Thig · 73 texts · 73 in English

Verses of the Senior Nuns

Therīgāthā

The “Verses of the Senior Nuns” is a collection of about 524 verses attributed to 73 of the senior nuns alive in the Buddha’s time, or in a few cases, a little later. These verses celebrate the bliss of freedom and the life of meditation, full of proud and joyous proclamations of their spiritual attainments and their gratitude to other nuns as guides and teachers. The Therīgāthā is one of the oldest spiritual texts recording only women’s voices. It is a pair with the Theragāthā, the “Verses of the Senior Monks”. Together these collections constitute one of the oldest and largest collections of contemplative literature. Based on style and content, these collections belong to the early discourses. They are referred to on occasion in the northern canons, but no parallel collections have survived.