WOMEN IN THE SANGHA

  YASODHARA had three times requested of the Buddha that she might

be admitted to the Sangha, but her wish had not been granted. Now

Pajapati, the foster-mother of the Blessed One, in the company of

Yasodhara, and many other women, went to the Tathagata entreating

him earnestly to let them take the vows and be ordained as disciples.

  The Blessed One, foreseeing the danger that lurked in admitting

women to the Sangha, protested that while the good religion ought

surely to last a thousand years it would, when women joined it, likely

decay after five hundred years; but observing the zeal of Pajapati and

Yasodhara for leading a religious life he could no longer resist and

assented to have them admitted as his disciples.

  Then the venerable Ananda addressed the Blessed One thus: "Are women

competent, venerable Lord, if they retire from household life to the

homeless state, under the doctrine and discipline announced by the

Tathagata, to attain to the fruit of conversion, to attain to a

release from a wearisome repetition of rebirths, to attain to

saintship?" The Blessed One declared: "Women are competent, Ananda, if

they retire from household life to the homeless state, under the

doctrine and discipline announced by the Tathagata, to attain to the

fruit of conversion, to attain to a release from a wearisome

repetition of rebirths, to attain to saintship.

  "Consider, Ananda, how great a benefactress Pajapati has been. She

is the sister of the mother of the Blessed One, and as foster-mother

and nurse, reared the Blessed One after the death of his mother. So,

Ananda, women may retire from household life to the homeless state,

under the doctrine and discipline announced by the Tathagata."

  Pajapati was the first woman to become a disciple of the Buddha

and to receive the ordination as a bhikkhuni.