THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? 115
demand of Mahaprajapati to take parivraja (ordination) ? Did he oppose it because he was of opinion that women were a low class whose admission would lower the status of the Sangha in public esteem ? Or did he oppose it because he was of opinion that women intellectually and morally were incapable of realizing the ideal of His Doctrine and His Discipline? The second of these two questions was definitely put to the Buddha by Ananda in the course of the argument when he found the Buddha somewhat adamant. The Buddha gave an unequivocal answer leaving no room for doubt or dispute. He said that women were fully capable of realizing His Doctrine and His Discipline and that was not the reason why he refused their demand for taking parivraja. It is clear from this that the Buddha did not regard woman as inferior to man either in point of intellect or character. That he opposed the admission of women because he held them in low esteem and feared that they might lower the prestige of the Sangha is an argument which is hardly worth mentioning. For if that was his feeling he would never have admitted them at all.
To the argument that he made the Bhikkhuni Sangha subordinate to the Bhikku Sangha, the answer in question behind this arrangement there was no consideration as to superiority or inferiority, what lay behind this arrangement were consideration of purely practical character. In admitting women to be Parivrajikas (nuns) the Buddha had to face two questions. Should there be only one Sangha for men and women ? He decided to have two separate Sanghas. He was afraid that in a confraternity of men and women Parivrajakas the rule of celibacy would be completely lost. While therefore admitting women, he thought, it was necessary to use his own words, a dyke between them by creating two separate organisations. Having decided to create two separate organisations he was faced with another question. If there are to be two separate Sanghas- one for men and one for women- were they to be quite independent and separate organisations or was there to be some sort of inter-relation between the two ?
On the first issue no other decision was possible except that the women’s Sangha should be separate from the men’s Sangha.