The Terigaadha,
The compiled verses of
The Buddhist Nuns
Is a Buddhist text.
Composed in
The sixth century B.C.
It is the 'earliest
text depicting women's
spiritual experiences.'
Many of the poems
It is estimated,
Are written when
Lord Buddha was alive.
The Therigatha
Is a narrative of
The hard life of
Penance and
Many tests
A woman had to endure
Before she had
Qualified as Teri,
A Buddhist nun.
They enumerate
The challenges
The women faced
In the process.
Apprised as bold
And truthful to the core
The Terigaadha poems
Are the ancient-most
Feminist poems.
The lipi used to write the Terigaadha poems in Pali was Brahmi Lipi.
Ancient Tamil, Sinhalese, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Thulu.
There is another school of thought that the Teravada Buddhism prevailed predominantly in the South India and Sri Lanka. And that the Terigaadha poets were Sinhalese and South Indian Nuns and the Terigaadha poems we're composed in Tamil
It goes to the credit of Buddhism that the Terigaadha survives as a Buddhist Text, though not spoken about.
Many scholars are of the opinion that Terigaadha is better poetry than Teragaadha poems by the monks.
Terigaadha and Teragaadha are books of scriptures in Teravaada sect of Buddhism. While, as we have seen, Terigaadha are the poems of the Nuns, Terigaadha are the scriptures by the Monks.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
It is understood that the Terigaadha poems originally composed in Magadhi language and passed on from generation to generation orally, until about 80 BC, it was reduced to writing by the monks or nuns in Pali language.