ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 22, 2015
Predictions of Women to Buddhahood
in Middle-Period Literature
Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā
Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts
This article studies narratives related to the topic of women
receiving a prediction or declaration (vyākaraṇa)
for Buddhahood. The texts in question—in their received form—have their place
in the Indian Buddhist traditions of the Middle Period. The first episode
taken up is the story of Princess Munī who receives the prediction of
becoming the present Buddha Śākyamuni; this is found in the so-called
“Scripture on the Wise and the Fool.” The second episode is the story of
Yaśomatī who receives the prediction that she will become the Buddha
Ratnamati; this is found in the Avadānaśataka.
When evaluating these comparatively rare instances of predictions received by
women, two aspects come up for special consideration: (a) the textual
significance of variations regarding the presence or absence of a change of
sex, and (b) the epistemological and soteriological consequences for female
audiences of women’s narratives constructed by the third-person perspective
of male monastic text transmitters. The variations document that the
transmitters did not always perceive the transformation of sex into a male as
a categorical necessity. This transformation may not have been integral to
these narratives of the bodhisattva path as articulated by the textual
communities in which these texts originated and circulated.
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