Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia

Name: Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia
Brand: Taylor & Francis

Taylor & Francis

This book uses gender as a framework to offer unique insights into the socio-cultural foundations of Buddhism. Moving away from dominant discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic, homogenous category\u2014thus rendering them invisible within the broader religious discourse\u2014this monograph examines their sustained role in the larger context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffirms their agency. It highlights the multiple roles played by women as patrons, practitioners, lay and monastic members, etc. within Buddhism. The volume also investigates the individual experiences of the members, and their equations and relationships at different levels\u2014with the Samgha at large, with their own respective Bhik\u015Fu or Bhik\u015Fun\u012B Sangha, with the laity, and with members of the same gender (both lay and monastic). It rereads, reconfigures and reassesses historical data in order to arrive at a new understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which it developed a.