Women in Primitive Buddhism

This paper analyses the social status of woman on the basis of theJataka stories. It also attempts to explore whether the Jatakas reinforce the Dharmashastric discourse of Brahmanic Tradition (which consists of theDharma sutras and theSmriti texts) or they have a different perspective towards women. In the focus of the study are the women of the well-born (the queens and the princesses). Jatakas are part of the canon of sacred Buddhist literature consisting some 550 anecdotes and fables which depict earlier incarnations of Buddha. The tales have been dated between 300BC -400AD. These stories are stories of wisdom and morals originally written in Pali language, which were later translated and distributed to people across the world. The stories are ment to teach the values of self-sacrifice, morality etc. to common person. At the core of the stories is condemning the evil.