Yaśodharā

Yaśodharā or Yashodhara, originally known as ''Bhaddakaccānā'' (Pāli) or ''Bhadrakātyāyani'' (Sanskrit), was the wife of Prince Siddhartha prior to his renunciation to become a śramaṇa (ascetic). She was the mother of Rāhula, and the niece of Mahaprajapati Gautami. Later, she became a Bhikkhunī and is considered an arahatā.

Life

Yaśodharā was the daughter of King Suppabuddha and Amitā. She was born on the same day in the month of Vaishaka as prince Siddhartha. Her grandfather was Añjana, a Koliya chief, her father was Suppabuddha and her mother, Amitā, came from a Shakya family. The Shakya and the Koliya were branches of the Ādicca (Sanskrit: Aditya) or Ikshvaku dynasty. There were no other families considered equal to them in the region, and therefore members of these two royal families married only among themselves.

Yaśodharā was wedded to the Shakya prince Siddhartha when they were both 16. At the age of 29, she gave birth to their only child, a boy named Rāhula. On the night of his birth, the prince left the palace; his departure is called the Great Renunciation. Yaśodharā was devastated and overcome with grief. Once prince Siddhartha left his home at night for enlightenment, the next day, everyone was surprised by the absence of the prince. The famous Indian Hindi poet Maithili Sharan Gupt (1886–1964) tried to express the emotions of Yaśodharā in his eponymous poem about her, translated by Gurmeet Kaur:

Oh dear, if he would have told me,
Would he still have found me a roadblock?
He gave me lot of respect,
But did he recognize my existence in true sense?
I recognized him,
If he had this thought in his heart
Oh dear, if he would have told me.

Later, when she realised that he had left, Yaśodharā decided to lead a simple life. Although relatives sent her messages to say that they would maintain her, she did not take up those offers. Several princes sought her hand but she rejected their proposals. Throughout his six-year absence, Princess Yaśodharā followed the news of his actions closely.

When the Buddha visited Kapilavastu after enlightenment, Yaśodharā did not go to see her former husband but asked her son Rāhula to go to the Buddha to seek inheritance. For herself, she thought: "Surely if I have gained any virtue at all the Lord will come to my presence." In order to fulfill her wish, Buddha came into her presence and admired her patience and sacrifice. King Suddhodana told Buddha how his daughter-in-law, Yasodhara, had spent her life in grief, without her husband. Also, there i
Naraseeha Gatha
a Buddhist verse which was recited by Princess Yasodhara to Rahula, explaining the noble virtues and physical characteristics of the Buddha after his enlightenment. "Gatha" refers to a poetic verse or hymn, often used in Buddhist scriptures to convey teachings or express devotion.

Some time after her son Rāhula became a monk, Yaśodharā also entered the Order of Monks and Nuns and within time attained the state of an arhat. She was ordained as bhikkhuni with the five hundred women following Mahapajapati Gotami that first established the bhikkhuni order. She died at 78, two years before Buddha's parinirvana (death).

In his book ''The Great Chronicle of Buddhas'', the Burmese monk Mingun Sayadaw

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