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Podcast: New Books in Women's History
Episode: Alice Collett, "Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History" (Oxford UP, 2016)
Description: Dr. Alice Collettās monograph Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History (Oxford University Press, 2016) delves into the lives of six of the best-known nuns from the period of early Buddhism: DhammadinnÄ, KhemÄ, KisÄgotamÄ«, Paį¹ÄcÄrÄ, BhaddÄ Kuį¹įøalakesÄ, and Uppalavaį¹į¹Ä, all of whom are said to have been direct disciples of the historical Buddha. Collett does the thankless task of sorting through the biographical information scattered throughout the canonical and commentarial literature to present a richly textured account of the these six extraordinary womenās lives. She further analyzes the differences between the various biographical accounts to glean histor...