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Unheard Voices: Womens Roles in Medieval Buddhist Artistic Production and Religious Practices in South Asia Jinah Kim* Previous scholarship on womens involvement in Buddhism in medieval India assumes that women, both lay and monastic, disappeared from the scene by the ninth century. This view may be rooted more in our way of seeing (or not seeing) than in historical reality. By exploring neglected material evidence that shows patronage patterns of Buddhist religious objects, such as inscriptions, manuscript colophons, and visual representations of donors, this article suggests that women played a visible role in supporting medieval Indian Buddhist institutions. First, two objects donated by two nuns are examined to discuss the continuing existence of the bhiks . un . ī (Buddhist nuns) order in twelfth-century India that had a considerable command over economic resources. The second part of this article attempts to uncover the voice for lay female donors * Jinah Kim, Assistant Professor, South Asian Art, Department of Art History, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. E-mail: [email protected]. The research for this article was funded in part by Vanderbilt Universitys Research Scholar Grant. Early versions of this article were presented in the Historical Studies colloquia series at the Institute for Advanced Study (2009) and at the Annual South Asia Conference (Madison, 2009). I thank the members and the faculty of Historical Studies for their feedback on the article. I also thank Joanna Williams for inspiring me to write this article. Ute Hüsken helped frame my research with an awareness of the contemporary issues regarding the Mahāyāna Buddhist nuns order, and Petra Kieffer-Pülz provided me with references and insights regarding monastic codes and practices. I thank Daud Ali, Ruth Bielfield, Shayne Clark, and Alexander von Rospatt, who generously offered references and insights. My gratitude also extends to Padma Kaimal for her help and encouragement with the writing of this article, and to the JAARs anonymous readers for their constructive feedback. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 2012, Vol. 80, No. 1, pp. 200232 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfr103 © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] at Harvard University on April 17, 2014 http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from

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Page 1: Unheard Voices: Women s Roles in Medieval Buddhist ...projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/jinah_kim/files/j_am_acad...Unheard Voices: Women’s Roles in Medieval Buddhist Artistic Production

Unheard Voices: Women’s Rolesin Medieval Buddhist ArtisticProduction and ReligiousPractices in South AsiaJinah Kim*

Previous scholarship on women’s involvement in Buddhism in medievalIndia assumes that women, both lay and monastic, disappeared fromthe scene by the ninth century. This view may be rooted more in ourway of seeing (or not seeing) than in historical reality. By exploringneglected material evidence that shows patronage patterns of Buddhistreligious objects, such as inscriptions, manuscript colophons, and visualrepresentations of donors, this article suggests that women played avisible role in supporting medieval Indian Buddhist institutions. First,two objects donated by two nuns are examined to discuss the continuingexistence of the bhiks.un. ī (Buddhist nuns) order in twelfth-century Indiathat had a considerable command over economic resources. The secondpart of this article attempts to uncover the voice for lay female donors

*Jinah Kim, Assistant Professor, South Asian Art, Department of Art History, Rutgers, the StateUniversity of New Jersey, Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.E-mail: [email protected]. The research for this article was funded in part by VanderbiltUniversity’s Research Scholar Grant. Early versions of this article were presented in the HistoricalStudies colloquia series at the Institute for Advanced Study (2009) and at the Annual South AsiaConference (Madison, 2009). I thank the members and the faculty of Historical Studies for theirfeedback on the article. I also thank Joanna Williams for inspiring me to write this article. UteHüsken helped frame my research with an awareness of the contemporary issues regarding theMahāyāna Buddhist nun’s order, and Petra Kieffer-Pülz provided me with references and insightsregarding monastic codes and practices. I thank Daud Ali, Ruth Bielfield, Shayne Clark, andAlexander von Rospatt, who generously offered references and insights. My gratitude also extendsto Padma Kaimal for her help and encouragement with the writing of this article, and to theJAAR’s anonymous readers for their constructive feedback.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March 2012, Vol. 80, No. 1, pp. 200–232doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfr103© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy ofReligion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected]

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and addresses their participation in religious practices in a medievalIndian Buddhist context based on a socioeconomic analysis of art his-torical and epigraphic evidence.

YIJING, A CHINESE PILGRIM who visited India in the eighthcentury, remarked, “The nuns in India support themselves by beggingfood, and live a poor and simple life” (I-ching 1966). This observation,1

coupled with the small number of known inscriptions identifying femaledonors of Buddhist offerings, especially of the tenth to twelfth centuries,has led scholars to assume that as Tantric Buddhism developed in medie-val India, the order of nuns disappeared and the involvement of womenin Buddhist matters decreased markedly as early as the ninth century(Law 1939–40: 34; Falk 1980; Davidson 2002: 91–98).2 But were the nunstruly “vanishing” from India during this period? Were the doors to par-ticipation in Buddhist practice closing on women? This article takes afirst step toward uncovering the role of nuns and lay women in medievalIndia by means of a socioeconomic analysis of art historical and epi-graphic material. First, I provide evidence for the continuing existence ofthe bhiks.un. ī (Buddhist nun) order in medieval India and show that ithad a considerable command over economic resources. Second, by exam-ining patterns of patronage and representations of donors in religiousobjects such as illustrated manuscripts and sculptures, I demonstrate thatwomen played a visible role in supporting medieval Indian Buddhism.

While many early studies on the ancient and medieval history ofBihar and Bengal3 have made use of epigraphic data, they focus primarilyon dated and datable material in order to reconstruct dynastic histories.Following Gregory Schopen’s seminal studies on the sociocultural signifi-cance of early Indian Buddhist inscriptions and other material evidence(Schopen 1988a, 1988b, 1997, 2005), I view the donor inscriptions andcolophons on Buddhist sacred objects, whether dated or not, as “unheardvoices” that can help us understand what it meant to be Buddhist inmedieval India. My data are drawn from Buddhist sacred objects, mainlystone sculptures and palm-leaf manuscripts, dating between the tenth

1Yijing’s remarks on the state of Indian Buddhist monastic institutions should be taken withcaution. As Benn (1998) notes, Yijing’s goal in reporting what he observed in India was not freefrom the political climate of his time in China. On the political nature of Yijing’s report, see alsoBarrett (1998).

2Peter Skilling, while drawing a similar conclusion regarding the disappearance of Buddhist nunsin early medieval eastern India, observed some time ago that more study on donative inscriptionsfrom the period may present a different picture (Skilling 1993–94: 33).

3In this study, Bengal refers to the region comprising the modern state of West Bengal in Indiaand Bangladesh.

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and the twelfth century, in particular from the ancient region ofMagadha (present-day Bihar in India), where Buddhist institutionsthrived under the Pāla kings.4

Donating sacred objects such as images, votive stupas, and manuscriptswas a common practice within the Tantric Buddhist school, which devel-oped in India during the ninth through the twelfth centuries. TantricBuddhism (also known as Vajrayāna or Esoteric Buddhism) can be differ-entiated from other Buddhist schools principally by its ritual means(upaya), which include sexual yoga and the five forbidden substances(Sanderson 1994; Isaacson 1998). But in its soteriological goals, theologicalperspectives, and many of its devotional practices, Vajrayāna retained itsroots in Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) Buddhism. In fact, the majority of prac-ticing Buddhists in medieval eastern India were, according to epigraphicevidence, self-proclaimed Mahāyānaists, even if the donated objects may beclassified as of Tantric Buddhism.5 The material evidence of Mahāyānapiety,6 that is, the sacred objects donated in the tenth through the twelfthcenturies, frequently bears witness to the existence of its donors in the formof an inscription or a visual representation. This practice of leaving physicaltraces of a donor, already in evidence at early Buddhist stupa sites, devel-oped in connection with the practice of marking and consecrating a sacredobject with the so-called Buddhist creed or dharma relic, which containsthe verse epitome of the Buddha’s teaching as expounded in thePratityasamutpadagathā (Boucher 1991). The formulaic expression forrecording a Mahāyāna donor’s existence and piety begins to appear in thesixth century (Schopen 1979). The formula inscribed in or written oneleventh- and twelfth-century religious donations reads,

deyadharmo 'yam pravaramahāyānayāyina [-yāyinyā for female] . . .yadatra pun. yam

. tadbhavatu ācāryopadhyāyamātāpitr.pūrvam. gamam.kr.tvā sakalasatvarāser-anuttarajñānaphalavāptaya iti[7]

4The conclusions presented here are also guided by my larger study on Buddhist sacred objects,including manuscripts, metal images, and votive stupas. For a detailed stylistic analysis of theartistic output of the Pāla period, see Susan Huntington’s study of sculptures from Bihar andBengal (Huntington 1984).

5For example, a twelfth-century manuscript of the Laghukalacakra-t˙ika (a commentary on the

Kalacakra tantra) in the Asiatic Society, Kolkata (G.10766) identifies the donor as a Mahayanaelder Mahakaragupta ( pravaramahayanayayina sthaviramahakaragupta).

6The inscriptions and colophons assert that each object is a pious gift of an “excellent Mahāyānafollower ( pravaramahayanayayina, or –nya in case of female).”

7Cited from a Nālandā manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra now in the Asia Society,New York, fol. 301r (John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, ASIA.1987.001). In sculptural donationswith limited available space, this formula is often abbreviated to read “deyadharmo 'yam . . . sya.”

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This is the religious gift of an excellent Mahāyānaist . . . what hereis the merit, may that, having placed my teacher and preceptor and myparents first, be for the fruit of obtaining supreme knowledge by all themultitude of beings.8

It would not be exaggerating to state that over 80 percent of theimages made in the ancient region of Magadha in the tenth throughthe twelfth centuries bear the verse of the dharma relic, and over half ofthese images have donor inscriptions.9 Many of these images also bearrepresentations of the donors (Bautze-Picron 1995). If we consider bothtextual formulas and visual depictions as markers of a donor’s existence,we may conclude that it was in fact customary for patrons to “representthemselves” on their Buddhist image donations. Despite these remark-able links to the past, the rather quotidian act of donating a religiousobject has received little scholarly consideration due to the lack of inter-est in undated epigraphic material. Thus, ordinary monks, nuns, laymen, and lay women who made pious donations are not rememberedor romanticized in hagiographic literature, nor do they find a place inthe grand historical narrative of royal genealogies, great religious teach-ers, and Tantric practitioners.10

Only a few of the studies on early Indian Buddhist epigraphicrecords shed light on the social status of women in ancient India (Roy1988; Shah 2001).11 Orr (2000) has shown in her study of female reli-gious patronage based on medieval Tamil inscriptions that a

8The translation is slightly modified from Schopen’s translation (1979: 5) of the almost identicalphrase to accommodate the change from “prāptaye” to “phalavāptaya.”

9This estimate is based on a stylistic and epigraphic analysis of fifty-four stone sculptures fromBihar datable to the ninth through the twelfth centuries that were on display at the IndianMuseum, Kolkata, in 2003 and 2004. Established in 1814, the Indian Museum holds the mostcomplete and wide-ranging collection of Buddhist sculptures of the Pāla period in the world. I amaware that fifty-four images are a small data pool given the vast number of such images (perhapsmore than one thousand) known from the region and now scattered all over the world. This is anexemplary sample, not a representative sample, but I give the estimate to underscore the ubiquitouspresence of the dharma verse already noted by Boucher (1991) and others, and the prominentinclusion of donor figures in Buddhist artistic productions discussed by Bautze-Picron (1995). Ihave examined more than two hundred such images not only on display but also in the reservecollections at various museums in India, including the Indian Museum, Patna Museum, LucknowMuseum, National Museum of India, New Delhi, and the Archeological Survey of India’s sitemuseums at Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Antichak (Vikramasila), and Sarnath, and similar percentagescould be drawn from the sculptures in these collections. If we include other types of sacred objects,such as bronze sculptures and palm-leaf manuscripts, the percentage may in fact be higher.

10Ronald Davidson’s extensive study (2002) of Indian Tantric Buddhism goes a step beyond thelimited views offered by such tendencies. Examining Indian Buddhist siddhas in received literaturealong with art historical, archeological, and anthropological evidence, Davidson addresses a widerrange of personalities, leading to a more nuanced understanding of the social and cultural impetusfor the development of Tantric Buddhism in early medieval India.

11I would like to thank Daud Ali for these references.

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quantitative analysis of inscriptions can yield valuable insights into anotherwise poorly documented aspect of Indian history. While thepresent study is by no means a quantitative analysis of the epigraphicrecords, I analyze the inscriptions and colophons collectively, as if theywere ethnographic field notes, in order to understand the role ofwomen in medieval Buddhist artistic production, to draw conclusionsabout their social and economic status, and to locate them within animmediate religious environment. The picture of Buddhist practice thatemerges will also help us understand the social functions of Buddhismin medieval eastern India.

INVISIBLE WOMEN?

In previous scholarship on Buddhist women in medieval India, wefind two seemingly contrasting pictures. One sees both lay and monas-tic women disappearing from the Buddhist scene (Law 1939–40; Falk1980; Shah 2001; Davidson 2002);12 the other sees women playing aprominent role in Tantric Buddhist circles (Ray 1980; Shaw 1994).These two perspectives need not be understood in opposition to eachother, of course, for their conclusions are drawn from different histori-cal materials. The evidence for the argument of the decreased involve-ment of women in Buddhist matters is drawn mainly from thearcheological and textual sources dating from the sixth through theninth centuries. Because of the scarcity of epigraphic material, it hasbeen assumed that women had disappeared from the scene by the timeTantric Buddhism was in full flower. Although Davidson (2002: 95)asserts that archeologists have been eagerly searching for evidence ofnuns in early medieval Buddhist sites, I do not think that this searchhas ever been thorough.13

Just as important, discussions of female patronage rarely considerart historical evidence, such as the visual representations of donors,perhaps because of disciplinary bias. Depictions of female donors are

12Although otherwise critical of Anant Sadhashiv Altekar’s approach, Shah (2001: 21) followsAltekar’s observation that Buddhist nunneries folded around the fourth century, a conclusionreached solely on the absence of any mention of them in Chinese pilgrims’ accounts. Shah alsonotes that the use of metronymic attributes in constructing male identity went out of vogue aroundthe same time, but there are examples of matrilineal constructions even in the twelfth century, assuggested by Daud Ali’s recent study (2009: 796) on two mercantile families active at the Hoysalacourt in South India.

13For example, the inscription on a tenth-century image of Tārā from Kurkiha, Bihar, now inthe Indian Museum, Kolkata (I.M. 5862/A25133), clearly identifies the donor as “bhiks.un. īGun. amātā” (nun Gun. amata). The complete donor inscription reads, “deya dharmoyam.śākyabhiks.un. ī gun. amāteh. .” See Huntington (1984: Figure 113).

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not uncommon if we just look for them, because the visual representa-tions of the donors are a common feature in Buddhist artistic produc-tion of the ninth through the twelfth centuries (Bautze-Picron 1995:60–61). Donors are always located in the periphery space of a sculpture,in the lowest position in the divine hierarchy, so as to emphasize themagnitude and power of the central deity. Female patrons are usuallydepicted alongside a man, but not always (for examples, see Figures 7and 8). A woman’s social identity in this period was constructed on herrelationship to a male relative—a father, husband, or son—just as inearly epigraphic records (Roy 1988; Shah 2001) and in the dharmaśastraliterature (Kane 1968). But the fact that a woman could be representedvisually and identified epigraphically as a single donor of a sacred objectbespeaks a more active role for women in mainstream Buddhist practicethan is often assumed. Without doubt, the number of female donorsidentified in inscriptions is much smaller than that of male donors(Davidson 2002: 94–95). Yet even when an inscription identifies thedonor as male, we often see the women of his family visually representedalongside him. While it is impossible to assess how much influence thewife of Bhat.t.a Iśvara, son of Bhat.t.a Nābha, might have had on the deci-sion to donate an over life-size standing Tārā image, now in the IndianMuseum (3824. A25158), she nevertheless remains kneeling piouslyunder Tārā’s feet, even though her husband’s figure is missing his head(see Huntington 1984: Figure 74). Thus, if we include visual representa-tions of women in our data pool, we find that Buddhist women havegreater prominence than inscriptions alone would suggest.

Challenging the “disappearing women” scenario, Miranda Shaw’sfeminist approach (1994) accentuates the active roles women played inTantric traditions. Her analysis focuses chiefly on the received literaturefrom Tibet and elsewhere about women in Indian Buddhist traditions.Her sources, however, are not all carefully verified, nor does she con-sider archeological and historical evidence from the period.14 Shaw’swomen are all Tantric practitioners, many of whose historical existenceis tentative and shrouded in mystery. Her fantastic accounts of powerfulfemale Tantric practitioners underline the active roles a select fewwomen played in transmitting and developing Tantric Buddhist teach-ings, but provide little enlightenment on the social status of women,whether lay or monastic, in Bihar and Bengal during the ninth throughthe twelfth centuries.

14As Kinnard (1995: 457) points out, the illustrations accompanying her text are extremelyahistorical and conspicuously creative.

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The development of Tantric Buddhism certainly had a positiveimpact on women’s participation in Buddhist practices, especiallyamong the laity. Textual and art historical evidence from the eleventhcentury onwards suggests that married lay couples could become vajra-masters [vajracarya, ritual master of Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism].15

For example, the Buddhist teacher Atisa admonished monks to remaincelibate but recommended sexual activity for the laity (Davidson 2002:200),16 and the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra“condemns the practice of monks venerating married vajra-masters[gr.hasthācārya] as their gurus” (Sanderson 1994: 92).17 While a reli-gious role for lay couples may not mean an elevated status for womennor would it mean that women were making autonomous decisions tobecome vajra-masters, the fact that married women could indeed par-ticipate in serious religious activities with their husbands suggests anacceptance of women in Buddhist practice.18

Another source of valuable insight into the active involvement ofwomen in Buddhism during this period is illustrated Buddhist manu-scripts, most of which date to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, theprecise period when Tantric Buddhism held sway in eastern India. Theearliest surviving illustrated manuscripts from Bihar and Bengal(ancient regions of Magadha, Anga, and Varendra) date to the turn ofthe eleventh century, and among the dated works fully half of thedonors are women (Kim 2006: appendix 1). Indeed, the most inventiveand elaborate iconographic program of this century is employed in aPañcaraks.ā manuscript donated by a queen, Uddākā (Kim 2010).Moreover, in the mid-twelfth century, a nun—who, according to con-ventional wisdom, either should not have existed or should have beenleading a “poor and simple life”—made a splendid donation of an illus-trated manuscript, the colophon of which tells us that her teacher was

15Vajracarya is also a name for the sacerdotal priest caste of Newar Buddhism in the Kathmanduvalley.

16Atiśa’s goal in this comment is to forbid the introduction of such rituals into the monasticcontext, not necessarily to encourage them among laity. Nonetheless, we could still take it tosuggest that lay Buddhist practitioners were allowed to participate in erotic rituals of TantricBuddhism once they were initiated into the path.

17I am preparing a separate study of this matter based on art historical evidence. Although notalways the case, there is a possibility that the inclusion of the couples as devotees on the bottomregisters of some medieval Indian Buddhist sculptures may be related to the spread of TantricBuddhist teachings to the laity.

18The introduction of the visual narrative of Sadaprarudita in twelfth-century manuscriptpaintings of the Prajñaparamita sutra, where Sadaprarudita’s search for the Prajñaparamita isaided by a merchant’s daughter, can also be understood as renewed emphasis on women’s roles asspiritual companions to their husbands or consorts. On the manuscript paintings of theSadaprarudita narrative, see Kim (2009).

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another nun. Let us look more closely at this twelfth-century manu-script and at the two Buddhist nuns it mentions.

TWO INDIAN BUDDHIST NUNS

The twelfth-century donation referred to above is a complete manu-script of the As.t.asāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā sūtra (The Perfection ofWisdom in Eight Thousand Verses; henceforth AsP), now in theDetroit Institute of Art. Dated to the seventeenth regnal year of the Pālaking Madanapāla (c. 1160 CE),19 it was prepared by a scribe (lekhaka)named Śrīdharaka in the town of Ghośalīgrama. The donor of themanuscript was a nun (bhiks.un. ī) named Mahāśrībhadrā, who is identi-fied as a disciple (śis.yā) of a śākya elder (śākyastharā, sic.),Vijayaśrībhadrā. The teacher, Vijayaśrībhadrā, must have been wellknown at the time, for the donor identifies herself proudly as her pupil.I have not, however, been able to find references to these nuns in his-torical documents, nor to identify the town where the manuscript wasprepared.

As luck would have it, while scrutinizing inscriptions in theMuseum für Indische Kunst, Berlin, I discovered the name of theteacher on a stone image of Sim. hanāda Lokeśvara20 that was found inJaynagar, a village located south of Lakhi Sarai (Figure 1), the latter asite of considerable importance for late Buddhist activities in easternIndia (Bautze-Picron 1991–92). The inscription reads, “This is the meri-torious [gift] of the elderly Buddhist nun Vijayaśrībhadrā, belonging tothe branch (?) (vit.apī) of Mallikādevī” (mallikā-devī-vitovī-sthitā-śākya-sthavirā/vijayaśrībhadrāyā deyadharmmo yam. //).

21 If we followGouriswar Bhattacharya’s reading, the inscription seems to suggest thatMallikādevī was a patron of a nunnery; of which, Vijayaśrībhadrā was

19Dates for Pāla kings are based on a relative chronology, and varying dates have been proposedfor Madanapāla’s reign (1143–65 CE or 1158–76 CE). See Huntington (1984) for a discussion ofPāla chronology. Calculating from the Valgudar inscription, in which Madanapāla’s eighteenthyear is identified with śaka 1083 (c. 1161–62 CE), Madanapāla’s seventeenth year is identified hereas c. 1160 CE.

20Seeking permission to publish this image led to a discovery that the image was taken fromBerlin to St. Petersburg, Russia during the Second World War as part of the war booty. It currentlyresides in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (Acc. No. BD-561). I thank GerdMevissen, Martina Stoye of Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, and Olga Deshpande of the StateHermitage museum, St. Petersburg, for their help in locating this image. I also thank the rightsand reproductions office of the State Hermitage museum for kindly arranging for freshphotography of the image.

21Gouriswar Bhattacharya suggests that “vitovī” may be a misspelling of “vit.apī” (branch) butconcludes that the meaning of the term is vague (Bautze-Picron 1998: 42).

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an elder, although the historical identity of Mallikādevī has yet to beestablished.22 From these short references, it is not clear whether thepupil and her teacher belonged to a nunnery or not. But while the AsPmanuscript and the Sim. hanāda image do not provide enough evidenceto argue for the existence of a thriving community of nuns in twelfth-century eastern India, an art historical analysis of their donationssuggests that the two nuns enjoyed social status and had access toeconomic resources.

FIGURE 1. ANCIENT MAGADHA REGION MARKING THE SITES OF NĀLANDĀ (5),GHOSRĀWĀN (12), AND JAYNAGAR (15), AFTER CHOWDHURY, DYNASTIC HISTORY OFBENGAL (1967).

22There is a record of a Mān. ikyadevī who was the wife of Śūrapāla (I) in the ninth century.However, it is difficult to identify Mān. ikyadevī as Mallikādevī in our inscription. Claudine Bautze-Picron suggests the existence of an earlier Buddhist vihāra at Indapaigarh, south of Lakhi Sarai, butthe material from this site is dated to the seventh century. She contends that Buddhist materialfrom Lakhi Sarai mainly dates from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries (Bautze-Picron1991–92: 241).

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FIGURE 2. SIM. HANĀDA LOKEŚVARA, LAKHI SARAI, BIHAR. PYLLITE, CA. 1150 CE.DONATED BY VIJAYAŚRĪBHADRĀ. THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG(UNTIL 1945—MUSEUM FŰR VÖLKERKUNDE, BERLIN). INV. NO. VD-561. PHOTOGRAPH©THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM/PHOTO BY SVETLANA SUETOVA, KONSTANTINSINYAVSKY.

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Vijayaśrībhadrā’s Donation: The Sim. hanāda Avalokiteśvara

This form of Avalokiteśvara, a bodhisattva of compassion, becamepopular only in the late eleventh century.23 The iconography closelyfollows descriptions in the sādhana texts, one of which attributes thisform to an eminent Tantric Buddhist teacher, Advayavajra (activec. 978–1053 CE).24 Sim. hanāda Avalokiteśvara is well known as a curerof diseases, especially leprosy, in Himalayan traditions.25 His distinctiveiconographic features—a trident with a snake, heavily matted hair, anda pronounced third eye, all of which appropriate attributes of Siva—accompanied by a unique bowl of fragrant flowers, which may have hadmedicinal associations, suggest his power as a cultic deity, one thatmust have appealed to many in the community.

The quality of carving in the Sim. hanāda image is extraordinary(Figure 2). The details, such as foliated scrolls on the cushion and aband of swirling fire on the edge of the back slab, are intricately carvedwith care. Large areas on the torso of the bodhisattva and on the bodyof the lion are left unadorned, but the plasticity and the movement oftheir bodies are clearly suggested through the smooth treatment of thesurface. The ribbons flowing behind the ears, the slender and smoothlines of the body, and the intricate foliage designs together express analmost ethereal vision of the deity. It would have been impossible todonate such a splendid image without some economic means. The finecraftsmanship, the prominence of the donor inscription in terms of thesize and the location on image, and the donor’s marked status as a“śākya eldress” are all signs of Vijayaśrībhadrā’s high social rank. Thechoice of Sim. hanāda Avalokiteśvara, known for its efficacy in curingdiseases, within the context of late Buddhist activities around the LakhiSarai area,26 makes me wonder if she may have been a local religious

23Most images of this specific iconography date to the late eleventh or twelfth century.24There are three Sim. hanāda sādhanas (SM 17, 20, 22) and one titled Sim. hanādadhāran. ī (SM

23) in the Sādhanamālā. SM 17 is the most elaborate and is attributed to Advayavajra, whose fulltitle is given as “pan. d. itāvadhūta-śrīmadadvayavajra” with his popular name Avadhūta in it. Thedescriptions are more or less identical, and the conformity between the texts and the survivingimages seems to suggest a close proximity of their production dates (Bhattacharyya 1968a: 47–48,51, 53–54).

25Bhattacharyya (1968b) does not give his source for this association of Sim˙hanāda with curing

leprosy, but according to the discussion by Bautze-Picron and Gouriswar Bhattacharya (Bautze-Picron 1998: n.157) it seems to originate from the account given in Albert Grünwedel’sBuddhistische Kunst in Indien (1900).

26As noted by Bautze-Picron (1991–92), Lakhi Sarai seems to have been an important cultic siteand is especially noteworthy for its late Buddhist iconography as well as a goddess cult. Anotherimage found in Jaynagar, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (I.S. 71-1880), elucidates thenature of late Buddhist activities around the area. The inscription identifies this image of a four-

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leader. Certainly, she had a following and produced at least one disciple,Mahāśrībhadrā.

Mahāśrībhadrā’s Donation: The As.t.asāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitāsūtra

The donation made by Mahāśrībhadrā was no less splendid thanthat of her teacher, Vijayaśrībhadrā. The manuscript of the AsP wasprepared on 248 palm-leaf folios, each measuring 2 × 18.5 inches.Fourteen painted panels depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha,the Prajñāpāramitā deities, and other cultic deities are placed at thebeginning, the middle, and the end of the manuscript (Kim 2008). Thepaintings are similar in style to those prepared in the famous monasteryof Nālandā. As seen in the panel of the goddess Prajñāpāramitā andher attendants (folio 2r), the painter was skillful in drawing, and heexecuted his lines confidently in a swift fashion (Figure 3). However, he

FIGURE 3. FOLIO 2R CENTER PANEL, GODDESS PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ WITHATTENDANTS, FROM THE AS

˙T˙ASĀHASRIKĀ PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ MS, DONATED BY

MAHĀŚRĪBHADRĀ, PREPARED BY A SCRIBE, ŚRĪDHARAKA IN GHOŚALĪGRAMA, CA.1160 CE, MADANAPĀLA’S 17TH YEAR, INK AND NATURAL PIGMENTS ON PALMLEAVES. DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS, 27.586. GIFT OF P. JACKSON HIGGS. IMAGE: THEBRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY.

armed goddess with a child as Purn. eśvarī (or Pun. yaśvarī). The iconography is very close to that ofthe Hindu goddess Pārvati, but the inscription suggests a Buddhist association of the donor. Itspecifies the merit from installing this image to go to “the communities of the siddhas (lit.perfected one, yogic practitioner) and the congregations of śraman. as (i.e. Buddhist monks).” Thisinscription is dated to the 35th year of Palapāla, who—as some believe—was the last Pāla king ofthe region and may have been active at the end of the twelfth century. It alludes to thesimultaneous existence of monastic communities (śraman. a-sanghānām. ) and those of TantricBuddhist practitioners (siddha-samāja) within the religious landscape of a town, in this case, the“illustrious city of Cam. pa.” For the inscription, see Sircar (1955).

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did not use the high-quality pigments seen in another painted panel ofthe goddess and her retinue from a manuscript now in the Asia Society,New York (ASIA1987.001).27 It is obvious, then, that Mahāśrībhadrāand the maker(s) of her donation lacked the resources to acquire thematerials that would have been available to an affluent monastery suchas Nālandā. Nonetheless, the manuscript as a whole was beautifullywritten and made very carefully, with all the features of the most elabo-rate monastic productions, such as the stamp-like symbols drawn tomark the end of each chapter. For Mahāśrībhadrā to make such a don-ation, she, like her teacher, must have had some command over eco-nomic resources.28

Locating Vijayaśrībhadrā and Mahāśrībhadrā

Identifying these two objects as related to each other by a lineage ofnuns also helps us fix these two women donors in a historical timeframe. The Sim. hanāda image is not dated but has been attributed tothe eleventh or twelfth century based on stylistic analysis (Bautze-Picron 1988, 1998). Dated inscriptions from the area suggest thatBuddhist donations in Lakhi Sarai became more prevalent during thereign of Madanapāla, around 1150 CE (Bautze-Picron 1988, 1991–92).This information, coupled with the dating of the pupil’s manuscript toaround 1160 CE, allows us to date the Sim. hanāda to roughly 1150 CE,and thus to propose that the master nun Vijayaśrībhadrā made herdonation during the peak period of Buddhist activity in Lakhi Sarai.

Mahāśrībhadrā’s manuscript, in contrast, is clearly a provincial pro-duction, made by a nonmonastic scribe in a town called Ghośalīgrama.I have been unable to locate this town in any historical sources, butsuggest that the production site of this manuscript was in the ancientregion of Magadha, possibly near Nālandā, based on stylistic similaritiesand shared visual idioms with contemporary Nālandā manuscripts(Kim 2008: 87–88). Knowing that Mahāśrībhadrā’s teacher made a don-ation in Jaynagar near Lakhi Sarai, I propose Ghosrāwān, a townlocated between Nālanda and Lakhi Sāraī, as a possible candidate forthe location of Ghośalīgrama (Figure 1). One immediately notices the

27See Huntington and Huntington (1990) for the image and the discussion of the colophons.The first two illustrated folios of this Nālandā manuscript, including the goddess Prajñāpāramitāpanel, were prepared during the eighth regnal year of Gopāla IV in the mid-twelfth century (ca.1140 CE) when the manuscript was repaired at the monastery. On the dating of this manuscript,see Kim (2008).

28All the known donors of eastern Indian manuscripts are people of high social and economicstatus, including queens, princes, wives of wealthy merchants, officials, and high-ranking monks.See Kim (2006: 51–128).

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similarity in the sounds of the two names Ghośalīgrama andGhosrāwān, although their linguistic connection is beyond my ability toconfirm. Given the town’s proximity to both Nālandā and Lakhi Sarai,and the known stylistic affinities between Ghosrāwān sculptures andworks from these two areas (Bautze-Picron 1991–92: 244), we have cir-cumstantial evidence to identify Ghośalīgrama with Ghosrāwān.29

As noted above, the visual idioms of Mahāśrībhadrā’s manuscriptclosely follow those of the Asia Society’s Nālandā manuscript, whichwas prepared only one or two decades earlier. But despite its later date,the nun’s manuscript displays a more conventional iconographicprogram than does its Nālandā predecessor. One wonders whether,after finishing her training with her teacher in a Tantric center nearLakhi Sarai, Mahāśrībhadrā moved toward the monastic center ofNālandā. For a reason that is difficult to explain with our currentknowledge about the status of a Buddhist nun in twelfth-centuryNālandā, she found a nonmonastic scribe in Ghosrāwān, who couldmake a manuscript of the Perfection of Wisdom sutra, a profoundMahāyāna philosophical treatise on emptiness, in the Nālandā style.

THE ABSENT NUN

Although Mahaśrībhadrā’s manuscript is fashioned after a Nālandāproduction in terms of iconography and style (Kim 2008), there is oneclear deviation from the examples from Nālandā. This can be seen in

FIGURE 4. FOLIO 126B BUDDHA’S DESCENT FROM THE TRĀYASTRIM. ŚA HEAVEN,FROM THE AS.T. ASĀHASRIKĀ PRAJÑĀPĀRAMITĀ MS, DONATED BY MAHĀŚRĪBHADRā,PREPARED BY A SCRIBE, ŚRīDHARAKA IN GHOŚALĪGRAMA, CA. 1160 CE,MADANAPāLA’S 17TH YEAR, INK AND NATURAL PIGMENTS ON PALM LEAVES.DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS, 27.586. GIFT OF P. JACKSON HIGGS. IMAGE: THEBRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY.

29Ghosalīgrama, in fact, seems to have been a center for Buddhist manuscript production,because at least two twelfth-century manuscripts identify the production site as Ghosaligrama. Inaddition to the Prajñaparamita manuscript discussed here, a manuscript of the Maitreya-vyakaran. am now in the Asiatic Society Kolkata (G.4806) was prepared for a monastic donor fromTibet during the fifty-seventh regnal year of Gopala (IV).

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the panel depicting the Buddha’s descent from the Trāyastrim. śa heaven,located in the center of the manuscript on folio 126v (Figure 4). Afterpreaching to his late mother, Lady Māyā, in the heaven of thirty-threegods, the Buddha came down to Sānkāśya, accompanied by Brahmaand Indra. In the panel, Indra, identified by the eyes all over his body,holds an umbrella, and four-armed Brahma attends the Buddha, whostands in the middle displaying varada mudrā (the gesture of giving).What is remarkable about this painting is the absence of the nunUtpalavarn. ā, who was the first to greet the Buddha as he approachedthe earth (Williams 1975: 184). In many eastern Indian manuscriptpaintings of this scene, including images in Nālandā productions,Utpalavarn. ā is represented as kneeling at the feet of the Buddha.Interestingly, the Nālandā illustrations suggest that her gender was nota primary concern for the painters (Figure 5), for while her breasts aresometimes delineated under the monastic robe, she is almost alwayspainted blue, indicating a dark skin color,30 and her femininity isignored.31 But those familiar with the story would know that this is anun. Why then is she absent from the scene in a nun’s donation?

FIGURE 5. BUDDHA’S DESCENT FROM THE TRĀYASTRIM. ŚA HEAVEN WITH THE NUNUTPALAVARN. Ā KNEELING AT HIS FEET, FOL. 101 LEFT PANEL, ASP MS. NĀLANDĀMONASTERY, BIHAR. GOVINDAPĀLA’S 4TH YEAR (CA. 1180). DONATED BY A PRINCE(SAURĀJASUTA) LAKS.MĪDHARA. INK AND NATURAL PIGMENTS ON PALM LEAF.ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LONDON, HODGSON MS 1. IMAGE REPRODUCED BYPERMISSION OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

30The dark color downplays her femininity since light skin is considered a hallmark of femalebeauty in Indic cultural traditions. The choice of blue color for her skin literally represents hername, Utpalavarn. a, which means “(filled with) the color of blue-lotus.”

31The lack of feminine traits in her representations has led scholars like Bautze-Picron (1995–96:367), who is otherwise meticulous in her iconographic and stylistic analyses, to assume that thisfigure is a monk.

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One possible explanation is that the artist followed iconographymore commonly known in the region. Sculptural representations fromeastern India sometimes omit the nun. For example, in a life scenestele from Ghosrāwān dated to the eleventh century, now in theIndian Museum (I.M. 3752/A25151), all the scenes contain narrativeelements—an elephant subdued by the Buddha, a heretic who falls tothe ground upon seeing Buddha’s miraculous multiplication, amonkey who offers him honey—except the scene of the Buddha’sdescent, which displays neither the kneeling nun nor Indra andBrahma. Her absence is not because of the size of the scene in thisstele, since the nun Utpalavaran. ā is often represented to distinguishthe moment from others, as seen in a life scene stele in the Asian ArtMuseum in San Francisco (B65S11) where the nun is represented as

FIGURE 6. STANDING CROWNED BUDDHAWITH TWO FEMALE DONORS AND FOURSCENES OF HIS LIFE. SOUTHERN MAGADHA REGION, BIHAR. APPROXIMATELY 1050–1100 CE. STONE. THE AVERY BRUNDAGE COLLECTION, B65S11. © ASIAN ART MUSEUMOF SAN FRANCISCO. USED BY PERMISSION.

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an identifiable female figure (Figure 6).32 Thus, it may have been thecase that in Ghosrāwān, it was simply more common not to representthe nun in the scene.

A more intriguing possibility is that the absence of the nun was aniconographic device that enabled the donor, Mahāśrībhadrā, also a nun,to imagine herself at the feet of the Buddha.33 The placement of thispanel in the middle of the manuscript, facing the scene of the tamingof the mad elephants on folio 127r but with no flanking panels, createsa slight imbalance in the overall iconographic program, especially incomparison to the Nālandā manuscripts. Given that the center of mosttwelfth-century illustrated manuscripts was reserved for the mostpowerful and esoteric deities, one may speculate that this iconographicchoice was personalized for our monastic female donor. If the manu-script remained in her possession for her use, Mahāśrībhadrā, knowingthe narrative well, could have imagined herself in place of Utpalavarn. ā.It is interesting to note that this folio is the most severely damaged inthe entire manuscript, possibly suggesting more extensive handling.However, it is difficult to prove that this was the result of use by theoriginal donor because the manuscript remained in use and wasrepaired and worshiped in Nepal as late as 1687 CE (Kim 2008: 88,n.24).

LADIES KNEELING: SINGLE FEMALE DONORS

We have seen that, in the face of androcentric and patriarchal atti-tudes, as well as a hierarchical understanding of gender roles as pre-scribed in Dharmaśāstra literature, women in medieval India took onvisible roles as donors of sacred objects. Let us now turn to the visualrepresentations of lay women on donated sculptures to see what can begleaned from their attributes.

The majority of female donors are represented alongside their hus-bands and identified as somebody’s wife. Thus, their role in the com-missioning of the donation may be questionable. However, it waspossible for a woman to be the primary donor even when she is identi-fied through and represented with her husband. A ninth-century sculp-ture of Khadiravan. ī Tārā from Bihar, now in the Musée Guimet inParis (MA 2480), shows a couple kneeling on the bottom register of the

32The nun is depicted with full breasts. It is interesting to note that this stele was a donation bytwo women depicted as kneeling in añjali mudra on the bottom register of the stele.

33Imagining oneself at the feet of the Buddha is not an unusual practice in Buddhist context. Ithank Lisa Florman for this suggestion.

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stele with the woman on the viewer’s right and the man on the viewer’sleft (Figure 7) (Okada 2000: 5–6). Although the man, being placed onthe proper right side of the deity, commands a higher position in thehierarchy between them, the inscription in the middle of this registeridentifies the donor not as the oil merchant (tailika) Lejja[?], but asS. as.īkā, his wife.

34

FIGURE 7. KHADIRAVAN. Ī TĀRA STELE, BIHAR. CA. NINTH CENTURY. DONATED BYS.AS. ĪKĀ, WIFE OF AN OIL MERCHANT (TAILIKA) LEJJA(?). STONE. MUSÉE NATIONALDES ARTS ASIATIQUES GUIMET, PARIS, MA2480. PHOTO BY AUTHOR.

34The inscription reads, “This is the pious gift of S. as.īkā, wife of an oil merchant, Lejja (deyadharmo ’yam. tailikalejjapatnīs.as.ikāyah. |).” The reading of the husband’s name is uncertain.

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A number of donations have been identified that were made bysingle women, who are often represented as kneeling piously with theirheads covered with scarves. Who were these women and how were theyable to make a religious donation independently of a man if a woman’ssocial status was solely defined and determined by her man? Theimages and manuscripts donated by women in eleventh- and twelfth-century India are usually of superb artistic quality. I am certain thatthese donors belonged to socially privileged groups.35 The fact that areligious donation of a public nature was made by a single woman sug-gests that she had some access to economic resources, even if she wasprincipally identified as a daughter, a wife, or a mother of a malemember of the family. For example, a beautifully carved image ofAvalokiteśvara and his retinue donated to Nālandā identifies the donoras Apparīkā, daughter of Rambhu (Figure 8).36 The size of the workand the high quality of the carving, apparent in the intricate designs ofthe jewelry and clothes as well as in the halo and throne back decora-tions, suggests that it was a costly donation. The money may have comefrom Apparīkā’s father, but she made the donation in her own name.Apparīkā piously kneels at the feet of Avalokiteśvara, alone; her fatheris acknowledged in name only.

Another impressive image from Nālandā, this one of Khasarpan. aAvalokiteśvara, depicts a group of women as the donors (Figure 9). Thesize (over four feet high) and the superb quality of the carving, visiblein the elaborate decorative motifs and gracious rendering of physiquesof the divine entourage, attest to the wealth of the patrons. Three of thewomen kneel on the left side of the bottom register, the usual locationreserved for humans. The woman at the head of the group wears elabo-rate ornaments and a headscarf. The other two ladies, who hold offer-ings, are smaller in scale with the third lady being the smallest of all.The hierarchical relationship among these three women is clear: theforemost lady on this register is very likely the main donor and theother two are her attendants.

The most intriguing aspect of this stele is the presence of a fourthwoman, separate from the group, kneeling next to Avalokiteśvara’s rightfoot and paying homage to him. It is unusual to have a donor

35The following discussion of lay female patronage is limited to sculptural donations to suggesthow visual representations of donors can help us understand women’s social and economic statusand roles. Visual representations of donors are less commonly found in the illustrated manuscriptsof eastern India.

36The image has been dated to the late tenth-century CE based on stylistic analysis. Miśra (1998:168–169) takes the inscription to be written in eleventh-century characters.

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figure integrated into the divine realm as is the case here. Her attire andornaments are as rich and bejeweled as those of Tārā, and she haspushed Sūchīmukha, a needle-faced hungry ghost, out of his usual loca-tion, into the lowest position under her lotus seat. It is unlikely that themain donor has been represented twice, although there is some similar-ity in their attire. Given her elevated status, indicated by the single layerlotus seat above Sūchīmukha, I wonder if this fourth woman was adeceased superior (i.e., a queen or princess) or a beloved relative (i.e., a

FIGURE 8. STANDING AVALOKITEŚVARAWITH TĀRĀ, BHR. KUT. Ī AND SŪCĪMUKHA.NĀLANDĀ MONASTERY. CA. EARLY ELEVENTH CENTURY. DONATED BY APPARĪKĀ,DAUGHTER OF RAMBHU. STONE. NALANDA ASI SITE MUSEUM, 10506. 389/55. PHOTOBY AUTHOR.

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mother or sister) to the other three women, who donated this image topray for her rebirth in Sukhāvatī, where beings are born in a jewel-lotus. Although Pure Land Buddhism does not seem to have had muchfollowing in India—unlike in East Asia, where rebirth in Sukhāvatī hasbeen a major impetus behind its success (Amstutz 1998)—I believe con-temporary evidence related to the popularity of Avalokiteśvara suggeststhe existence of a practice of praying for rebirth in a jewel-lotus inSukhāvatī (Studholme 2002: 116). The large number of donatedAvalokiteśvara images and the contemporary production of illustratedmanuscripts of the Kāran. d. avyūha sūtra all suggest this.37 The focus of

FIGURE 9. KHASARPAN. A AVALOKITEŚVARA, NĀLANDĀ MONASTERY. CA. LATEELEVENTH–EARLY TWELFTH CENTURY. DONATED BY A GROUP OF ROYAL FEMALEDONORS. STONE. NALANDA ASI SITE MUSEUM, 0007. 332/55. PHOTO BY AUTHOR.

37Archaeological support for the cultic popularity of Avalokiteśvara’s six-syllable mantra, “om.man. ipadme hūm. ,” as it is later used in Tibet, is sketchy. The production of illustrated manuscriptsof the Kāran. d. avyūha sūtra, in which this mantra’s import for one’s spiritual quest is compared tothe Prajñāpāramitā, suggests the popularity of the Avalokiteśvara cult. See Studholme (2002) for adetailed study of the Kāran. d. avyūha sūtra.

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this practice seems to have been Avalokiteśvara rather than Amitābha,perhaps a sign of its late Mahāyana Buddhist character, according towhich a bodhisattva could be more effective and mightier than aBuddha (Studholme 2002).

Although there is no inscription to identify any of the women byname or social status, the scale of the donation and their bejeweledappearance imply that their donation was a financial contribution tothe monastery.38 It is not difficult to imagine Buddhist monasteries pro-viding services for death rituals in medieval eastern India (Schopen1997). Even Nālandā, the acclaimed international university (Dutt1962), attracted many lay devotees who donated “votive” stupas or“kulas” for their deceased relatives. Here, we may conclude that thesewomen had every right to patronize a monastic institution, while themonastery of Nālandā provided a proper channel for their emotions.

MONASTIC LAY WOMEN?

While rich and powerful women making religious donations are notunusual in Indian Buddhist history,39 I find one group of female donorstantalizing since they suggest the presence of women within the monasticwalls as unordained members in medieval India.40 A stele depicting theBuddha subjugating the mad elephant Nalagīri in Rajāgr.ha was donatedby a woman named Gautamī (Indian Museum, Kolkata, IM4246/A25297).The inscription identifies her as the mother of a monk, Dharmamitra,41

and she is seated on the proper right side of the Buddha as the sole donorof the stele (Figure 10). She seems to be making a gesture of greeting(bandana mudrā) with her left hand. Gautamī is represented quite differ-ently from other female donor figures, with or without men: she does nothave a scarf around her head and she sits in a more relaxed pose with herright leg crossed on the floor and her left leg supporting her raised lefthand.42 She also seems to have a shaven head and the size of her ears isexaggerated with elongated earlobes—typical features in depictions of

38The monastery probably profited from their patronage of this image, for it is not unlikely thatthere was a handsome fee involved in installing this donation on the monastic property.

39Queen Kumaradevī’s patronage of construction of a new monastery at Sarnāth in the twelfthcentury is one such case. See Woodward (1981–83: 93).

40Karma Tsomo (1989: 121) reports the existence of women who were not formally ordainedbut were still living as nuns in the Tibetan tradition. In contemporary East Asia, it is common forunordained women to live in Buddhist temples.

41The image is dated to Mahendrapāla’s fourth year, probably in the late ninth century. SeeHuntington (1984: 240 and Figure 38).

42This sitting posture is seen most often in representations of male monastic donors.

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monks. Her ears and head look similar to those of Gun. akara, a monk whodonated a stele depicting the Buddha’s first sermon now in the IndianMuseum, and she holds an incense burner like Prajñāseva, a monk whodonated a stele of Avalokiteśvara, now in the Museum Rietberg in Zurich(RVI 106)43 (Figure 10). In short, except for the pendulous breasts, thiswoman could easily be mistaken for a monk.

FIGURE 10. TOP: GAUTAMĪ, LAY FEMALE DONOR OF THE BUDDHA’S TAMING OF THEMAD ELEPHANT STELE (CA. TENTH CENTURY, BIHAR), INDIAN MUSEUM, KOLKATA,IM4246/A25297. BOTTOM: GUN. AKARA, A MALE MONASTIC DONOR OF THE BUDDHA’SFIRST SERMON STELE (CA. TENTH CENTURY, BIHAR), INDIAN MUSEUM, KOLKATA,IM3729. LEFT: PRAJÑĀSEVA, A MALE MONASTIC DONOR OF THE AVALOKITEŚVARASTELE (CA. TENTH CENTURY, TELADHAVIHARA, BIHAR), MUSEUM RIETBERG,ZURICH, RVI106. IMAGE BY AUTHOR.

43The image hails from Bihar. For a detailed discussion of the image’s provenance, see Bautze-Picron (2005).

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Gautamī’s unusual monastic appearance, along with her clearlyBuddhist name—a derivation of Maha Pajapati Gotamī, the Buddha’smaternal aunt who became the first nun—convey a strong impressionthat she was a member of a monastic community. She is certainly notidentified as a nun, bhiks.un. ī, even though this was an available path. Ifwe conclude, based on her appearance and her social identity as themother of a monk, that Gautamī was indeed an unordained member ofa monastic community in late ninth-century eastern India, we may askhow she came to assume this role. Is it possible that after her husband’sdeath, she retired to a monastery, possibly where her son was a monk?It was not unheard of in ancient India for women to join a monasticorder after being widowed (Sen 1975; Jain 1988; Shah 2001).44 It mayhave been a common practice in early medieval India as well, especiallyfor women from socially privileged groups. In Bān. a’s Hars.acarita(c. 630 CE), the Buddhist monk Divākaramitra dissuades Rājyaśrī,Hars.a’s sister, from committing satī and provides mental support (Kane1965).45 Similarly, in the beginning of the twelfth century, a queen(rajñī) named Karpur.aśrī retired to Ratnagiri in Orissa, where a royalgrant was issued “to meet her personal expenses and to provide her tomake contributions to the Buddhist establishment of Ratnagiri”(Mitra1981).46 It is difficult to assess what kind of life Gautamī might haveled as an unordained monastic woman. She may have had a role similarto an aramika (monastery attendant) known in the Vinaya (rules onmonastic code of conduct) literature.47 The fact that she is representedlike a monk in a relaxed and authoritative posture makes me doubt thatshe was employed to do menial chores.48 She certainly had control over

44For example, a nun named R. s.idāsī is identified as a mother in a Sanchi votive inscription,suggesting that she was married at one point in her life. Jainism also played a similar role forwidows, see Sen (1975: 106) and Jain (1988: 144).

45As Davidson (2002: 98) points out, Rājyaśrī, impressed by the Buddhist teaching ofDivakāramitra, expresses her will to join the monastic order but her brother stops her. This may betaken as evidence for the dwindling of the nun’s order, but it is also important to note thatRājyaśrī’s brother, Harśa, insists that she remains at his side, i.e., not join the order, while seekingenlightenment (Kane 1965: 132–135), echoing the goal of a lay Buddhist practitioner in TantricBuddhism.

46Although Mitra (1981: 23) suggests that she may be a lay woman or a nun, Skilling (1993–94:n.94) rightly cautions us from taking this reference as an indication of the existence of nuns intwelfth-century Orissa.

47According to Kieffer-Pülz (2007: 15–20), aramikas could hold a position of some authority inregard to the organization of the monastery and could also function as a legalizer in the capacity ofthe personal attendant to a monk. Although Keifer-Pülz’s study is based on the Vinaya literature inthe Theravada tradition, the existence of unordained members of a monastic community attendingthe daily life would not be surprising in the context of medieval Indian Buddhism.

48Another possibility for her role is that of a personal servant for her son, in which case she mayhave done chores.

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enough economic resources to donate an image of considerable size andquality in her own name.

We may ask how much individuality we can read from these donorrepresentations. They are certainly stylized types rather than true like-nesses of individuals.49 Even so, they may be said to reflect individualityin the same manner as early Tibetan portrait paintings of prominentBuddhist teachers, which display idealized yet idiosyncratic physical fea-tures for each historical person represented (Singer 1995: 82).According to the Mañjuśrimulakalpa, a medieval Indian Buddhist prac-tice manual, the practitioner (sādhaka) should be represented at thebottom of a pat.a (cotton scroll painting), paying homage to the divineassembly above, as our female donors do in their respective sculptures(Wallis 2002: 90–91). The text also recommends that the practitioner bedrawn after the person, expressing a concern for representing individu-ality.50 The elderly woman in monastic attire and bald pate seen in thesculpture may not be an exact portrait of the woman known asGautamī. Yet a recognizable identity has clearly been conveyed andwould have been perfectly understood by the community.

Another image from Nālandā identifies the donor as a lay female,Gangākā (deya dharmoyam. paramopāsikāyāh. gangākāyāh. ). Again, sheis represented alone on the proper side of the Buddha as a soledonor, holding a flower garland (Figure 11). The stele depicts theBuddha’s first sermon, and its configuration makes Gangākā a directbeneficiary of his words. The quality of the sculpture is remarkable,as is the size (almost six feet high), and the inscriptions too areneatly carved, all of which point toward a unified and well-managedproduction with sufficient funding. The woman is dressed in asimple robe with few ornaments and has exaggerated ears, just likeGautamī. Although simply dressed, Gangākā must have been a ladyof means to make a donation of such grandeur. Lady Gangākā mighthave hailed from a family of high social status, like Rajyāśrī in theHars.acarita and Karpūraśrī of Salon. apura monastery at Ratnagiri,who were given space in the monastery. Was Gangākā too a widowwho retired to the Buddhist monastery of Nālandā? Did shehave any influence on the iconographic program of the stele, in par-ticular the choice to represent the disciples Śariputra andMahāmaudgalyayana as flying above the Buddha like celestial beingsin monastic robes? If so, this would suggest her respect for, and

49For the idea of portrait in the medieval South Asian context, see Dehejia (1998).50The passage quoted in Lalou (1930: 15) reads, “yathāves.asam. sthānagr.hītalingan. ,” which she

translates as “qu’on le peigne avec le corps, le vêtement, l’aspect qui lui sont habituels.”

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affiliation with, a monastic lineage.51 Her offering of a garland pairedwith the same action by the two foremost disciples of the Buddhamay reflect her monastic aspiration.

With our current knowledge, we will never know why Gangākā,Gautamī, or any of our women donated an image. My depictions of layBuddhist women’s social and economic status and their relation tomonastic communities are still conjectural. The examples I have col-lected here present more questions than answers, and we still needmuch more research to understand women’s roles in medieval IndianBuddhist practice. What I have tried to show with this brief survey is

FIGURE 11. BUDDHA’S FIRST SERMON, NĀLANDĀ MONASTERY. CA. TENTH CENTURY.DONATED BY GAN

.GĀKĀ. STONE. NALANDA ASI SITE MUSEUM. PHOTO BY AUTHOR.

51The two flying figures are identified by accompanying inscriptions, “āryaśariputra” and “ārya[maha] maudgalyayana.” This upper position is usually reserved for celestial beings, and it isunique to have two human disciples represented in this manner.

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that women in medieval India were not quarantined in their homes asis often assumed. They had the resources to make substantial donationsand to commission skilled artisans. They were active participants inBuddhist religious practices and supporters of Buddhist institutions,perhaps just not as visibly as their male counterparts.

EPILOGUE: AWAY OF SEEING

In the Archaeological Survey of India’s site museum at Nālandā, notfar from Appārikā’s Avalokiteśvara image, there is a carved slab that mayhave been an image pedestal (Figure 12). Two elephants look at eachother from either end, supporting whatever was once on top of this slab.The horse with triratna (lit. three jewels; a symbol referring to Buddha,dharma, sam

˙gha—monastic order) on his back, a sword, an umbrella,

two men, and a woman seem to allude to the seven jewels of the cakra-vartin (universal monarch), a motif often found in image pedestals of theperiod. The precise meaning of the whole iconography is elusive,52 butwhat interests me most is the donor figures seated on the right side ofthe slab. Their partly exposed breasts, shaven heads, and monastic robesclearly indicate that they are nuns.53 Given the differences in their sizes

FIGURE 12. IMAGE PEDESTAL (?) DEPICTING SAPTARANTA, SEVEN JEWELS OF ACAKRAVARTIN (UNIVERSAL MONARCH), AND A RITUAL SCENE WITH TWO NUNS.NĀLANDĀ MONASTERY. CA. NINTH–TENTH CENTURY. BASALT STONE. NALANDA ASISITE MUSEUM, 00002.A. PHOTO BY AUTHOR.

52It is unusual for human figures of the saptaratna motif to be represented in action, as ifsinging and dancing, as shown here. The presence of aquatic creatures in the water on the bottomof the stele is also unique to this example.

53The inscription mentioned earlier identifies the donor as a nun (bhiks.un. ī), but unfortunately,the rest of the information is difficult to read.

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and postures, we can assume that the nun seated in front is a teacher ormaster, and the one kneeling behind her is a student or assistant. Thistenth-century slab demonstrates that our two twelfth-century nuns, themaster Vijayāśrībhadrā and the pupil Mahāśrībhadrā, were certainly notan exception to the rule in Indian Buddhist history. The number ofBuddhist nuns may have been reduced from the early centuries of theCommon Era. They may have had difficult times, as Yijing reported. Butlike their lay sisters, they actively contributed to the medieval IndianBuddhist institutions. We just have not seen them—even when they havebeen right in front of our eyes. In a way, the invisibility of Buddhistwomen in medieval India lies in the eye of the beholder.

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