Separate but Equal:Property Rights and the Legal Independence ofBuddhist Nuns and Monks in Early North India

摘要

Virtually nothing is known about the relationships in early India between actual Buddhistmale monasteries (viharas) and female nunneries (varsakas, upassayas) as institutions.~1 Cer-tainly the enormous Buddhist monastic literature now contains provisions that would haverendered nuns ritually and hierarchically subservient to and dependent on monks, and thisis especially the case in regard to the promulgation of the notorious eight gurudharmas, or"heavy rules of conduct," incumbent on nuns alone.~2But