Therigatha: Selected Poems of the First Buddhist Women (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780674427730)

A stunning modern translation of a Buddhist classic that is also one of the oldest literary texts in the world written by women.

The Therīgāthā, composed more than two millennia ago, is an anthology of poems in the Pali language by and about the first Buddhist women. These women were therīs, the senior ones, among ordained Buddhist women, and they bore that epithet because of their religious achievements. The poems they left behind are arguably among the most ancient examples of women's writing in the world and they are unmatched for their quality of personal expression and the extraordinary insight they offer into the lives of women in the ancient Indian past--and indeed, into the lives of women as such.

This new version of the Therīgāthā, based on a careful reassessment of the major editions of the work and printed in the Roman script common for modern editions of Pali texts, offers the most powerful and the most readable translation ever achieved in English.

Author: Charles Hallisey
ISBN-10: 0674427734
ISBN-13: 9780674427730
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Language: English
Published: 01/06/2015
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.80w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
New York Review of Books 09/24/2015 pg. 64