Having pulled out craving down to the root, There is equanimity in the description of enlightenment the narrative of worldly life remains fierce and bashful. Many of their stories, especially the ones featuring Buddha’s cousins and aunts, are told and retold in the folk culture. These poems are unlike other accounts of salvation in the generous descriptions of the failures at attaining the desired consciousness. The women featured in the poems come from all walks of life-princesses and prostitutes, widows and wives, royals, and beggars. They avoid specifics of meditation but focus on the human journey which evokes a universal sense of empathy. However, the poems are not doctrinally heavy. The poems are contained in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism in the section called Khuddakanikaya (Minor Collection). Many of their stories, especially the ones featuring Buddha’s cousins and aunts, are told and retold in the folk culture. It is equivalent of trayi vidya, the knowledge of three vedas, which remained unattainable to women in the Brahmanical tradition. They are the celebration of attainment of the knowledge of tevijja, three things that most people don’t know. Like meditations on spiritual self-determination, these poems hint at an ungendered path of liberation.
The fierce and individual feminine voice in these poems is striking. Commenting on these poems, Dhammapala, the sixth-century Buddhist scholar, called them udanas or inspired utterances. These poems, originally composed in the vernacular languages, were standardised and rewritten in Pali around third century BC. Etymologically, theri means ‘senior ones’, a title these women earned due to their religious achievement and gatha means verses. Written around two millennia ago by Buddhist nuns, Therigatha is amongst the oldest specimens of women’s writing in the world. ~ Therigatha: Selected Poems of the First Buddhist Women “She who has given rise to the wish for freedomĪnd is set on it, shall be clear in mind.”
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