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XVII. THE ORDER OF NUNS.

In the commencement of Budhism there was an order of female recluses. The names they receive are generally equivalent to those that are given to the males, with a feminine termination; but the name of priestess is applied to them less properly than that of priest to the men. In their case, as well as in that of the other sex, it is not an intact virginity that is lauded, but the future abandonment of sexual intercourse.

The first female admitted to profession was Maha Prajapati, the foster-mother of Gótama Budha. The wife of the sage, Yasodhara, and several other of his principal female relatives, abandoned the world at a subsequent period. It was stated upon the admission of the queen-mother that there were eight ordinances to which the priestesses would be required to attend. "Women are hasty," said Gótama; "they are given to quarrel, they exercise hatred, and are full of evil. If I exalt them to the principal places in this institution, they will become more wilful than before; they will despise my priests; but unto them who act thus there can be no benefit from profession; they cannot attain the paths (that lead to nirwana). There must therefore be eight ordinances of restraint, that they may be kept in, as the waters of the lake are kept in by the embankment. 1. The female recluse, though she be a hundred years old, when she sees a sámanéra novice, though he be only eight years old and just received, shall be obliged to rise from her seat when she perceives him in the distance; go towards him, and offer him worship. 2. The female recluses shall not be permitted to go to any place at their pleasure. When they go to receive instruction, they must retire at the conclusion of the service, and not remain in any place beyond their appointed limit. 3. Upon the day of every alternate póya festival they must go to the priest and request to be instructed. 4. At the end of the performance of wass they must join with the priests to conclude the ceremony. 5. Any female who wishes to perform the act of meditation called wap may be allowed to retire for the purpose during the period of two póyas, or fifteen days, but not for a longer time. 6. When any female recluse wishes to become upasampadá, and receive the superior profession, she must previously exercise herself in all things that Pújáwaliya.

are appointed, for the space of two years, and at the end of this period must receive the privilege in a chapter composed of the professed of both sexes. 7. The female recluse is not to speak to the priest in terms of disparagement or abuse. 8. She must not be allowed to teach the priest, but must herself listen to the instruction he gives, and obey his commands. These eight ordinances. are enjoined upon all the female recluses who would receive profession in this institute, and are to be observed continually until the day of their death." The better sex is not treated with much respect by Budhist writers. One sentence will be sufficient to show this:-Mátu gámo námo pápo.* "That which is named woman is sin;" i. e. she is not vicious, but vice. Upon another occasion Gótama said, "Any woman whatever, if she have a proper opportunity, and can do it in secret, and be enticed thereto, will do that which is wrong, however ugly the paramour may be; nay, should he be even without hands and without feet." But in order to show that this declaration is not true, the king of Ságal, in one of his conversations with Nágaséna, repeated the instance of a woman, Amará, who, though a thousand times solicited by a man whose appearance was like that of a king, in a place where there was no second person to see what was done, resisted his entreaties, and kept herself pure. Nágaséna replied, that the declaration of Budha was made when relating the crime committed in a former age by the queen Kinnará, who secretly stole away from the palace when the king slept, and committed sin with a man whose hands and feet had been cut off, and who was ugly as a préta sprite. "And think you," said the priest, "that if Amará had met with a proper opportunity she would not have done the same? This opportunity was not presented; she was afraid of others, and of the sorrow she must have endured in the world to come; she knew the severity of the punishment she would have to receive for such a sin; she was unwilling to do anything against the husband whom she loved; she respected that which is good and pure; she abhorred that which is mean; she was a faithful and virtuous wife; and all these things (with many others of a similar kind) took from her the opportunity of doing wrong. She might have been seen by men; if not seen by men, she might have been seen by the préta sprites, or by the priests who have divine eyes, or by the prétas that know the

*Gogerly's Essay on Transmigration and Identity. Ceylon Friend, Oct.

1838.

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thoughts of others; or, if unseen by any of these, she could not have hid herself from her own sin and its consequences; and it was by these causes she was prevented from doing wrong." a curious mode of confirming the declaration of Budha; folds before us the Budhistical motives for resisting sin.

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In the works I have read there are few allusions to the female recluses, and it is probable that this part of the system, from being found to be connected with so many evils, was gradually discontinued. The priestesses carried the alms-bowl from door to door, in the same manner as the priests, and are represented as being present at the meetings of the sangha, or chapter. They could only be admitted to the order by a chapter composed entirely of females. The convents were in some instances contiguous to the residences of the priests; but the intercourse between members of the two orders was guarded by many restrictions. To violate a priestess involves expulsion from the priesthood, without the possibility of restoration.

Clemens Alexandrinus, in his account of the eastern ascetics, notices the virgins called ɛuva. In one of the caves of Ajunta there is painted a female worshipper of Budha, in the act of teaching, surrounded by a group of smaller figures who are attentively listening, one of whom is supposed to be a Brahman. There are at present no female recluses in Ceylon. It is said by Robert Knox that, at the period of his captivity, the ladies of Kandy were accustomed to beg for Budha. "The greatest ladies of all," he says, "do not go themselves, but send their maids, dressed up finely, in their stead. These women, taking the image along with them, carry it upon the palms of their hands, covered with a piece of white cloth; and so go to men's houses, and will say, We come a begging of your charity for the Budha, towards his sacrifice. And the people are very liberal; they give only of three (four?) things to him; either oil for his lamp, or rice for his sacrifice, or money, or cotton yarn for his use." Occasionally, in more recent times, a female has been known to shave her head and put on a white garment; but these instances are rare.

The priestesses or nuns, in Burma, are called Thilashen: they are far less numerous than the priests. The greater part of them are old women; but there are also some that are young, who, however, forsake the sisterhood as soon as they can procure husbands. The Burman nuns shave the head, and wear a garment of a parti

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cular form, generally of a white colour. They live in humble dwellings, close to the monasteries, and make a vow to remain chaste so long as they continue in the order; but they may quit it whenever they please. Any breach of their vow is punished by their secular chief. The profession of a nun is not much respected by the people, and in general may be looked upon as only a more respectable mode of begging. They openly ask for alms in the public markets, contrary to the custom of the priests, who only "expect charity." There are a few recluses of a more respectable class, commonly widows, who have funds of their own, or are supported by their relatives.* The nuns in Siam are less numerous than in

Burma.

The nuns in Arrakan are said to be equally common with the priests they either reside in convents, or live separately in some house constructed near a temple, superintending the offerings, and leading a life of religious abstinence. The greater part have remained in continence from their youth; others have retired from the world at a more advanced age, and in some instances after marriage; but only when that marriage has not been productive of children. Their dress is similar to that of the priests, and their discipline in every other respect alike. The may-thee-laying are an inferior order, wearing white dresses, and having their heads shaven. They live in convents of their own, and their discipline is less severe than that imposed upon the priests, as their knowledge of the doctrines of the faith is less extensive.†

In China the nuns are said, by Bishop Smith, to be generally women of coarse manners and unprepossessing appearance. Their dress is very like that of the priests, their heads being entirely shaven, and their principal garment consisting of a loose flowing robe. An abbess whom he saw wore a black silk cap over her crown, in the centre of which was a hole, through which her bare head was perceptible.‡

Frequent mention is made by travellers of the worship of the Queen of Heaven by the Budhists of China. It appears that her name is Tien-how, and that she is equally venerated by Confucians and Budhists. According to the legend she was a native of the province of Fokien, in early life distinguished for her devotion and

* Crawford's Embassy to the Court of Ava.

+ Foley's Tour through Rambree. Journ. As. Soc. Jan. 1835.
Smith's China.

celibacy. It was in the thirteenth century, under the Soong dynasty, that she became deified; and though her worship is not inconsistent with the principles of Budhism, she was of course unknown to its earlier teachers.

The eight ordinances of restraint enforced by Gótama, as above, are enumerated by Remusat as being known to the Chinese, with slight variations. There are also eight sins and eight acts that are mentioned by him as demonstrating, when committed, that the female recluse has abandoned the precepts of Budha, and deserves to be shunned by all. The acts are, to hold the hands of a man with an evil intention, to touch his dress, to be with him in a retired place, to sit with him, to converse with him, to walk with him, to lean upon him, and to give him a meeting.

Among the followers of Pythagoras there was an order of females, the charge of which was given to his daughter. The Druids admitted females into their sacred order, and initiated them into the mysteries of their religion. The priestesses of the Saxon Frigga, who were usually king's daughters, devoted themselves to perpetual virginity. At an early period of the church, virginity began to be unduly exalted, and in nearly all places there were females who, though not recluses, were regarded as possessing a virtue more excellent than that which fell to the portion of the other members of the Christian polity. At first admired, they were then looked upon as being super-human, and at last as being super-angelic, inasmuch as they continued in this state from choice, and were enabled to retain their purity by the reception of special grace, whilst the angels were chaste from the necessity of their original constitution. When in the church they were separated from the rest of the worshippers by a partition, probably similar to the lattice-work screen. that is now used to separate the women from the men in the eastern churches and the synagogues of the Jews; and sentences of Scripture were painted upon the walls for their instruction. But they resided with their relations at home, convents being then unknown; and, from the cautions that were given to them by the fathers, we may infer that they were not always willing "to see the stir of the great Babel," without sometimes "feeling the crowd." We have evidence that their situation, as well as that of other females, received the anxious attention of the rulers of the church, from the number of works upon this subject still extant, that were written + Remusat's Relation.

*Davis's Chinese.

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