Family matters in Indian Buddhist monasticisms

Abstract

Scholarly and popular consensus has painted a picture of Indian Buddhist monasticism in which monks and nuns severed all ties with their families when they left home for the religious life. They remained celibate, and those who faltered in their “vows” of monastic celibacy were immediately and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist Order. This image is based largely on the ascetic rhetoric of texts such as the Rhinoceros Horn Sutra. Through a study of Indian Buddhist law codes (vinaya), this book dehorns the rhinoceros, revealing that in their own legal narratives, Indian Buddhist writers take for granted the fact that monks and nuns would remain in contact with their family members. This challenges some of the most basic scholarly notions of what it meant to be a Buddhist monk or nun in India around the turn of the Common Era. Not only do we see depictions of monks and nuns continuing to interact and associate with their families, but some are described as leaving home for the religious life with their children, and some as married monastic couples. The book argues that renunciation with or as a family is tightly woven into the very fabric of Indian Buddhist renunciation and monasticisms. Whereas scholars have often assumed that monastic Buddhism must be anti-familial, the book demonstrates that these assumptions were clearly not shared by the authors/redactors of Indian Buddhist monastic law codes.