Stories of Remarkable Empowering: Some Reflections on the Therīgāthā

Abstract

The role and place of women within the earliest form of Buddhism have been questioned and analyzed by scholars frequently. In this paper, this subject will be revisited in the light of the Therīgāthā (a part of the Pali Canon), a text attributed to women who had chosen the path of Buddhist renunciation. Women are mentioned occasionally in the Pali Canon in texts other than the Therīgāthā, but comprehending their exact status remains challenging. The Therīgāthā, with its 522 verses set within 73 poems, sets a different mood and opens new paths of understanding. This paper will attempt to comprehend the experiences of the women themselves based on their reflections and attitudes as personified within this text. It will particularly demonstrate that these women were self-empowered: they were aware of their circumstances and equipped to deal with the challenges that confronted them. The different ways through which the strength and confidence of the women in directing their lives and initiating change can be envisioned in the Therīgāthā will be exemplified through three key themes that are embodied in the poems. The paper will also compare and contrast briefly the idea of ‘power’ drawn from other texts of the Canon with similar ideas in the Therīgāthā. Finally, some challenges will be assessed and conclusions will be drawn on why the conjecture of ‘remarkable empowering’ may indeed be a truism.