Yaśodharā
Yaśodharā | |
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Born | c. 563 BCE Devdaha Koliya Republic |
Died | c. 485 BCE (aged 78)[1] |
Children | Rāhula |
Spouse | Siddhartha[a] |
Father | Suppabuddha |
Mother | Amita |
Religion | Buddhism |
Part of a series on |
Buddhism |
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Yaśodharā (
Life
Yaśodharā was the daughter of King
She was wedded to the Shakya prince Siddhartha, when they were both 16. At the age of 29, she gave birth to their only child, a boy named Rāhula. On the night of his birth, the prince left the palace: called the Great Renunciation. Yaśodharā was devastated and overcome with grief. Once prince Siddhartha left his home at night for enlightenment, the next day, everyone was surprised by the absence of the prince. The famous Indian Hindi poet Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886–1964) tried to gather the emotions of Yaśodharā in his poem (Translated by Gurmeet Kaur):[10]
Oh dear, if he would have told me,
Would he still have found me a roadblock?
He gave me lot of respect,
But did he recognize my existence in true sense?
I recognized him,
If he had this thought in his heart
Oh dear, if he would have told me.
Later, when she realised that he had left, Yaśodharā decided to lead a simple life.[11] Although relatives sent her messages to say that they would maintain her, she did not take up those offers. Several princes sought her hand but she rejected the proposals. Throughout his six-year absence, Princess Yaśodharā followed the news of his actions closely .
When the Buddha visited Kapilavastu after enlightenment, Yaśodharā did not go to see her former husband but asked Rāhula to go to the Buddha to seek inheritance. For herself, she thought: "Surely if I have gained any virtue at all the Lord will come to my presence." In order to fulfill her wish, Buddha came into her presence and admired her patience and sacrifice. King Suddhodana told Buddha how his daughter-in-law, Yasodhara, had spent her life in grief, without her husband.
Some time after her son Rāhula became a monk, Yaśodharā also entered the Order of Monks and Nuns and within time attained the state of an arhat. She was ordained as bhikkhuni with the five hundred women following Mahapajapati Gotami that first established the bhikkhuni order. She died at 78, two years before Buddha's parinirvana (death).[12]
Legends
In the
In the thirteenth chapter of the
Names
The meaning of the name Yaśodhara (Sanskrit) [from yaśas "glory, splendour" + dhara "bearing" from the verbal root dhri "to bear, support"] is Bearer of glory. The names she has been called besides Yaśodharā are: Yaśodharā Theri (doyenne Yaśodharā), Bimbādevī, Bhaddakaccānā and Rāhulamātā (mother of Rahula).[15] In the Pali Canon, the name Yaśodharā is not found; there are two references to Bhaddakaccānā.[16]
Several other names are identified as wives of the Buddha in different Buddhist traditions, including Gopā or Gopī, Mṛgajā, and Manodharā;
Yasodharā's attitude to the Great Renunciation
Some non-scholastic publications say that Yasodhara was angry at the Buddha's departure, some does not.[18][19][20] Some studies say her anger was short-lasting: she was sorrowful not resentful.[21]
Scholars say that Yasodhara felt not anger, but sorrow, and a desire to emulate him, to follow him into renunciation:
"On the day of his birth, the Prince left the palace. Yasodharā was devastated and overcome with grief. Hearing that her husband was leading a holy Life, she emulated him by removing her jewellery, wearing a plain yellow robe and eating only one meal a day."[22]
Eastern poetry likewise says Yasodhara was not angry and surprised at his departure; she was merely sorrowful: "Yasodharā’s grief is not anger at his departure. She has known from the beginning that to be a Buddha was his goal and she has shared his life and his efforts toward that goal in all their past existences in samsāra. She has done so with a full knowledge of what it means. What she cannot understand is that on this one occasion he has gone leaving her behind, alone, and without a word to her."[23]
See also
- Thero
- Padmasambhava
- Women in Buddhism
- Mahapajapati Gotami
- Suddhodana
- Gautama Buddha
- Sundari Nanda
- Nanda
Notes
References
- ^ The Lord Buddha and His Teachings
- ^ The Lord Buddha and His Teachings
- ISSN 1017-7132.
- ^ "Suppabuddha". Dictionary of Pali Names.
- ISBN 9781438447537.
- ISBN 9780834840300.
- ^ "Dhammapada Verse 128 Suppabuddhasakya Vatthu". Tipitaka.net.
- ^ "Koliyā". Palikanon.com.
- ^ Why was the Sakyan Republic Destroyed? by S. N. Goenka (Translation and adaptation of a Hindi article by S. N. Goenka published by the Vipassana Research Institute in December 2003, archived)
- )
- ^ "The Compassionate Buddha". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
- ^ The Lord Buddha and His Teachings
- S2CID 192318894. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019; and Zhang, J. (2017). "The Creation of Avalokiteśvara: Exploring His Origin in the Northern Āgamas". Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies. 12: 1–62. Archivedfrom the original on 30 April 2019.
- ))
- ^ French text: Yashodhara (glorieuse) est la cousine et l’épouse principale de Gautama, mère de son fils Rahula. Connue par les Jatakas (légendes de la vie du Bouddha), elle serait devenue du vivant de Gautama une ascète, une nonne prééminente et l’un des quatre arahants de son entourage possédant l’intuition absolue 1. Les détails de sa légende sont de nos jours surtout populaires dans le bouddhisme theravada. Elle est également nommée Yashodhara Theri (doyenne Yashodhara), Bimbadevi, Bhaddakaccana ou Rahulamata (mère de Rahula).
- Bv, PTS p. 65, v. 15 states: "Cattārīsa sahassāni nāriyo samalaṅkatā / Bhaddakaccānā2 nāma nārī rāhulo nāma atrajo" (SLTP).
- ^ a b PERI, Noël. “LES FEMMES DE ÇĀKYA-MUNI.” Bulletin De L'École Française D'Extrême-Orient, vol. 18, no. 2, 1918, pp. 1–37. JSTOR, [www.jstor.org/stable/43729857].
- .
- ^ Sasson, Vanessa R. (31 March 2023). "The Woman Who Married the Buddha". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ^ Wadhwa, Soni (9 April 2021). ""Yasodhara and the Buddha" by Vanessa R Sasson". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ^ Yasodharā, the Wife of the Bōdhisattva (PDF). Translated by Obeyesekere, Ranjini.
- ^ "Yasodharā - Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia". www.tibetanbuddhistencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
- ISBN 978-1-4384-2837-6.
- The Buddha and His Teaching, Nārada, Buddhist Missionary Society, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1988, ISBN 967-9920-44-5
Literature
- 'Yasodhara and the Buddha,' Author: Vanessa R. Sasson, Bloomsbury Press, 2021, ISBN 9781350163171
- The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentaries on the Therigatha Author: Susan Murcott, ISBN 0-938077-42-2
- Life of Princess Yashodara: Wife and Disciple of the Lord Buddha ISBN 0-7661-5844-6 (10), online: [1]. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
- Yashodhara: Six Seasons Without You, by Subhash Jaireth, ISBN 1-876957-05-0
- Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life, Author: Wendy Garling, Shambhala Publications 2016, ISBN 978-1-61180-265-8
External links
- A Mysterious Being: The Wife of Buddha by Professor Université de France(Translated by Kyra Pahlen), the apparent source being a series of three articles published as Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha, Presses de l'École française d'extrême-orient, 1963, 1970 & 1971. (archived 2011)
- Dipankara meets Sumitta and Sumedha (archived 2011)
- Mahásammata (archived 2012)
- The Life of Princess Yashodara: Wife and Disciple of the Lord Buddha
- Cover 1929
- Immediate Family of the Buddha, 4. Yaśodhara by Radhika Abeysekera
- Theri (500s-200s BCE) Other Women's Voices (archived 2011)
- Jacqueline Kramer, director of the Hearth Foundation (2010). "Yashodhara and Siddhartha. The Enlightenment of Buddha's Wife" (PDF). Turning Wheel - the Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism. Summer: 10–13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 August 2014.