
                   THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN BUDDHISM
                                           
                                   by
                                           
                        Dr. (Mrs.) L.S. Dewaraja
                     Associate Professor in History
                         University of Colombo
                               Sri Lanka
                                           
                                           
                     The Wheel Publication No. 280
                                           
                      BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
                      KANDY              SRI LANKA
                                           
              Copyright 1981 Buddhist Publication Society
                                           
                         DharmaNet Edition 1994
                                           
        This electronic edition is offered for free distribution
            via DharmaNet by arrangement with the publisher.
                                           
                        DharmaNet International
                 P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951
                                           
               Transcribed for DharmaNet by Sabine Miller
                                           
                            * * * * * * * *
                                           
                                           
      This essay is chiefly based on a research paper presented in 
      August 1979 to the International Conference of Indian Ocean
      Studies, held in the University of Western Australia. A talk 
      on the same subject was given by the author in 1978 at the
      London Buddhist Vihara, reproduced in the //Buddhist 
      Quarterly//, vol. 11, Nos 2-3. A few sections from the latter 
      have been incorporated in the present version.
                                           
                                           
                            * * * * * * * *
                                           
                                           
   
                   THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN BUDDHISM
    
   
   
     Today, when the role of Women in Society is an issue of worldwide 
   interest it is opportune that we should pause to look at it from a 
   Buddhist perspective. In the recent past, a number of books have 
   been written on the changing status of women in Hindu and Islamic 
   societies, but with regard to women in Buddhism, ever since the 
   distinguished Pali scholar, Miss I.B. Horner, wrote her book on 
   //Women under Primitive Buddhism//, as far back as 1930, very little 
   interest has been taken in the subject.
     
     It seems, therefore, justified to raise again the question whether 
   the position of women in Buddhist societies was better than that in 
   non-Buddhist societies of Asia. We will look briefly into the 
   position in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma and Tibet, at a time before 
   the impact of the West was ever felt.
     
     Hugh Boyd who came as an envoy to the Kandyan Court in 1782 
   writes,[1]
     
      The Cingalese women exhibit a striking contrast to those of 
      all other Oriental Nations in some of the most prominent and 
      distinctive features of their character. Instead of that lazy 
      apathy, insipid modesty and sour austerity, which have 
      characterized the sex throughout the Asiatick world, in every 
      period of its history, in this island they possess that active 
      sensibility, winning bashfulness and amicable ease, for which 
      the women of modern Europe are peculiarly famed. The Cingalese 
      women are not merely the slaves and mistresses, but in many 
      respects the companions and friends of their husbands; for 
      though the men be authorized by law to hold their daughters in 
      tyrannical subjection, yet their sociable and placable 
      dispositions, soften the rigor of their domestic policy. And 
      polygamy being unknown and divorce permitted among the 
      Cingalese, the men have none of that constitutional jealousy, 
      which has given birth to the voluptuous and unmanly despotism 
      that is practiced over the weaker sex in the most enlightened 
      nations, and sanctioned by the various religions of Asia. The 
      Cingalese neither keep their women in confinement nor impose 
      on them any humiliating restraints.
   
   
     The above quotation is just one selected from a series of comments 
   which European observers have made on the women of Sri Lanka. Many 
   of these European visitors to our shores came during the 17th, 18th 
   and early 19th centuries. There were among them, envoys, 
   missionaries, administrators, soldiers, physicians and ship-wrecked 
   mariners. They had first-hand knowledge of the women in Europe and 
   many of them came through India having observed the women in Hindu 
   and Islamic societies
     
     Hence their evidence is all the more valuable. The recurring 
   comments made by these widely traveled visitors on the women of Sri 
   Lanka have evoked our curiosity to conduct this inquiry. The 
   discussion that follows will deal with condition that prevailed up 
   to the middle of the nineteenth century. Prior to this our sources 
   are so meager that we cannot detect any major social changes. After 
   this, due to the impact of Western imperialism, commercial 
   enterprise and Christian missionary activity, incipient changes in 
   the traditional structures become perceptible. 
     
     It is only in European writings that one finds lengthy accounts of 
   the social conditions prevailing in the island. The indigenous 
   literature, being mainly religious, lacks information regarding 
   mundane topics like women. But from circumstantial evidence one 
   could surmise that the liberal attitude towards women in Sri Lanka 
   is a trend that has continued from the remote past. When one thinks 
   of women in the traditional East, the picture that comes to our 
   minds is that of the veiled women of Islamic societies, the zenanas 
   where high class Indian ladies lived in seclusion, the harems of 
   Imperial china where lived thousands of royal concubines guarded by 
   eunuchs, the //devadasis// who in the name of God were forced into a 
   life of religious prostitution; all manifesting different aspects of 
   the exploitation of women in the East. It is little known that there 
   were societies in Asia where the position of women was a favorable 
   one, judging even from modern standards. Thailand and Burma too 
   belong to this category. In those instances also we have based our 
   conclusions mainly on the observations of Europeans who lived in 
   these two countries in various capacities in the 19th and 20th 
   centuries. R. Grant Brown, who was a revenue officer for 28 years in 
   Burma (1889-1917) has remarked,
   
      "Every writer on Burma has commented on the remarkable degree 
      of independence attained by the women. Their position is more 
      surprising in view of the subjection and seclusion of wives 
      and daughters in the neighboring countries of India and 
      China..."[2]
   
     A British envoy to the Court of Ava was struck by the equal 
   treatment accorded even to royal ladies.
   
      "The queen sat with the king on the throne to receive the 
      embassy. They are referred to as 'the two sovereign Lords'. It 
      is not extraordinary to the Burmans for with them, generally 
      speaking, woman are more nearly upon an equality with the 
      stronger sex than among any other Eastern people of 
      consideration." [3]
   
     Lieutenant General Albert Fytche, Late Chief Commissioner of 
   British Burma and Agent to the Viceroy and Governor General of 
   India, wrote in 1878, "Unlike the distrustful and suspicious Hindus 
   and Mohammedans, woman holds among them a position of perfect 
   freedom and independence. She is, with them, not the mere slave of 
   passion, but has equal rights and is the recognized and duly honored 
   helpmate of man, and in fact bears a more prominent share in the 
   transactions of the more ordinary affairs of life than in the case 
   perhaps with any other people, either eastern or western." [4]
   
     Further inquiries have revealed that in Thailand too, though not 
   to the same extent, the women enjoyed considerable liberty. For 
   instance, J.G.D. Campbell,[5] Educational Adviser to the Government 
   of Siam wrote in 1902, 
   
    
      "In Siam at any rate whatever be the causes, the position of 
      women in on the whole a healthy one, and contrasts favorably 
      with that among most other Oriental people. No one can have 
      been many days in Bangkok without being struck by the robust 
      physique and erect bearing of the ordinary woman...It can be 
      said of Buddhism that its influence has at least been all on 
      the right side; and when we remember the thousand arguments 
      that have been advanced in the name of both religion and 
      morality to degrade and debase the weaker sex, this is indeed 
      saying much to its credit."
   
     Sir Charles Bell, British Political Representative in Tibet, 
   Bhutan and Sikkim, writes in 1928, "When a traveler enters Tibet 
   from the neighboring nations of India and China few things impress 
   him more vigorously or more deeply than the position of the Tibetan 
   woman. They are not kept in seclusion as are Indian women. 
   Accustomed to mix with the other sex throughout their lives, they 
   are at ease with men and can hold their own as well as any women in 
   the world." Bell continues, "And the solid fact remains that in 
   Buddhist countries women hold a remarkably good position. Burma, 
   Ceylon and Tibet exhibit the same picture." [6]
   
     These comments on the freedom and independence enjoyed by the 
   women in certain pre-industrialized and sometimes isolated Asian 
   societies are startling. It is not suggested that in any of these 
   countries, Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, the women are on a par 
   with the men both in theory and practice. But they have been 
   favorably compared with the women of the neighboring countries of 
   India and China, where Hindu, Confucian and Islamic doctrines held 
   sway. This statement may appear contradictory for Burma and Thailand 
   were synthesis of Indic and Sinic civilizations. In Sri Lanka too 
   the impact of Hinduism was very strong. The question arises as to 
   how the situation with regard to women in those three societies 
   should be different from the major cultures of Asia. The common 
   feature predominating in those countries is that they are intensely 
   Buddhist. It is tempting therefore to conclude that Buddhism has 
   helped to better the position of women in Sri Lanka, Burma and 
   Thailand.
   
     This conclusion would take us back to the question of the Buddhist 
   attitude towards women and how it differs from that of other 
   religions. Examining the position in ancient India it is clear from 
   the evidence in the Rigveda, the earliest literature of the 
   Indo-Aryans, that women held an honorable place in early Indian 
   society. There were a few Rigvedic hymns composed by women. Women 
   had access to the highest knowledge and could participate in all 
   religious ceremonies. In domestic life too she was respected and 
   there is no suggestion of seclusion of women and child marriage. 
   Later when the priestly Brahmins dominated society and religion lost 
   its spontaneity and became a mass of ritual, we see a downward trend 
   in the position accorded to women. The most relentless of the 
   Brahmin law givers was Manu whose Code of Laws [7] is the most 
   anti-feminist literature one could find. At the outset Manu deprived 
   woman of her religious rights and spiritual life. "Sudras, slaves 
   and women" were prohibited from reading the Vedas. A woman could not 
   attain heaven through any merit of her own. She could not worship or 
   perform a sacrifice by herself. She could reach heaven only through 
   implicit obedience to her husband, be he debauched or devoid of all 
   virtues. Having thus denied her any kind of spiritual and 
   intellectual nourishment, Manu elaborated the myth that all women 
   were sinful and prone to evil. "Neither shame nor decorum, nor 
   honesty, nor timidity", says Manu, "is the cause of a woman's 
   chastity, but the want of a suitor alone". [8] She should therefore 
   be kept under constant vigilance: and the best way to do it was to 
   keep her occupied in the tasks of motherhood and domestic duties so 
   that she has no time for mischief. Despite this denigration there 
   was always in Indian thought an idealization of motherhood and a 
   glorification of the feminine concept. But in actual practice, it 
   could be said by and large, Manu's reputed Code of Laws did 
   influence social attitudes towards women, at least in the higher 
   rungs of society.
     
     It is against this background that one has to view the impact of 
   Buddhism in the 5th century B.C. It is not suggested that the Buddha 
   inaugurated a campaign for the liberation of Indian womanhood. But 
   he did succeed in creating a minor stir against Brahmin dogma and 
   superstition. He condemned the caste structure dominated by the 
   Brahmin, excessive ritualism and sacrifice. He denied the existence 
   of a Godhead and emphasized emancipation by individual effort. The 
   basic doctrine of Buddhism, salvation by one's own effort, 
   presupposes the spiritual equality of all beings, male and female. 
   This should mitigate against the exclusive supremacy of the male. It 
   needed a man of considerable courage and a rebellious spirit to 
   pronounce a way of life that placed woman on a level of near 
   equality to man. The Buddha saw the spiritual potential of both men 
   and women and founded after considerable hesitation the Order of 
   Bhikkhunis or Nuns, one of the earliest organizations for women. The 
   Sasana or Church consisted of the Bhikkhus (Monks), Bhikkhunis 
   (Nuns), laymen and laywomen so that the women were not left out of 
   any sphere of religious activity. The highest spiritual states were 
   within the reach of both men and women and the latter needed no 
   masculine assistance or priestly intermediary to achieve them. We 
   could therefore agree with I.B. Horner when she says Buddhism 
   accorded to women a position approximating to equality.[9]
   
     Moving from the sphere of philosophy to domestic life one notices 
   a change of attitude when we come to Buddhist times. In all 
   patriarchal societies the desire for male offspring is very strong 
   for the continuance of the patrilineage and, in the case of Hindus, 
   for the due performance of funeral rites. For only a son could carry 
   out the funeral rites of his father and thus ensure future happiness 
   of the deceased. This was so crucial to the Hindu that the law 
   allowed a sonless wife to be superseded by a second or a third one 
   or even turned out of the house.[10] It is said "through a son he 
   conquers the world and though a son's son he attains 
   immortality."[11] As a result of this belief the birth of a daughter 
   was the cause for lamentation. In Buddhism future happiness does not 
   depend on funeral rites but on the actions of the deceased. The 
   Buddhist funeral ceremony is a very simple one which could be 
   performed by the widow, daughter or any one on the spot and the 
   presence of a son is not compulsory. There is no ritual or 
   ceremonial need for a son and the birth of a daughter need not be a 
   cause for grief. It is well known that the Buddha consoled king 
   Pasenadi who came to him grieving that his queen, Mallika, had given 
   birth to a daughter. "A female offspring, O king, may prove even 
   nobler than a male..." [12] a revolutionary statement for his time. 
   Despite the spiritual quality of the sexes and the fact that a son 
   is not an absolute necessity in securing happiness in the after 
   life, yet even in Buddhist societies there is a preference for male 
   offspring even today, so potent is the ideology of male superiority. 
     
     Marriage and family are basic institutions in all societies 
   whether primitive or modern and the position of woman in a 
   particular society is influence by and expressed in the status she 
   holds within these institutions. Has she got the same rights as her 
   husband to dissolve the marriage bond? Has she the right to remarry 
   or is this a man's privilege? The answers to these questions will 
   undoubtedly determine the position accorded to women in any society. 
   Let us examine the Buddhist attitude to the question. In Buddhism, 
   unlike Christianity and Hinduism, marriage is not a sacrament. It is 
   purely a secular affair and the monks do not participate in it. In 
   Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma there is a good deal of ceremony, 
   feasting and merry-making connected with the event but these are not 
   of a religious nature. Sometimes monks are invited to partake of 
   alms and they in turn bless the couple. Although there are no vows 
   or rituals involved in the event of a marriage, the Buddha has laid 
   down in the Sigalovada Sutta the duties of a husband and wife:
     
       "In five ways should a wife as Western quarter, be ministered 
      to by her husband: by respect, by courtesy, by faithfulness, 
      by handing over authority to her, by providing her with 
      ornaments. In these five ways does the wife minister to by her 
      husband as the Western quarter, love him: her duties are 
      well-performed by hospitality to kin of both, by faithfulness, 
      by watching over the goods he brings and by skill and industry 
      in discharging all business." [13]
     
     The significant point here is that the Buddha's injunctions are 
   bilateral; the marital relationship is a reciprocal one with mutual 
   rights and obligations. This was a momentous departure from ideas 
   prevailing at the time. For instance Manu says, "Offspring, the due 
   performance of happiness and heavenly bliss for one's ancestors and 
   oneself depends on one's wife alone."[14] Confucius, an older 
   contemporary of the Buddha, spoke in the same tone: "in this way 
   when the deferential obedience of the wife was complete, the 
   internal harmony was secured, and a long continuance of the family 
   could be reckoned with."[14] Confucius gives in detail the duties of 
   the son to the father, the wife to the husband and the 
   daughter-in-law to the mother-in-law but never vice-versa; so that 
   the wife had only duties and obligations and the husband only rights 
   and privileges. According to the injunctions of the Buddha given in 
   the Sigalovada Sutta, which deals with domestic duties, every 
   relationship was a reciprocal one whether it be between husband and 
   wife, parent and child, or master and servant. Ideally, therefore, 
   among Buddhists, marriage is a contract between equals.
   
     However it does not necessarily follow that social practice 
   conforms to theory. The egalitarian ideals of Buddhism appear to 
   have been impotent against the universal ideology of masculine 
   superiority. The doctrine of Karma and Rebirth, one of the 
   fundamental tenets of Buddhism, has been interpreted to prove the 
   inherent superiority of the male. According to the law of Karma, 
   one's actions in the past will determine one's position of wealth, 
   power, talent and even sex in future births. One is reborn a woman 
   because of one's bad Karma. Thus the subordination of women is given 
   a religious sanction. It is not unusual even in Sri Lanka for women, 
   after doing a meritorious deed, to aspire to be redeemed from 
   womanhood and be reborn as a man in future. Despite the remarkable 
   degree of sexual equality in Burman society, all women recite as a 
   part of their Buddhist devotions the following prayer: "I pray that 
   I may be reborn as a male in a future existence."[16] In Thailand in 
   1399 A.D., the Queen Mother founded a monastery and commemorated the 
   event in an inscription in which she requested, "By the power of my 
   merit, may I be reborn as a male..."[17]. Several examples could be 
   quoted from the popular parlance of all three societies to show that 
   even women, whatever their station, have accepted the idea of female 
   inferiority and this has influenced the husband-wife relationship in 
   varying degrees in the societies concerned. In Sri Lanka where this 
   idea is least perceptible, it is considered becoming even in modern 
   times to maintain a facade of husband domination. The wifely control 
   is unobtrusive and subtle. This ambivalent attitude is more 
   pronounced in Burma where women are a specially privileged lot. They 
   control the family economy; socially, politically and legally they 
   are on a par with men. But the wife makes a show of deference to the 
   husband which in itself is no measure of male dominance but an 
   adaptation to a cultural norm. On the other hand, the fact that men 
   could have multiple spouses whereas the women were restricted to 
   one, placed the husband in a privileged position. The reverse was 
   true in Sri Lanka where polygamy was unknown except in the royal 
   family, polyandry was practiced (though not widespread) till recent 
   times. In traditional Thailand the subordination of the wife in the 
   family hierarchy was sanctioned by law. Till 1935 polygyny was 
   legally recognized. 
   
      "Fundamental to the family law in the Law Code of 1805 was the 
      conjugal power of the husband, which meant that he managed the 
      property held jointly by the spouses, that he could sell his 
      wife of give her away and that he could administer bodily 
      punishment to her, provided the degree of punishment was in 
      proportion to the misdeed." [18]
   
     From the nature of the marriage contract one passes on to the 
   question whether both parties had the same facilities for 
   terminating the contract. It is seen that in most cultures the woman 
   is irretrievably bound by the chains of matrimony while the man can 
   shed his shackles with ease. The Confucian code of discipline 
   provides the husband with several grounds for divorce. Not only 
   leprosy and sterility, even disobedience and garrulity were valid 
   reasons to get rid of a wife. Among the Hindus marriage was an 
   indissoluble sacrament for the woman, while the man had the right to 
   remarry even when the first wife was alive. Says Manu, "A barren 
   wife may be superseded in the 8th year. She whose children all die 
   in the 10th, she who bears only daughters in the 11th, but she who 
   is quarrelsome without delay."[19] In addition a man could abandon a 
   blemished, diseased or deflowered wife.[20] Under Islamic law the 
   contract may be dissolved by the husband at his will without the 
   intervention of a court and without assigning any cause. But a wife 
   cannot divorce herself from her husband without his consent except 
   under a contract made before or after marriage. If the conditions of 
   the contract are not opposed to Muslim law then the divorce will 
   take effect.[21]
   
   
     In Buddhism marriage received no religious sanction and in the 
   absence of a Buddhist legal code comparable to the Laws of Manu or 
   the Sharia Law of the Muslims, the dissolution the marriage contract 
   was settled by the individuals concerned or their families. With 
   regard to Sri Lanka, there is a document dated 1769 which gives an 
   orthodox and official view on the subject. The Dutch who were ruling 
   the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka wished to codify the laws and 
   customs of the island. The Dutch Governor I.W. Falck sent a series 
   of questions to the eminent monks of Kandy and the answers to these 
   are given in the document known as the //Lakrajalosirita//. The 
   governor raised the question whether divorce was permitted among the 
   Sinhalese. The reply was,
   
      "A man and a woman who have been united in marriage with the 
      knowledge of their parents and relations and according to the 
      Sinhala custom cannot become separated at their own pleasure. 
      If a man wishes to obtain a divorce it must be by proving that 
      his wife, failing in the reverence and respect due to a 
      husband, has spoken to him in an unbecoming manner; or that 
      she has lavished her affection on another and spends his 
      earning on him, and if her improper conduct is proved before a 
      court of justice he will be permitted to abandon her."
   
     The next question is for what faults on the part of the husband 
   may the wife sue for and obtain a divorce from him. The Bhikkhus 
   reply, 
   
      "If being destitute of love and affection for his wife, he 
      withholds from her the wearing apparel and ornaments suitable 
      to her rank; if he does not provide her with food of such a 
      quality as she has a right to; if he neglects to acquire money 
      by agriculture, commerce and other honorable means; if 
      associating with other women, he squanders his property upon 
      them; if he makes a practice of committing other improper and 
      degrading acts such as stealing, lying or drinking 
      intoxicating liquors, if he treats his wife as a slave and at 
      the same times behaves respectfully to other women, on proof 
      of his delinquency before the above mentioned court, the wife 
      may obtain a divorce." [22]
   
     The significant point is that even in theory the Sinhala laws were 
   equally applicable and binding to both husband and wife. One clearly 
   sees the influence of the injunctions of the Sigalovada Sutta in the 
   development of these institutions. 
   
     However, litigation being a tedious process then as now, it is 
   unlikely that the average Sinhalese of the 19th century resorted to 
   this lengthy judicial procedure. The //Lakrajalosirita// was written 
   by Buddhist monks for the information of a foreigner, and judging 
   from the rest of the document they tried to depict ideal conditions. 
   Only the very well-to-do could afford the luxury of a court case. A 
   more realistic account has been left by Robert Knox who spent 19 
   years in the company of poor peasants:
     
      "But their marriages are but of little force and validity for 
      if they disagree and mislike one another they part without 
      disgrace. Yet it stands firmer for the Man than for the Woman: 
      howbeit they do leave on the other at their pleasure." [23]
     
     According to Sinhala laws of the 18th century the wife was treated 
   very liberally at the time of divorce. She got back all the wealth 
   that her parents gave her at the time of marriage and half of all 
   the property acquired by the couple after marriage. Also she was 
   given a sum of money sufficient to cover her expenses for the next 
   six months. It is worthy of note that in Sri Lanka prior to European 
   occupation both sexes had equal facilities for divorce, both in 
   theory and in practice. The situation changed, however, with the 
   impact of Christianity and the introduction of Roman Dutch Law by 
   the Hollanders in the areas under their control.
   
     In traditional Burma too a code of divorce provided for ill 
   assorted unions. Where there was a mutual desire for separation due 
   to incompatibility or other causes, parties can divorce each other 
   by an equal division of property. If one is unwilling the other is 
   free to go provided all property is left behind. A woman can demand 
   a divorce if her husband ill-treats her or if he cannot maintain 
   her; and a man in case of sterility or infidelity of the wife. 
   Another method, not uncommon, is for the aggrieved party to seek 
   refuge in monastic life; for this would at once dissolve the 
   marriage bond. This easy availability of divorce in Burma has been 
   condemned by Father Bigandet, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rangoon 
   as "damnable laxity". Despite this censure, it is said that this 
   easy and equal facility for divorce has rendered the Burman spouses 
   more forbearing and that serious connubial quarrels are rare among 
   them.[24]
   
     In Thailand although women had legal disabilities, they could 
   initiate divorce proceedings which enabled them to escape from a 
   tyrannous husband. As far back as 1687 the French envoy to the 
   Siamese court observed,
   
      "The Husband is naturally the Master of Divorce but he never 
      refuseth it to his wife when she absolutely desires it. He 
      restores her portion to her and their children are divided 
      among them in this manner..." [25]
   
     Although the conjugal power of the husband was fundamental to the 
   1805 Code, yet the wife's right to divorce was preserved and she was 
   treated generously when the marriage was annulled.
   
     Moving on to the question of the remarriage of widows and 
   divorcees, one notices that in certain societies the wives were 
   regarded as the personal property of their husbands. As such the 
   custom of slaying, sacrificing or burying women alive to accompany 
   their deceased husbands along with their belongings has been found 
   in many lands as far removed as America, Africa and India. The best 
   known example is the //soti puja// or self immolation of high-caste 
   Hindu widows. This custom which was unknown in the Rigveda, 
   developed later: it was never very widespread but there were 
   isolated instances continuing even up to early British times. The 
   British had to introduce legislation to prevent it. Among the Hindus 
   a widow was expected to lead a life of severe austerity and strict 
   celibacy for she was bonded to her dead husband. Further she lost 
   her social and religious status and was considered an unlucky 
   person. The question of the remarriage of divorcees did not arise 
   because a Hindu wife could not repudiate her husband; even if she 
   was rejected by the latter she had to remain celibate. 
   
   In Buddhism death is considered a natural and inevitable end. As a 
   result a woman suffers no moral degradation on account of her 
   widowhood. Her social status is not altered in any way. In Buddhist 
   societies she does not have to advertise her widowhood by shaving 
   her head and relinquishing her ornaments. She is not forced to fast 
   on specific days and sleep on hard floors for self-mortification has 
   no place in Buddhism. Nor does she have to absent herself from 
   ceremonies and auspicious events. Above all there is no religious 
   barrier to her remarriage.[26] The remarriage of rejected wives is 
   also known in Buddhist literature.
   
     Women whose marriages break up were free to remarry with no stigma 
   attached,..."But if they chance to mislike one another and part 
   asunder...then she is fit for another man, being as they account 
   never the worse for wearing."[27] Even the //Lakrajalosirita//, 
   which gives an orthodox Buddhist view, permits the remarriage of 
   women after separation from their spouses. It was common even in the 
   highest rungs of society. In Burma and Thailand too women had the 
   right to remarry after divorce. As far back as 1687 La Loubere the 
   French envoy noticed that in Thailand, "After the Divorce both can 
   remarry and the woman can remarry on the very day of the 
   Divorce."[29]
     
     It is clear, therefore, that Buddhism has saved the daughter from 
   indignity, elevated the wife to a position approximating to equality 
   and retrieved the widow from abject misery.
     
     The social freedom that women enjoyed in Buddhist societies, above 
   everything else, has evoked from Western observers the comments that 
   we have quoted earlier in this paper. It is not so much the equality 
   of status but the complete desegregation of the sexes, that has 
   distinguished the women in Buddhist societies from those of the 
   Middle East, the Far East and the Indian subcontinent. Segregation 
   of the sexes only leads to the seclusion and confinement of women 
   behind veils and walls. The Confucian code lays down detailed rules 
   on how men and women should behave in each other's presence. Manu 
   went to the furthest extreme of segregation by warning that one 
   should not remain in a lonely palace even with one's own mother and 
   sister. Sexual segregation pervades all aspects of life in Islamic 
   society.
     
     In early Buddhist literature one sees a free intermingling of the 
   sexes. The celibate monks and nuns had separate quarters, yet the 
   cloister was not cut off from the rest of the world. It is recorded 
   that the Buddha had long conversations with his female disciples. 
   The devout benefactress Visakha frequented the monastery decked in 
   all her finery, and accompanied by a maid servant she attended to 
   the needs of the monks. Her clothes and ornaments were the talk of 
   the town, yet neither the Buddha nor the monks dissuaded her from 
   wearing them. It was after she developed in insight and asceticism 
   that she voluntarily relinquished her ornaments.
     
     This free and liberal attitude certainly had its impact on the 
   behavior of both men and women in Buddhist societies. In Sri Lanka 
   in the 17th century, "the Men are not Jealous of their Wives for the 
   greatest Ladies in the land will frequently talk and discourse with 
   any Men they please, although their Husbands be in presence." [29] 
   It has been remarked that the women visited places of worship always 
   dressed in their best attire. This is quite a contrast to the stand 
   taken by Manu according to whom the love of ornamentation was an 
   evil attribute of women; and the Koranic injunction that the pious 
   woman should hide all beauty and ornamentation behind the veil. 
   Burmese women of all ranks went unveiled and ornamented and added 
   color to all occasions, though flanked by India and China, where 
   customs such as purdah and foot binding prevailed. In Thailand it 
   has been noticed that the women of the upper classes, though by no 
   means confined to lives of strict seclusion, did not appear much in 
   public.
   
     In conclusion we could say that the secular nature of the marriage 
   contract, the facility to divorce, the right to remarry, the 
   desegregation of the sexes and above all else the right to inherit, 
   own and dispose of property without let or hindrance from the 
   husband, have all contributed to the alleviation of the lot of women 
   in Buddhist societies. Conflicting with the Buddhist ethos and 
   negating its effects in varying degrees is the universal ideology of 
   masculine superiority. So that in all three societies __ Sri Lanka, 
   Thailand, Burma -- there is an ambivalence in the attitudes towards 
   women. Yet their position is certainly better than in any of the 
   major cultures of Asia.
   
                                           
                            * * * * * * * *
                                           
                                           
                               REFERENCES
   
   
   1. //The Miscellaneous Works of Hugh Boyd, with an account of his 
      Life and Writings// by L.D. Campbell (London 1800), 54-56. Boyd 
      was sent in 1782 as an envoy to the Kandyan court by the British 
      Governor at Madras.
   
   2. R. Grant Brown, //Burma as I saw it 1889-1917// (London 1926). 
      Grant, who was a member of the Indian Civil Service, was a 
      magistrate and revenue officer in Burma for 28 years.
   
   3. //Journal of an Embassy from the Governor General of India to the 
      Court of Ava// by John Crawfurd, 2nd ed. in 2 vols. (London 
      1824), I, 243.
   
   4. //Burma Past and Present//, Lt. General Albert Fytche, 2 vols. 
      Vol. II London 1878.
   
   5. //Siam in the Twentieth Century, Being the Experiences and 
      Impressions of a British Officer//, by J.G.D. Campbell (London 
      1902) 112-113. Campbell was Inspector of Schools and later 
      Educational Adviser to the Siamese Government.
   
   6. //The People of Tibet//, Charles Bell, Oxford 1928, p. 147.
   
   7. //Laws of Manu//, trans. G. Buhler, //Sacred Books of the East//, 
      Vol. XXV (Oxford 1866).
   
   8. //Ibid.//, IX, 10.
   
   9. I.B. Horner, //Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and 
      Alsmwomen// (London 1930), XXIV.
   
   10. //Laws of Manu//, IX, 81.
   
   11. Ibid., IX, 137.
   
   12. Quoted by I.B. Horner in //Women in Early Buddhist Literature, 
      The Wheel Publication, No. 30 (Colombo 1961), 8-9.
   
   13. //Dialogues of the Buddha//, trans. C.A.F Rhys Davids, part III, 
      181-182.
   
   14. //Laws of Manu//, IX, 28.
   
   15. //The Sacred Books of China: The Texts of Confucianism//, trans. 
      James Legge (Oxford 1879) Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXVIII. 
      431.
   
   16. Quoted by Melford E. Sprio in, //Kinship and Marriage in Burma: 
      A cultural and Psychodynamic Analysis// (London 1977), 260.
   
   
   17. Quoted by C.J. Reynolds in "A Nineteenth Century Thai Buddhist 
      Defence of Polygamy and some Remarks on the Social History of 
      Women in Thailand", a Paper prepared for the Seventh Conference 
      International Association of Historians of Asia, Bangkok, 22-26 
      August 1977,3.
   
   18. //Ibid.//, 6-7.
   
   19. //Laws of Manu,// IX, 81.
   
   20. //Laws of Manu//, IX, 72.
   
   21. D.F. Mulla, //Principles of Muhammedan Law// (Calcutta 1955). 
      264.
   
   22. //Lakrajalosirita//, ed. and trans. Bishop Edmund Pieris, 
      Published by the Ceylon Historical Manuscripts Commission, 10 and 
      11.
   
   23. Robert Knox, //An Historical Relation of Ceylon// (Glasgow 
      1911), 149. Knox was a ship-wrecked British sailor who spent 19 
      years from 1660 to 1679 as a prisoner in the Kandyan Kingdom.
   
   24. Fytche, Vol. II, 75.
   
   25. Simon de la Loubere, //The Kingdom of Siam, With an Introduction 
      by David K. Wyatt// (London 1968) 53. De la Loubere was an envoy 
      sent to Siam by Louis XIV of France in 1687. He was in Siam for 
      four months only.
   
   26. I.B. Horner, // Women Under Primitive Buddhism//, 72 sqq.
   
   27. Knox, 149.
   
   28. De la Loubere, 53.
   
   29. Knox, 104.
   
                            * * * * * * * *

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