Their story
Tradition holds that Khemā was a queen of King Bimbisāra of Magadha, famous for her beauty and at first unwilling to visit the Buddha, having heard that he spoke against attachment to beauty. The commentaries tell how he showed her a vision of a lovely woman growing old before her eyes, and she understood impermanence.
She became a nun and, in the tradition's account, soon attained awakening. The Buddha named her foremost among the nuns in wisdom, and one of his two chief female disciples.
In the Khemā Sutta of the Saṃyutta Nikāya, King Pasenadi of Kosala asks her whether an awakened one exists after death. She answers by asking whether anyone could count the grains of sand in the Ganges, and the king later finds that the Buddha gives him the same answer.
The world they lived in
Royal women of the Ganges kingdoms could be educated and influential but lived under strict expectations. The early nuns' order gave some of them a respected public voice as teachers.
Their contribution
She is remembered as a teacher of the deepest points of doctrine, one of the clearest examples in the early texts of a woman teaching men, including a king.
Teachings and works
Verses in the Therīgāthā (Thig 6.3)
With Khemā (Khemā Sutta, SN 44.1)
Her dialogue with King Pasenadi.
Related teachings
Their legacy
The texts name Khemā and Uppalavaṇṇā as the standard later nuns should measure themselves by, and Khemā remains a model for Buddhist women who teach.
History and tradition
What history can establish
Known only from Buddhist texts. The dialogue with King Pasenadi is in the early discourses; the story of her life at court comes from commentaries written down in Sri Lanka many centuries later.
What Buddhist tradition remembers
The commentaries add that she was already so ready for awakening that she attained it while still dressed as a queen, before being ordained.
