CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 77 of 120

Correct — B, Elder nuns in Buddhism. Theri is the feminine of thera, the Pali word for an elder — a monastic of long standing. A theri is therefore a senior bhikkhuni, a woman who had been ordained into the sangha and had grown old in it. The standard title of the Therigatha, the collection of 494 verses in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka attributed to such women, is rendered in English as 'Verses of the Elder Nuns'. Women were admitted to the sangha after Ananda persuaded the Buddha to allow it, Mahapajapati Gotami being the first woman ordained as a bhikkhuni; many of those who entered went on to teach the dhamma, and it is from among them that the theris came.

• (a)Respected women — Too broad, and it drops the essential element. A theri was respected, but the respect followed from ordination and seniority in the sangha. A laywoman of standing, however honoured, was an upasika, never a theri.
• (c)Women denied the Bhikkhuni status — The exact opposite of the meaning. A theri had not been denied bhikkhuni status; she held it, and had held it long enough to be counted an elder.
• (d)Women expelled from the Buddhist Sangha — Also inverted. Expulsion from the sangha ended a monastic career; the term theri marks its maturity. Expulsion was governed by the Vinaya rules, a quite separate part of the canon.

The Buddhist sangha began as an order of monks, bhikkhus, who lived on alms and possessed little beyond a bowl and a robe. Women were admitted later; the Buddha's foster mother Mahapajapati Gotami was the first bhikkhuni. Ordained women who grew senior in the order were called theris, the feminine of thera. Their poems were gathered into the Therigatha, which sits alongside the Theragatha in the Khuddaka Nikaya and is one of the earliest surviving bodies of women's writing anywhere.

The item rewards knowing a Pali word rather than a story. Thera and theri simply mean elder, which is why the school that traces itself to the elders is called Theravada. Once you see that, options (c) and (d) collapse immediately, because both describe women outside the order. Option (a) is the one that actually costs marks, and it does so because a widely used school textbook glosses the term loosely — NCERT's Class 12 history says that many women who entered the sangha 'went on to become theris, or respected women who had attained liberation'. Read carefully, even that sentence makes entry into the sangha the precondition, which is what separates a theri from a merely respected woman. UPSC keyed the technical meaning. Note the printed quotation marks around 'Theris' in the stem — the paper is quoting a term of art, not describing a social class.

• Thera means elder in Pali; theri is its feminine form, and Theravada literally means the doctrine of the elders.
• The Therigatha is part of the Khuddaka Nikaya within the Sutta Pitaka and contains 494 verses; it is usually translated 'Verses of the Elder Nuns'.
• Mahapajapati Gotami, the Buddha's foster mother, was the first woman ordained as a bhikkhuni, after Ananda interceded with the Buddha.
• A lay follower of the Buddha was an upasaka if a man and an upasika if a woman — categories quite distinct from bhikkhu and bhikkhuni.
• Donative inscriptions at Buddhist sites such as Sanchi record gifts made by bhikkhunis, evidence that ordained women held property and standing.

• Reading theri as a general honorific for respected women; the word means elder and presumes ordination.
• Mixing the monastic pair bhikkhu and bhikkhuni with the lay pair upasaka and upasika.
• Assuming the Therigatha is a late devotional text; it is canonical, inside the Sutta Pitaka.

Usually as a one-line meaning question on a Pali or Prakrit term, or as a pair-matching item on ancient Indian religious vocabulary.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Therigatha, a collection of verses composed by Buddhist nuns, forms part of which one of the following?

  • (a)Vinaya Pitaka
  • (b)Sutta Pitaka
  • (c)Abhidhamma Pitaka
  • (d)Milindapanha

  Answer(b) Sutta Pitaka — it lies within the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In early Buddhism, a lay woman follower who had not taken ordination was known as

  • (a)theri
  • (b)bhikkhuni
  • (c)upasika
  • (d)shramani

  Answer(c) upasika — the lay follower, as against the ordained bhikkhuni and the senior theri.