Women's Aspirations and Soteriological Agency in Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada Vinaya Narratives

Abstract

This article explores narratives relevant to the study of the representation of women's soteriological agency in the Middle Period by looking at two parallel versions of a story that are located respectively in the Mfilasarvfstivfda and the Sarvfstivfda Vinaya.' The first story-in the Mfilasarvfstivfda Vinaya-is about a woman who, due to an oversight by Ananda, misses the occasion to be exposed to the inspiring qualities of the Buddha and therefore to develop an aspiration to Buddhahood. In the second story-in the Sarvfstivfda Vinaya-the opportunity is not lost on Ananda who gives the woman an exposition of the Buddha's qualities. This second case, which involves some textual difficulties, appears to describe a declaration of assurance of liberation obtained by the woman, which is understood as a potential for Buddhahood in the Vinaya commentary extant in Chinese, possibly as a result of an explanatory gloss inserted in China. Both stories (and the Vinaya commentary) show a positive attitude towards women. This testifies to the existence of a multitude of voices in gender-related soterio-logical discourse, not only in narrative collections such as the Avad~nasataka and the "Scripture of the Wise and the Fool" (Dhammadinn5 2015), but also in stories transmitted within the boundaries of canonical normative texts such as the Vinayas. The primary sources offered in translation and the topics broached in the discussion offer a window onto the intersection of Buddhist soterio-logical and social ideologies as reflected in Buddhist legal texts in late antique and medieval India, and beyond it.