cover image The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati

The Woman Who Raised the Buddha: The Extraordinary Life of Mahaprajapati

Wendy Garling. Shambhala, $18.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-61180-669-4

Buddhism scholar Garling (Stars at Dawn) details in this remarkable biography the life of the Buddha’s maternal aunt, Mahaprajapati Gautami, who raised him as her own. Born around 500 BCE in southern Nepal to a wealthy landowner, Mahaprajapati later joined her sister Maya as a wife to King Suddhodana. After Maya died giving birth to Siddhartha (the future Buddha), Mahaprajapati nurtured him until adulthood. Buddhist records detail that, when Siddhartha rejected his inheritance and left on his journey toward enlightenment, Mahaprajapati went blind from weeping, and only when he returned 12 years later as the Buddha was her eyesight restored. As mother of the new Buddha and one of the first women to receive his dharma teachings, Mahaprajapati became instrumental in the formation and spread of Buddhism by ordaining 500 women as Buddhist nuns, and Garling argues she played a prominent role in elevating “notions of the sacred feminine that proliferated culturally in India at the time.” Garling doesn’t skimp on her research; the book is rich with primary and ancient sources, perhaps to the point of overload for more casual readers. This is a no-brainer for historians and serious students of Buddhism. (Mar.)