Formation and development of Bhikkhuni Sangha part-2

The bhikkhu sanghaa rose through the perseverance of Queen Mahāpajāpati Gotami, the foster mother of the Buddha, together with five hundred princesses from the Sākyanclan, as per records. After the Buddha attained supreme enlightenment, he walked barefoot to different places to spread the Dhamma, for welfare andbenefit of devas and humans alike. When the Buddha visited his native city Kapilavastthu for the first time, he ordained his cousin Nanda(son of Queen Mahāpajāpati). Seven days later, the Buddha advised Venerable Sāriputta There to ordain his own son Rāhula as a novice. 

Later on, during his fifth year of renunciation, he went to Kapilavastthu for the second time, in sangha where his father King Suddhodana, who had fallen ill and passed away as an arahantaat the city of Kapilavastthu, Kingdom of the Sākyans. After the funeral ceremony, while the Blessed .One still stayed at Nigrodha’s Park, Mahāpajāpati Gotamiwent to him. She paid homage and stood on one side. When Mahāpajāpati Gotami realised that the Buddha was not in favour of giving women permission to leave home and ordain in the monastic sangha of the Dhamma Vinaya, she was very sad and unhappy. She paid homage to the Buddha and departed, keeping him on her right. But the determined Mahāpajāpati Gotami was not discouraged. Cutting off her hair, she adorned the yellow robes of a monk.

Now, when the Buddha had stayed at Kapilavastthu for a long time, he set out to wander by stages to Vesāli where he resided at Mahāvana forest in the  Kūtāgāra Hall(hall with the pointed roof). During that time, the Sākyans and Koliyans were fighting over water of the Rohini River to the extent of beginning a war. The Buddha, with boundless compassion, went to the spot and expounded the Dhamma, namelythe Attadanda Sutta and the ‘Discourse on End of Strife’. The members ofthe royal families of the two countries finally reconciled and appeased, and, with devotional faith and full of gratitude, agreed amongst themselves to offer two hundred fifty princes from each country to the Buddha for bhikkhuordination. In due course, the former wives of these five hundred bhikkhus from the Sākyan and Koliyan clans wrote messages asking them to disrobe and return to lay life. This brought up doubts and uncertainty in the newly ordained monks and they felt discontented living the Brāhmacariya. The Buddha became well aware of the confusion of their minds and expounded the Kunala Jātakain three hundred verses. 

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