The Story of the Nun Rūpanandā  - The Buddha's half-sister - A tale from the Dhammapada
Channel: Samatha Buddhist Meditation
Date: 2024-04-08

An animated Buddhist story. This story concerns verse 150 of the Dhammapada. It is from the Dhammapada commentary and is about the Buddha's half-sister, Nandā. The background to the story is as follows: The mother of the future Buddha, Queen Maya, died shortly he was born. Her younger sister, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, married the future Buddha's father, King Śuddhodana, and became the step-mother of Gotama and cared for him as her own. The King and Queen also had a daughter, Nandā, and so she was the future Buddha's younger half-sister. Because her beauty sparkled day by day she became known as Janapada-Kalyāṇī. The story in the commentary begins when she has grown to be a young woman.