Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī

Gotamī's story was widely distributed, with multiple versions existing. It is recorded in the various surviving Vinaya traditions, including the Pali Canon and Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada versions.{{Cite journal |last=Dhammadinnā |first=Bhikkhunī |title=The Parinirvāṇa of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya |url=https://www.academia.edu/15356864 |journal=International Journal of Buddhist Studies}}

{{Main|Theravada}}

In the Pali Canon, her request for ordination is detailed in the Anguttara Nikaya. The stories of her past lives are included in the Therīgāthā, Theri-apadāna and Jataka.{{Sfn|Amatayakul|Satha-Anand|2023}}

{{Main|Mahayana}}

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha bestows a prophecy upon Mahāprajāpatī that in the distant alternate timeline on future, she will become a buddha named Sarvasattvapriyadarśana.{{Cite web |last=Roberts |first=Peter Alan |title=The White Lotus of the Good Dharma |url=https://read.84000.co/translation/toh113.html |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=84000: Translating The Words of The Buddha |language=en}}

{{Gallery|File:Gotama Buddha with Maha Pajapati Gotami Painting.jpg|Painting of Prince Siddhartha with Mahapajapati Gotami|File:Mahapajapati_Gotami_self_portrait_painting.jpg|Portrait painting of Pajāpatī Gotamī|Painting of Mahapajapati Gotami by Sati Saraniya.jpg|Portrait painting of Pajāpatī Gotamī by Sati Saraniya Hermitage|File:Mahapajapati Gotami at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, US.jpg|Pajāpatī Gotamī statue at Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, US|096_Mahapajapati_(9189329591).jpg|Painting depicting Mahāpajāpatī from Wat Kasattrathirat, Ayutthaya, Thailand|title=|align=|footer=|style=|state=|height=|width=|perrow=|mode=|whitebg=|noborder=|captionstyle=|alt1=|alt2=|alt3=|alt4=|alt5=|075_Marraige_of_Suddhodana_and_Mahapajapati_%28detail%29_%289192211688%29.jpg|Painting depicting the marriage of Suddhodana with Mahāpajāpatī from Wat Kasattrathirat, Ayutthaya}}

According to the Theri-apadāna, Gotamī started on the path of the Dhamma during the time of Padumuttara Buddha, when she was born to a wealthy family in Hamsavati. She witnessed Padumuttara Buddha place his aunt, a bhikkhuni, in a senior position, and aspired to achieve the same position after providing offerings to the Buddha and his followers for seven days. Padumuttara Buddha said she would achieve her aspiration under Gautama Buddha. She was later reborn in the Tavatimsa heaven as a god.{{Sfn|Amatayakul|Satha-Anand|2023}}

Gotamī then returned to the human realm as the leader of 500 female slaves. In that life, they encountered a group of 500 paccekabuddhas, for whom they built huts and provided food offerings for the duration of the rain retreat. Following the rain retreat, Gotamī had her followers prepare robes for the paccekabuddhas. They continued to perform meritorious acts throughout their lives and were reborn as Tavatimsa gods.{{Sfn|Amatayakul|Satha-Anand|2023}}

Gotamī's followers would follow her and attain liberation as bhikkhunis in the time of Gautama Buddha.{{Sfn|Amatayakul|Satha-Anand|2023}}

Tradition says Maya and Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī were Koliyan princesses and sisters of Suppabuddha. Mahāpajāpatī was both the Buddha's maternal aunt and adoptive mother, raising him after her sister Maya, the Buddha's birth mother, died. She raised Siddhartha as if he were her own child.{{Cite web |url=http://www.drukpa-nuns.org/index.php/maha-pajapati-gotami |title=Maha Pajapati Gotami |access-date=2010-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128094505/http://www.drukpa-nuns.org/index.php/maha-pajapati-gotami |archive-date=2015-01-28 |url-status=dead }}

An eminent Therī, Mahāpajāpatī was born at Devdaha as the younger sister of Māyā.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110725105412/http://www.budsas.org/ebud/rdbud/rdbud-01.htm Relatives and Disciples of the Buddha (archived 2011)] Mahāpajāpatī was so called because, at her birth, augurs prophesied that she would have a large following.{{Cite web |title=Women of the Buddhist scriptures: Mahapajapati Gotami |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/05/2009_41_thu.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240529003500/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/05/2009_41_thu.shtml |archive-date=2024-05-29 |access-date=2010-11-07}} Both sisters married King Suddhodhana, leader of the Śākya. When Māyā died seven days after the birth of the Bodhisatta (the "Buddha-to-be"), Pajāpati looked after the Bodhisatta and nursed him. She raised the Buddha and had her own children, Siddhartha's half-sister Sundari Nanda and half-brother Nanda.{{Cite book |last=Hanh |first=Thich Nhat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4COREAAAQBAJ |title=Path of Compassion: Stories from the Buddha's Life |date=2008-02-28 |publisher=Parallax Press |isbn=978-1-937006-13-6 |language=en}}{{Sfn|Amatayakul|Satha-Anand|2023}}

File:Mahapajapati.jpg

When King Suddhodhana died, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī decided to attain ordination. Gotamī went to the Buddha and asked to be ordained into the Sangha three times. The Buddha refused and went on to Vesāli. Undaunted, Gotamī cut off her hair and donned yellow robes and with 500 princesses, 250 from the Sakyan kingdom and 250 from the Koliyan kingdom followed the Buddha to Vesāli on foot.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110725130303/http://www.cambodianbuddhist.org/english/website/lib/modern/thanissaro/bmc2/ch23.html Bhikkhunis (archived 2011)] Upon arrival, she repeated her request to be ordained. Ananda, one of the principal disciples and an attendant of the Buddha, met her and offered to intercede with the Buddha on her behalf.

{{blockquote|Respectfully he questioned the Buddha, "Lord, are women capable of realising the various stages of sainthood as nuns?"

"They are, Ananda," said the Buddha.

"If that is so, Lord, then it would be good if women could be ordained as nuns," said Ananda, encouraged by the Buddha's reply.

"If, Ananda, Maha Pajapati Gotami would accept the Eight Conditions it would be regarded that she has been ordained already as a nun."}}

Gotamī agreed to accept the Eight Garudhammas and was accorded the status of the first bhikkhuni. Subsequent women had to undergo full ordination to become nuns.

Gotamī died at the age of 120.Dhammadharini: [https://www.dhammadharini.net/post/going-forth-and-going-out Going Forth & Going Out ~ the Parinibbana of Mahapajapati Gotami - Dhammadharini]

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal|last=Anālayo|first=Bhikkhu|author-link=Bhikkhu Analayo|year=2011|url=https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/mahapajapati.pdf|title=Mahapajapati's going forth in the Madhyama agama|journal=Journal of Buddhist Ethics|volume=18|pages=268–317|issn=1076-9005}}
• {{cite journal|last=Anālayo|first=Bhikkhu|author-link=Bhikkhu Analayo|year=2016|url=http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2016/01/Anaalayo-T-60-final2.pdf|title=The Going Forth of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī in T 60|journal=Journal of Buddhist Ethics|volume=23|pages=1–31|issn=1076-9005}}
• {{cite book|last=Garling|first=Wendy|year=2016|title=Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life|publisher=Shambhala Publications|isbn=978-1-61180-265-8}}
• {{cite book|last=Garling|first=Wendy|year=2021|title=The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati|publisher=Shambhala Publications|isbn=978-1611806694}}
• {{cite journal|last=Scott|first=Rachel M.|year=2010|url=https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/viewFile/9291/3152|title=Buddhism, miraculous powers, and gender - rethinking the stories of Theravada nuns|journal=Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies|volume=33|issue=1–2|pages=489–511}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|last=Tsomo|first=Karma Lekshe|title=Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī|editor-last=Buswell|editor-first=Robert E.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Buddhism|year=2004|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofbuddhism_202003_515_o/page/n489|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|isbn=0-02-865718-7|pages=489–490}}
• {{cite journal|last=Walters|first=Jonathan S.|year=1994|title=A Voice from the Silence: The Buddha's Mother's Story|journal=History of Religions|volume=33|issue=4 |pages=350–379|doi=10.1086/463377 |jstor=1062715}}
• {{cite book |last1=Amatayakul |first1=Supakwadee |title=Women Philosophers from Non-western Traditions: The First Four Thousand Years |date=2023 |pages=89–101 |editor-last=Waithe |editor-first=Mary Ellen |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28563-9 |access-date=2024-06-02 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |chapter=Mahapajapati Gotami महाप्रजापती गौतमी Circa Sixth–Seventh Centuries BCE |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-28563-9 |isbn=978-3-031-28563-9 |last2=Satha-Anand |first2=Suwanna |editor2-last=Boos Dykeman |editor2-first=Therese |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28563-9_5}}

• {{cite book|last=Blackstone|first=Kathryn R.|year=1998|title=Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therīgāthā|publisher=Curzon Press|isbn=9781136805769}}
• {{cite book|last=Horner|first=Isaline Blew|year=1975|title=Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen|location=Delhi|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=9780842609555}}
• {{cite book|last=Walters|first=Jonathan S.|year=1995|chapter=Gotami's Story|editor-first=Donald S.|editor-last=Lopez|title=Buddhism in Practice|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691044415}}

• [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.06.06.olen.html Maha Pajapati (Gotami) Theri: A Mother's Blessing]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150506142137/http://what-buddha-said.net/library/DPPN/maha/mahapajapati_gotami.htm Mahāpajāpatī Gotami]

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