Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia

Dr. Garima Kaushik is an archaeologist with over two decades of research and field experience in South and Southeast Asian archaeology, specialising in Archaeology of Religion and the Archaeology of Religion and Early Buddhism in South Asia. She is among the founding faculty of the School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions at Nalanda University, where she helped shape the academic framework of Buddhist archaeological studies. Her acclaimed monograph Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia: Rediscovering the Invisible Believers (Routledge, 2016) remains a pioneering work on women in early monastic Buddhism. The first edition of this book, published in 2016, received generous scholarly attention for foregrounding women’s presence in early Buddhist archaeology. This second edition expands upon that groundwork with new evidence and interpretive perspectives. As part of her professional and academic engagements, Dr. Kaushik has represented India at several international forums, including the ASEAN–ndia Cultural Exchange and SAARC programmes, contributing to cross-cultural dialogues on heritage and archaeology. Dr. Kaushik has conducted extensive excavations and field surveys at key sites including Adi Badri, Dholavira, Sravasti, and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. She is currently employed in the capacity of Deputy Superintending Archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India.

• List of figures x List of tables xii Preface xiii Acknowledgements xv List of abbreviations xvii List of diacritical marks xviii Introduction 1 1 Sacred spaces and the feminine in Buddhism 16 2 Locating the bhikkhunī: identifying nunneries 38 3 Exploring women’s space: conflict between the social and the asocial worlds 91 4 Women as patrons 136 5 Gendered survey of Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka 202 Conclusion 258 Bibliography 272 Index 281