The Story of Dharmadinnā

Abstract

In the Kṣudrakavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the nun Dharmadinnā is ordained not in the usual way, but rather by a messenger, a valid type of ordination listed in the various lists of types of ordination in Indian Buddhist texts. While both the story of Dharmadinnā and these lists have received some scholarly attention, what has not been noted is the peculiarity of the Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition in relation to other existing vinayas on the issue of ordination by messenger. In this paper, I examine the story of Dharmadinnā’s ordination in the Kṣudrakavastu with special reference to its highly narrative characteristics and its surprising lack of legal elements. Then I discuss how the above characteristics are related to the list of different types of ordination which appears in other parts of this vinaya. As Appendices, I present a comparative table of the story and its counterparts in the other vinayas and a comparative table of the lists of types of ordination found in different texts.