Hwang Soonil
Department of Indian Philosophy, Dongguk University
Buddhist nuns are, I think, real Asian women intellectuals in the Ancient Indic World. One of the most famous nuns in the Southern Theravāda tradition could be Saṅghamittā, a daughter of the renowned King Ashoka in the Mauryan Empire in Northern India. Two very important events are related to Saṅghamittā in Southern Buddhism: the starting of the nun ordination tradition in Sri Lanka and transmitting a branch of the Bodhi tree from Magadha to Sri Lanka. The legacy of Saṅghamittā is still celebrated in Sri Lanka during the full moon day of December every year, known as Sanghamitta Poya. The popular story of Saṅghamittā has been based mainly on the scattered episode that has appeared in the Sri Lankan chronicles. We can even reconstruct the entire biography of Saṅghamittā from the various part of the Mahāvaṃsa, which shows the strong inference of the Mahāvihāra, one of the most traditional orders in Sri Lanka. This story represents the image of Saṅghamittā as developed and preserved within the Mahāvihārins.
By contrast, Saṅghamittā did not appear in the legend of the King Ashoka (Aśoka-avadana) as developed and preserved in Northern India. Two Chinese pilgrims talk of something different relating to Saṅghamittā. Xuanzang regards Mahendra, possibly the brother of Saṅghamittā, as a brother of King Ashoka. He added that Mahendra stayed in Southern India before moving to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism over the entire island. The planting of the Bodhi tree is also told differently by Faxian who lived in Sri Lanka during the 4th century AD. His story could represent the perspective of the Abhayagiri vihāra, one of the rival sects of the Mahāvihāra in ancient Sri Lanka. Here the Bodhi tree was transmitted not by Saṅghamittā, but through the direct order of a former king in Anuradhapura.
In this presentation, I explore various episode of Saṅghamittā that have appeared in Sri Lankan chronicles as compared with Northern Buddhist legends, as well as the records of Chinese pilgrims. I hope to show the importance of Saṅghamittā’s legacy in Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia.
(Presented in the 2013 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: The Emergence and Heritage of Asian Women Intellectuals, 10-11 September 2013, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)