Women and monastic Buddhism in early South Asia
Subtitle: rediscovering the invisible believers
By: Garima Kaushik
Series: Archaeology and religion in South Asia; Archaeology and religion in South Asia
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 284
ISBN-13: 9781138488762; 9781138100015
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Buddhism; Buddhist women; Buddhist monasticism and religious orders for women; History
Description: This book uses gender as a framework to offer unique insights into the socio-cultural foundations of Buddhism. Moving away from dominant discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic, homogenous category--thus rendering them invisible within the broader religious discourse--this monograph examines their sustained role in the larger context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffirms their agency. It highlights the multiple roles played by women as patrons, practitioners, lay and monastic members, etc. within Buddhism. The volume also investigates the individual experiences of the members, and their equations and relationships at different levels--with the Samgha at large, with their own respective Bhikşu or Bhikşunī Sangha, with the laity, and with members of the same gender (both lay and monastic). It rereads, reconfigures and reassesses historical data in order to arrive at a new understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which it developed and flourished.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-277) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Sacred spaces and the feminine in Buddhism; title: Locating the bhikşunī : identifying nunneries; title: Exploring women's space : conflict between the social and the asocial worlds; title: Women as patrons; title: Conclusion.