Bhadda Kundalakesa
Bhadda Kundalakesa | |
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Personal | |
Born | 6th century BCE Bhadda in Sariputra |
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Buddhism |
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Bhadda Kundalakesa was a former
.Early years
She was born "Bhadda" in
The couple were married, and soon after, the groom became strongly preoccupied with acquiring his wife's jewelry. He told Bhadda that he had vowed to make offerings to a certain mountain deity if he could avoid the death penalty. He managed to get Bhadda away from his home using this pretext. He wanted to push her over a high cliff to steal her valuable ornaments. When they arrived at the precipice, he told her about his intention. In her distress, Bhadda resolved to a ruse that enabled her to push him to his death.
Jain ascetic
Weighed down from the guilt arising from the murder of her husband, Bhadda did not want to return to lay life. Sensual pleasures and possessions no longer captured her attention and she became a wandering ascetic. She entered the order of Jains as an ascetic. As a special penance, her hair was torn out at the roots when she was ordained. Her hair grew again and it was very curly, giving her the name Kundalakesa (Curly-hair). Bhadda Kundalakesa was not satisfied by the Jain doctrine, so she became a solitary wandering ascetic. For fifty years she traveled throughout Ancient India and visited many spiritual teachers, thereby accruing a wide-ranging knowledge of religious scriptures and philosophies. With her knowledge, she became one of the foremost debaters of her time. Whenever she entered a town, she would make a sand-pile and stick a rose-apple branch into it. This would challenge whoever was interested in a debate to trample upon the sand-pile.
Debate with Sariputra
One day she visited
Though a thousand verses
are made of meaningless lines,
better the single meaningful line
by hearing which one is at peace.
Just as the wanderer Bahiya was the
References
- Hecker, Hellmuth (2006-09-23). "Buddhist Women at the Time of The Buddha". Buddhist Publication Society. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-30.