THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY INDIAN BUDDHISM 75~ffiere are no monks; the nuns shall schedule their Observance Day in line with
~h~ monks; a nun shall invite criticism at the end of the rainy season retreat
fom both the nuns' and the monks' assemblies; she shall undergo penance
~(temporary probation) for a serious offense before both assemblies; a female
~:R9stulant must undergo a two-year novitiate and then seek ordination from
ihoth assemblies; a nun shall not verbally abuse a monk; and whereas monks
(^5) ~re allowed formally to reprove nuns, nuns may not reprove monks.
The Buddha is said to have stipulated this strict subordination of the nuns
t9 the monks because "When women retire from household life to the house-
less one ... religion does not long endure" (Cv.X.I.6). He predicted that, be-
~~ause of the admission of women, the True Dharma unadulterated by later
~'improvements" (S.XVI.13) would last five hundred years, rather than a thou-
sand. (The five-hundred-year mark corresponds to the period when the first
Mahayana Sutras and the Theravadin commentaries were being composed, an
issue about which both groups were very touchy.) Several years after the
founding of the Bhik~ul).i Sangha, Mahaprajapati-arguing that the nuns as a
group had achieved institutional maturity-asked the Buddha to allow nuns
to mingle their line of seniority with that of the monks. This the Buddha re-
{Used to do, as it would cancel the first vow of respect and make it difficult to
:~eep the monks and nuns separate. If the lines of seniority were combined,
the boundaries between the two orders would have dissolved, jeopardizing
their vows of celibacy. If, however, the orders were so radically separated that
all contact between them. was precluded, divergences would have been fos-
tered in their interpretation of the teaching. Thus for practical reasons the
:order founded second was placed under the order founded first so that they
could be kept formally separate while at the same time maintaining contact.
The formal subordin~tion of the Order of Nuns to the Order of Monks is
best understood in light of general Buddhist views on hierarchy. There is a
widespread notion that the Buddha advocated absolute equality for all mem-
bers of the Sangha, but this was not the case. Although all were regarded as
being capable of attaining nirval).a, spiritual potential was not translated into
organizational structure. Major decisions required unanimous consent of all
members, but for the efficient and peaceful day-to-day handling of minor is-
sues within the order, the Buddha recommended a clearly defined hierarchy.
When the question of hierarchy first arose in the Sangha, monks advocated
that it be based on merit and quickly became embroiled in disputes as to how
personal merit was to be measured. They took the question to the Buddha,
:who decreed a hierarchy based on the neutral criterion of seniority of ordina-
tion, making it clear that one's position in the hierarchy was not an indication
of one's personal worth. In such a situation, the act of bowing down to one in
a higher position is interpreted not as a sign of submission to an individual but
as a mark of respect for the customs of the order, much as polite behavior in a
civilized society is taken not as a sign that people necessarily like one another,
but that they know and respect social norms.
In the case of the nuns, the formal subordination of the Order of Nuns to
the Order of Monks was definitely not meant as an indication of spiritual