Early Buddhism and Women Emancipation in Ancient India

Abstract

“It is generally believed that the Buddha was a great social reformer, a believer in the equality of all human beings, a democrat and that his efforts for the emancipation of women and lower castes created a sort of social revolution in society.” (Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India, p. 141) Patriarchy and Androcentrism is one of the common grounds where we could trace the origins of majority of religions. In the 5th and 6th century BCE India, the discrimination towards women had reached to its zenith, as like the whimsical spread of Brahmanism and its ritualistic traditions as cobwebs on Ancient society. Thus Gautama Buddha’s assertion that the highest goal of the religion he found – Nibbana- was possible for women is revolutionary even in today’s standards. Moreover, by instituting Bhikkuni Sanghas and including nuns in the order had also helped the women to enhance their stand tremendously, even though watered down by conservatives after the Parinibbana. Buddha instituted social relationships in strict guidance of reciprocity, including in that of marriage. Thus marriage as a secular institution had enhanced women agency and by seeing death as a natural occurrence, removed the stigma attached to widowhood. This paper tries to delve into different instances where women were depicted in the Early Buddhism and an analysis on how it would have helped women to ascertain their gender in both social and spiritual spheres.