Transforming the Female Body: Gender Dialectics in Early Buddhism

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Studies in History, Volume 38, Issue 2, Page 111-132, August 2022.
Scholars have long debated the woman question in Buddhism, in terms of the social spaces and gendered attitudes revealed by texts and traditions. In the opinion of some, Buddhism in its essence does not discriminate between male and female forms. It is the cultural baggage of the practitioners that has led to discriminatory behaviour based on the body. But others have questioned this understanding as being too simplistic and essentializing. The discourse around gender has multiple layers and contexts corresponding to developments (both philosophical and sectarian) within Buddhism. This article attempts to look at the evolution of this discourse from Early Buddhism to the early stages of Mahāyāna Buddhism and, subsequently, within Mahāyāna Buddhism. To do so, this article utilizes Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtras, and Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, juxtaposing them to analyse the evolution of the gender discourse in the philosophical world as well as in the narrative world. This study reveals that while Mahāyāna Buddhism philosophically stands upon the concept of Śūnyatā, that is, emptiness, which extends to include the illusory nature of the human body, the narrative literature carries reservations about the female body. Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra employs a narrative device of ‘sex transformation’ as part of the show of the enlightened state of the female practitioner. Despite the claims made by all these practitioners about the emptiness of the body, all these stories end with female practitioners acquiring a male body and immediately receiving their Buddhahood. This study reveals a more complex picture of conversations and interactions between Early Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism.