Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia: Rediscovering the Invisible Believers

Speaker: Dr. Garima Kaushik, Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh

 

Chair: Dr.(Ms.) Himanshu Prabha Ray

 

Lecture based on the recently published book of the same title by Routledge. Archaeological sites categorized as Buddhist are synonymous with monastic establishments and monks, clearly pushing the significant other half of the Buddhist population (i.e. the female Buddhist patrons and practitioners) into obscurity. This work uses gender as a framework to re-examine archaeological data in order to better understand the socio-cultural aspects of Buddhism in South Asia. In doing so it also examines the various types of structures at Buddhist sites that have revealed distinct evidence of association with the feminine in varying contexts