DESCRIPTION
There is a group of sutras found among the Pali suttas in the Saṃyutta Nikāya and the Chinese translations of the Saṃyukta Āgama that record the sayings of ten bhikṣuṇīs (’nuns’). These women are all considered arhats, the highest ‘level’ of attainment in the early Buddhist traditions, which is why their words are found as both sutras as well as poems in the Therigatha (’Verse of the Female Elders’).
All ten sutras have the same format. Each bhikṣuṇī, alone in the woods, is challenged in some way by Māra, the evil one, only to rebuke him with a poem demonstrating their wisdom and attainment of the fruits of Buddhist practice.
Comparing the Pali versions of Bhikṣuṇī Sūtras with those in the two existing Chinese translations, there is a difference in the order of the sutras and a difference of attribution in the case of two of the sutras. The two sutras attributed to Selā and Vajirā respectively in the Pali canon, are reversed in Chinese. The text attributed to Vajirā in the Pali contains the famous ‘chariot analogy’, often mistakenly attributed to the Buddha himself. There is an important ‘extra-canonical’ source that should be looked at when considering this text, the Milindapañha ( 'Questions of Milinda'). This is a text which dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD. It is a record a dialogue between the Indian Buddhist sage Nāgasena, and the 2nd century BC Indo-Greek king Menander I (Pali: Milinda) of Bactria. During one their debates, Nāgasena uses the simile of a chariot to describe the ultimate insubstantiality of phenomena and goes on to quote the bhikṣuṇī Vajira saying:
“Bhāsitampetaṁ, mahārāja, vajirāya bhikkhuniyā bhagavato sammukhā—
‘Yathā hi aṅgasambhārā, hoti saddo ratho iti; Evaṁ khandhesu santesu, hoti “satto”ti sammutī’”ti.
This, great king, was spoken by the bhikkhuni Vajira in the presence of the Blessed One.
‘Just as when various parts are assembled, The word 'chariot' is used; So too, when the aggregates are present, There is the convention of a “being”.’
The following translations were made from the Chinese version of the complete Saṃyukta Āgama of the Sarvāstivāda school done by Guṇabhadra 求那跋陀羅 in the Song state, dated to 435-443 CE See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō ed. Takakusu Junjirō, Watanabe Kaigyoku, and Ono Gemmyō (Tokyo: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai, 1924 — 1935), vol 2, no. 99.
ĀḷavikāSomā KisāgotamīVijayāUppalavaṇṇāCālāUpacālāSīsupacālāSelāVajirāTaisho Versions