Published Paper Details:

The women has been naturally a parallel section of the society since its inception but the society and its institutions have molded these natural provisions in to create an unnatural imbalance. The foundations of such imbalance theory has took its root from the post- Vedic period onwards in the form of various vices such as gender biases in social, cultural, religious and economic and political arena. Two thousand five hundred years ago, Buddhism created a revolution in India that is recognized in religious history as one of humankind's greatest revolutions. When Buddha started Sangha, the Buddhists predominantly consisted of men. Women did not participate in the early beginnings of Sangha, therefore, many women wanted to join the Sangha and yearned for equality. However, they could not get easy access as there was no tradition of assimilation. Therefore, Position of women in Buddhist Sangha has been debated for a long time. The present paper aims to discuss such aspects in the light of the available sources and reach some important conclusions. Looking into the different traditional sources and texts of legal character, we would come across many remarks complimentary or derogatory about woman in the society and as an individual. The main purpose of this paper is to figure out the real situation and status of women in Buddhist Sangha. There seems to be many challenges that women have faced in that era, out of which some will be highlighted here. An analysis will also be done of rules and regulations of Bhikshu and Bhikshuni. Paper will try to figure out about discrimination in sangha and if it existed then what is the justification of it.