Family Matters in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

Chapter Four Nuns Who Become Pregnant

120 Chapter Four Nuns Who Become Pregnant Get thee to a nunnery, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? —Hamlet1 We begin our discussion of monastic motherhood, in Section 1, by looking at what the authors/redactors of the extant monastic law codes have to say about the ordination of pregnant women. Taking our cue from work on modern legal theory, we will examine the nature of these rules, and this will allow us to identify a distinction recognized both in legal theory and Buddhist monastic law: the distinction between prohibition and rule of law. In Section 2, we look at the rules in their narrative context in the Dharmaguptaka­vinaya, the only vinaya still used to govern monastic communities in which nuns are fully recognized in the modern world. This investigation will allow us to point out the dangers of conclusions based solely upon the study of prātimokṣas, lists of monastic rules for ritual recitation sans the narratives, the word commentaries, the casuistry, and exception clauses.2 When we examine the rules in their narrative context, we see that they prohibit neither the ordination of pregnant women, nor nuns’ giving birth, as has often been assumed. Rather, the authors/redactors of the monastic law codes discuss how the community is to deal with issues surrounding pregnant and nursing mothers, and the ordination thereof. In Section 3, we explore the issue of monastic motherhood in all Nuns Who Become Pregnant 121 extant vinayas in order to show that the monastic position concerning the ordination of pregnant and nursing mothers discussed in Section 2 on the basis of the Dharmaguptaka­vinaya­is not an aberration, and by no means limited to one monastic tradition. In Section 4, we move from a discussion of pregnant and nursing women who become nuns to one concerning nuns who become mothers . Here the monastic jurists also consider what to do with ordained nuns who, some perhaps unwittingly, find themselves pregnant. The evidence from the vinayas suggests that Indian Buddhist monasticisms were much more open to monastic motherhood than we might imagine from an examination of only the prātimokṣas. In Section 5, I discuss a prātimokṣa­rule which, as it has been translated into English, seems to offer evidence that nuns should not raise children. A closer look at the rule, however, reveals that it in fact concerns nuns who look after not their own children but lay children, an issue that seems to have presented particular problems for the monastic lawyers. In Section 6, I offer a few general remarks on the utility and limitations of various types of vinaya texts for the study of Indian Buddhist monasticisms. I also suggest that motherhood and the sisterhood were not as incongruous in Indian Buddhist monasticisms as some readings of the prātimokṣas might lead one to assume. 1. Mothers Becoming Nuns Modern scholarly assumptions about Buddhist nuns and motherhood in India, I suggest, have been shaped largely by the evidence of the Bhikṣuṇī­prātimokṣas. In part, this is due to the fact that these short liturgical texts have been made available in translation. We begin by looking at one of these, the Dharmaguptaka Bhikṣuṇī­prātimokṣa. This is a compendium of rules for nuns belonging to the Dharmaguptaka nikāya, the monastic tradition most commonly followed in East Asia down to the present day.3 It contains two rules concerning the ordination of pregnant women and nursing mothers. The two rules run as follows:4 If a bhikṣuṇī, knowing a woman is pregnant, initiates and ordains her, [she commits] a pāyantika­[offense].5 If a bhikṣuṇī, knowing a woman is breast-feeding a child, ordains6 her, [she commits] a pāyantika­[offense].7 122 Nuns Who Become Pregnant These rules are not unique to the Dharmaguptaka tradition. They are also found in the prātimokṣas of the Mahīśāsakas, Mūlasarvāstivādins, and Theravādins.8 Although the following discussion applies equally to these monastic traditions, for the moment we will restrict our comments to the Dharmaguptakas. On the surface, in these rules we seem to have clear and seemingly incontrovertible prohibitions against the ordination of pregnant or nursing mothers, women to whom the door to full and equal participation in the religious life of a nun appears to be closed. Indeed, this is exactly how...