregivers were not convinced about vaccination and tried to discourage people. The British solved this problem by pensioning off many caregivers to reduce their influence.

The dilemma was how to convince people that vaccination was the way forward to battle the ancient scourge of smallpox. It was then that the British hit upon the idea of involving Indian royalty who were literally worshipped by their subjects. The reasoning was that if the rulers adopted vaccination, why would the general population not agree.

Vaccination in Mysore

Among the kingdoms generally amenable to the British was that of Mysore (now known as Mysuru) ruled by the Wodeyars.

Royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Mysore

Devajammani was a young girl who had been betrothed to the crown prince Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1794-1868CE). 

Involving royalty in the vaccination effort

The Mysore royalty was known to be scientific-minded and friendly with the British. Hence the kingdom of Mysore was considered to be an ideal testing ground for a countrywide vaccination programme. 

Around 1805 three women of the Wodeyar royal household were chosen to be the torchbearers of the vaccination effort. The king’s two wives, both named Devajammani, were a part of the effort. The third person was Lakshmiammani, another relative of the king.

Mysore Palace

A fillip to the vaccination effort

The effort was widely publicised. Inoculating the royalty of Mysuru gave confidence to people that the vaccine they would receive was effective, and worth taking due to the royal bloodlines of the persons from whom the pustules were taken.

Over time, this strategy worked safely without endangering life. It proved effective enough for the British to persuade other Indian royalty to also undergo inoculation themselves and influence their subjects.

At the time the Wodeyar royalty agreed to be inoculated, vaccination was still a nascent procedure, with equipment which was extremely rudimentary and primitive by today’s standards. It took courage to be among the earliest recipients ever of a procedure which had still not been completely tested. Yet these three women agreed to be pioneers and the early recipients of the vaccine, with no guarantee that it would not be fatal.

The impact today on these initiatives in India

These royal women from Travancore and Mysuru helped to take forward ideas and revolutionary procedures, bringing a sea-change in the public discourse on education and health. 

 

In 2023 India has made huge strides but has not yet achieved universal education. That goal is yet a couple of decades away. However, inoculation against Smallpox for the entire population nearing 1.38 billion is a massive success story. Smallpox was eradicated in India in 1975 and a very successful programme is in place today for regular immunisation at all age groups and across demographics.

Universal education and universal vaccination against smallpox started with a germ of what seemed like an impossible idea a couple of centuries back. Colonization kept India shackled, and its population at the mercy of epidemics and ignorance. 

A few intrepid women willing to walk new paths started the process of improved general health and education, transforming Indian society in many ways beyond recognition.