Utpalavarṇā

Utpalavarṇā (; Pali: Uppalavannā; Chinese: 蓮華色, pinyin: Liánhuásè) was a Buddhist bhikkhuni, or nun, who was considered one of the top female disciples of the Buddha. She is considered the second of the Buddha's two chief female disciples, along with Khema. She was given the name Uppalavanna, meaning "color of a blue water lily", at birth due to the bluish color of her skin.

According to the Theravada tradition, Uppalavanna was born the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Due to her beauty, numerous wealthy and powerful suitors came to her father to ask for her hand in marriage. Instead of marrying, she entered the monastic life under the Buddha as a bhikkhuni. According to the Mulasarvastivada tradition, Utpalavarṇā had a tumultuous life as a wife and courtesan before converting to Buddhism and becoming a bhikkhuni.

Uppalavanna attained enlightenment while using a fire kasina as her object of meditation less than two weeks after her ordination. Following her enlightenment she developed a mastery of iddhipada, or spiritual powers, leading the Buddha to declare her his female disciple foremost in psychic powers. Her male counterpart was Maha Moggallana.

Textual sources The earliest known record of Uppalavanna comes from a 3rd century BCE stone engraving, portraying her at the Buddha's descent to Sankassa after he visited his mother in Tavatimsa Heaven as described in Buddhist legend. Uppalavanna is mentioned in several early Buddhist texts of the Pali Canon, including the Saṃyutta Nikāya, Aṅguttara Nikāya, and the Therīgāthā and Apadāna collections within the Khuddaka Nikaya as well as some early Mahayana texts such as the Perfection of Wisdom in Eighty-thousand Lines and Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom.

Buddhist scholar Bhikkhu Bodhi notes that, despite being considered one of the Buddha's chief disciples, details about Uppalavanna's life in the Buddhist texts and commentaries are quite scant. Bhikkhu Bodhi points out that there is more in Buddhist texts about one of her previous lives than about the bhikkhuni herself.

Background In Buddhist belief, when a fully enlightened Buddha appears in the world, he always has a set of chief disciples. For the current Buddha, Gautama, his chief male disciples were Sariputta and Moggallana, while his chief female disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna.

According to the Pali Canon, in a previous life Uppalavanna was born a woman in the time of Padumattara Buddha and witnessed him declare one of his nuns foremost in psychic powers. After hearing the declaration, the woman made the resolve to become the female disciple foremost in psychic powers under a future Buddha and did good deeds for many lifetimes in hopes of becoming one. This wish came true in the time of Gautama Buddha, when she was reborn as Uppalavanna.

Biography

Early life and ordination Uppalavanna was given her name (meaning color of a blue water lily) due to being born with a complexion that was the color of a blue water-lily, in accordance with a wish she was said to have made in a past life. According to the Mulasarvastivada tradition Utpalavarṇā was instead born the daughter of a merchant in Taxila and married to a local. She later found out her husband was having an affair with her mother and leaves him and her newborn daughter. Utpalavarṇā eventually marries another man who takes a second wife, who she later finds out was her daughter that she left behind. Distraught by the discovery, she leaves and becomes a courtesan before being converted by Maha Moggallana and becoming a nun. (Theravada tradition recounts a similar story with the story of Gangatiriya.) In this story Gangatiriya is abandoned at birth by his mother and grows up to independently marry his biological mother and long lost sister unwittingly. Gangatiriya becomes a monk after discovering this awful truth about his wives. In the Theravada tradition Uppalavanna recounts this story to reflect on the harm of sense desires, but it is not considered autobiographical.