cumulation, but there was very little demand made on the monk's time. The aim in view was to secure him freedom, and to leave him time and room to train himself. Against idleness and all the other ills which too much leisure and too much solitude bring, the precautions were few and ineffective. In contrast with the endless interference with individual freedom which marked the Brahman system, the liberty which Gotama offered must have been charming indeed. But a life almost without social duties and entirely without necessity for exertion, physical or mental, is not a life which the average man can lead with safety. As Aristotle said of solitude, it is fit only for either a god or a beast. There is too much propriety in the favourite similes in which it was compared by the Buddhists themselves to the life of an elephant or a rhinoceros.

THE

CHAPTER XIX

THE FEMALE COMMUNITY

HE Community of Nuns was never in practice a very important part of Buddhism, either in the primitive Indian system or in Ceylon; though it may have been specially fostered for a while in Asoka's day. It is represented in the Vinaya Pitaka as an afterthought, and as one reluctantly admitted by the Buddha. The part of the Vinaya which contains this is closely associated with parts which are, by their own showing, of late date, certainly after 381 B.C., and, as I think, little, if at all, earlier than 250 B.C. But the lateness of the book (C. V. x.) does not prevent our believing that a true tradition is recorded in it. Gotama is said to have been entreated to form a community of nuns, on the pressing and repeated application of his aunt, Mahápajápati, who had nursed him after his mother's death. Three times the application was refused. Mahápajápati cut off her hair and put on yellow robes, and appeared travel-worn and tearful before Ananda, who was moved to plead her cause. Even to Ananda the request was granted only with great reluctance. Eight rules were laid down, which appear mainly

intended to regulate the relation of dependence in which the female community was to stand towards the male; and Pajápati was admitted. Nothing is said of the admission of others with her, but it is constantly taken for granted that there were many. Thus, although the application of Pajápati is recorded in detail, the account of the formation of the Female Community is very meagre indeed in comparison with that of the Community of Men.

But what is most curious is the prophecy attributed to the Buddha in reference to this institution. He had no sooner instituted it than he announced, as we read, that it would be the ruin of his work! 'If, Ananda, women had not received permission to go out from the household life and enter the homeless state, under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata, then would the pure religion, Ananda, have lasted long; the good law would have stood fast for a thousand years. But since, Ananda, women have now received that permission, the pure religion, Ananda, will not now last so long; the good law will will now stand fast for only five hundred years. Just, Ananda, as houses in which there are many women, and but few men, are easily violated by robber burglars, just so, Ananda, under whatever doctrine and discipline women are allowed to go out from the household life into the homeless state, that religion will not last long. And just, Ananda, as when the disease called mildew falls upon a field of rice in fine condition, that field of rice does not continue long;

just so, Ananda, under whatsoever doctrine and discipline women are allowed to go forth from the household life into the homeless state, that religion will not last long. And just, Ananda, as when the disease called blight falls upon a field of sugar-cane in good condition, that field of sugar-cane does not continue long; just so, Ananda, under whatsoever doctrine and discipline women are allowed to go forth from the household life into the homeless state, that religion does not last long. And just, Ananda, as a man would in anticipation build an embankment to a great reservoir, beyond which the water should not overpass; just even so, Ananda, have I in anticipation laid down these eight chief rules for the Bhikkhunis, their life long not to be overpassed.''

It is not likely that this would have been inserted without some foundation. It is followed by Rules for Nuns, but these contain very little that is of importance. They were to follow the rules prescribed for monks as far as they were applicable, and in other matters to be guided by their own sense of what was best. Their relation to the Community of men was altogether dependent. Their acts were not valid without confirmation by the monks, and they had to repair to the monks for instruction.

In other parts of the Vinaya the existence of nuns is constantly taken for granted, but there are scarcely any direct accounts of them or of any institutions connected with them. The pious women who

1 Culla Vagga, x. 1, 6; Sacred Books of the East, xx. F. 325.

are prominent, and there are many, in the Vinaya Pitaka narratives, are not nuns.1

In other Pitaka books it is the same, with at least one exception. The 'double-community' is constantly taken for granted; all that has been said of the monks is constantly repeated of the nuns, but their existence is still chiefly a theoretical existence.

Professor Oldenberg (Buddha, p. 381) says: 'It is to be doubted, whether at any time there was inherent in the spiritual sisterhood a degree of influence which could be felt, bearing on the Buddhist community as a whole.' This is a very cautious way of stating it. The Professor remarks in a note that the numbers given in the Dipavansa of monks and nuns in Asoka's day, exaggerated as they are, throw a certain light on the relative importance of the two orders. 'The chronicle speaks of 800,000,000 of monks, and of only 96,000 nuns;' one nun to more than 10,000 monks.

The exception (known to me: there may be others) is the book called Therigáthá, or 'Stanzas spoken by female elders.' The verses which this book contains are, some of them, old; but the greater number belong to the latest stage of the Pitaka collection, being crowded with technical terms and lists, and being in fact, in some instances, summaries of the allusions, metaphors, and striking expressions which the older books contain. In most

1 No individual nun is mentioned, with a very trifling exception, in the Vinaya, except Pajápati and Uppalivanná, both in Culla Vagga, x.

2 But there are many instances in which the proportion is very different.