Beware the Crocodile

Female and Male Nature in Asvaghosa's Saundarananda

Abstract

In chapter eight of his Saundarananda, Asvaghosa launches into one of the fiercest attacks on women that can be found in early Buddhist literature. He evokes animal imagery and symbolism to demonstrate a manipulative and (sexually) aggressive nature for women, which he juxtaposes with a comparably weak will for men. He utilizes similes of entrapment whereby violent, aggressive and poisonous animals, birds or reptiles (women) ensnare weaker creatures (men). For example, women are 'hordes of crocodiles in a river', hawks that prey on pheasants, or snakes, whilst men are deer escaping hunters, birds enmeshed in a net or elephants trying to avoid crocodile infested waters. Whilst Asvaghosa's account of the sleeping harem women in the Buddhacarita has been cited by scholars of Buddhism and gender as representative of negative conceptualizations of women in ancient Indian Buddhist literature, the account in the Saundarananda, which is a far worse indictment of women, has received less attention. In this article, I will discuss Asvaghosa's attack on women centering on his use of animal imagery to portray male and female nature. In so doing, a central aim of the article is to give ownership of the Saundarananda and Buddhacarita back to Asvaghosa, whose accounts have previously been taken to be representative of views on women in early Buddhism. Through comparative analysis, whilst demonstrating the views of one male author, an ex-Brahmin poet, I will highlight these in direct contrast to other texts from early Indian Buddhism, which rarely present women in the same light. Finally, I will look at Asvaghosa the author, and attempt to discern his own preoccupations and predilections.