Locating the bhikkhunī

In continuation of the theme from the previous chapter, which discusses the concept of sacred spaces for Buddhist women, this chapter attempts to identify bhikşunī vihārikās or Bhikkhun’upassaya (the term in the Samyutta Nikaya 1 that refers to monastic convents for Buddhist nuns) for the Buddhist nuns. Primary as well as secondary works on Buddhism are either silent or gloss over the subject of monastic residences for bhikkhunīs rather summarily. Though there are innumerable references to monasteries in the literary as well as the epigraphic records for monks, there are hardly any for the bhikkhunīs . At the few Indian sites where the archaeologically excavated structures have been identified with nunneries, the explanations are hardly convincing. At Sirpur, one of the monastic structures (SRP 1–2000) has been identified as a nunnery by the excavator ( Sharma 2007 ) on the basis of multiple glass bangle fragments from the site.