{"id":39424,"date":"2025-05-07T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39424"},"modified":"2025-05-07T06:14:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T06:14:30","slug":"buddhas-foster-mother-played-a-key-role-in-the-orphaned-princes-life-and-is-a-model-for-buddhists-on-mothers-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/buddhas-foster-mother-played-a-key-role-in-the-orphaned-princes-life-and-is-a-model-for-buddhists-on-mothers-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddha\u2019s foster mother played a key role in the orphaned prince\u2019s life \u2013 and is a model for Buddhists on Mother\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Megan Bryson<\/a>, University of Tennessee<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother\u2019s Day offers an opportunity to reflect on what motherhood means in different religions and cultures. As a scholar<\/a> of Buddhism and gender, I know how complicated<\/a> Buddhist attitudes toward mothers can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, taught that family ties were obstacles to enlightenment. According to the Buddha, attachment to family causes suffering because family relationships eventually end and cannot offer lasting contentment. The main goal of Buddhism is to break the cycle of rebirth, which is characterized by suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one family tie remained important for the Buddha \u2013 his relationship with his mother. Even after the Buddha left home, he continued to honor two mother figures \u2013 his biological mother, Maya, and his foster mother, known as Mahaprajapati Gautami in Sanskrit and Mahapajapati Gotami in the Pali language, which was used for early Buddhist scriptures in ancient India. These women played key roles in the Buddha\u2019s life story, and they continue to inspire<\/a> Buddhists today. Mahaprajapati specifically inspires women as the first Buddhist nun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Buddhist scriptures describe reproduction and pregnancy in negative terms<\/a> because they continue the cycle of rebirth. But Buddhist scriptures also express love and gratitude for mothers, especially the Buddha\u2019s two mother figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maya, the birth mother<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maya and Mahaprajapati were sisters who both married the Buddha\u2019s father, Suddhodana, who ruled the region of Kapilavastu along the India-Nepal border. Maya\u2019s name means \u201cillusion<\/a>,\u201d which refers to a Hindu and Buddhist concept that the material world conceals the true nature of reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Maya\u2019s dream of the Buddha\u2019s conception. Pakistan, second to third centuries C.E. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miracles related to Maya appear throughout stories of the future Buddha Siddhartha\u2019s conception, gestation and delivery. Siddhartha is the Buddha of the current world cycle, but in Buddhist tradition there were other Buddhas in the past and there will be more Buddhas in the future. Each one goes through many rebirths before they attain Buddhahood, and each Buddha\u2019s final rebirth follows the same pattern. According to Buddhist texts<\/a>, Buddhas-to-be wait for the right time to be born, they choose their own parents, and they are not conceived through sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Buddhist texts<\/a> claim that Siddhartha chose Maya as his mother because of her purity<\/a> and entered her right side in the form of an elephant while she was sleeping. According to some Buddhist scriptures, during Maya\u2019s pregnancy the future Buddha never actually touched her womb, which was considered impure<\/a> in early Indian Buddhism. When Siddhartha was born, he is said to have emerged from Maya\u2019s right side as she stood, holding onto a tree branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The future Buddha Siddhartha being born from Maya\u2019s right side as she stands, holding the tree. India, 11th century C.E. Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Purchase, Gift of Dr. Mortimer D. Sackler, Theresa Sackler and Family, and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 2007<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Maya died seven days after her son\u2019s birth, meaning that she did not live to see him become an enlightened Buddha. As the Buddha, even though Siddhartha encouraged his followers to leave domestic life and cut family ties, he never forgot his birth mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to her good karma, Maya had been reborn in the heavens as a god, but in Buddhism gods are not as spiritually advanced as Buddhas. The Buddha used his spiritual powers to travel to the heavens, where he preached to Maya<\/a> and encouraged her progress on the Buddhist path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Chinese text<\/a> claims that Maya spontaneously lactated upon hearing her son\u2019s words, showing that the bond between mother and son remained strong even after her death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahaprajapati, the foster mother<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Siddhartha\u2019s aunt Mahaprajapati became his foster mother after Maya died. She cared for the young Siddhartha and breastfed him<\/a>, having just given birth to her own biological son, Nanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Siddhartha was preparing to leave home to follow a spiritual path, the chariot driver tried to convince him<\/a> to stay by reminding Siddhartha how Mahaprajapati nursed him and telling Siddhartha he should be grateful for her motherly kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siddhartha left home anyway, which caused Mahaprajapati to collapse out of grief. According to the Mahavastu<\/a>, the earliest Sanskrit biography of the Buddha, her \u201ceyes, as a result of her tears and grief, had become covered as with scales, and she had become blind.\u201d It was only after Siddhartha returned as the Buddha that her sight was restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A scene depicting the Buddha in the center with Mahaprajapati to his right, pleading with him to establish a nuns\u2019 order. Pakistan, second to third centuries C.E. \u00a9 The Trustees of the British Museum<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At around the same time as the Buddha\u2019s return to his kingdom of Kapilavastu, his father Suddhodana died, making Mahaprajapati a widow. The books with rules for Buddhist monks and nuns, known as the Vinaya<\/a>, report that Mahaprajapati approached the Buddha<\/a> to ask whether women like her, as well as women whose husbands had become monks, could leave home to join the Buddha\u2019s monastic order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddha eventually agreed to this request but warned that including women as nuns would cut short the lifespan of Buddhist teachings in the world from 1,000 years to 500 years. Mahaprajapati became the first Buddhist nun, reaching enlightenment before passing away at the age of 120.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholars of Buddhism<\/a> do not necessarily treat this episode as literally true, but instead see it as a reflection of mixed attitudes toward admitting women as nuns in the early Buddhist community. These mixed attitudes can still be seen today \u2013 for example, in the unwillingness to reinstate the order of nuns in Southeast Asia<\/a>, which died out<\/a> centuries ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Buddhism, nuns must be ordained<\/a> by a group of 10 fully ordained monks and fully ordained nuns. An order of nuns still survives in China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, where Mahayana Buddhism is practiced. However, the monastic leaders in Southeast Asia, where Theravada Buddhism is practiced, decided that Mahayana nuns could not ordain Theravada nuns<\/a>, leaving countries such as Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar without fully ordained nuns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacies of the Buddha\u2019s mothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both Maya and Mahaprajapati were loving mothers in the Buddha\u2019s life story, but it is Mahaprajapati who has remained more of an inspiration<\/a> for Buddhist women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reiko Ohnuma<\/a>, a scholar of South Asian Buddhism, argues that Maya is remembered in Buddhist tradition as an idealized, if passive, maternal figure<\/a>. Her death shortly after the future Buddha\u2019s birth serves as a reminder that life is impermanent and characterized by suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Mahaprajapati lived a full life and played an active role in both raising the future Buddha and in advocating for women to join the monastic community. Early Buddhists may not have fully supported the inclusion of women in the Buddhist monastic community, but the nuns\u2019 order was established nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahaprajapati made this opportunity possible thanks to her unique position as the Buddha\u2019s foster mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan Bryson<\/a>, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Megan Bryson, University of Tennessee Mother\u2019s Day offers an opportunity to reflect on what motherhood means in different religions and cultures. As a scholar of Buddhism and gender, I know how complicated Buddhist attitudes toward mothers can be. The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, taught that family ties were obstacles to enlightenment. According to the Buddha, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":39425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,36,2450,15533,38],"tags":[1830,3203,16366,885,891,886,860,9096,6610,16367],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39427,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39424\/revisions\/39427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}