The Buddha and His Daughters

The Therigatha is a collection of verses (gathas) traditionally ascribed to elder Buddhist nuns. This paper looks at the presence of the Buddha in the Therigatha in terms of these questions: how the Buddha interacts with the nuns, his impact on other characters in the poems in which he appears as a literary character, and how his appearances differ. Despite his presence being restricted to the sidelines, the Buddha is an important character in the Therigatha because of the various functions he performs, both as a literary character and as a motif around which the composition of some of the poems revolves. Considering the role of the Buddha in these poems, this paper offers some insight into their composition and literary features.