2006/10/11 by Reiko Ohnuma · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Indian and Buddhist Studies #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Karl Barth and Christian Theology
paper · doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfl026
openalex publication_date 2006/10/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
As the founding story for female monasticism within the Buddhist tradition, the traditional account of how the Buddha first instituted an order of nuns has been subjected to extensive scholarly treatment. Nevertheless, this article argues that previous scholarship has suffered from a significant blind spot, failing to recognize a crucially important element of the story. I refer to this element as the “debt to the mother” theme, or the story’s clear implication that the Buddha founded an order of nuns at least in part because it was his mother who asked him to, and despite renouncing all familial ties, he owed an enormous debt to his mother that had to be repaid. I trace the existence of this “debt to the mother” theme in several versions of the story (and other Buddhist texts), and I also attempt to account for its complete elision in the surrounding scholarship.