Latest / The Srivijaya Empire: Southeast Asia's Forgotten Maritime Superpower — Fexingo History / Srivijaya's Female Buddhist Master: Jnanavati at the Thousand Temples
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about Srivijaya's kings and merchants and wars, but I want to spend today on someone very different: a woman named Jnanavati. She was a Buddhist nun and scholar from Srivijaya, and she's one of the few named female intellectuals we know of from the entire Maritime Silk Road. Luna: A female scholar from Srivijaya? How did we even know about her? Lucas: The Chinese monk Yijing mentions her. He spent over a decade in Srivijaya and India, and in his memoirs he lists several monks and nuns he met. Jnanavati was from Srivijaya and she traveled to Nalanda, the great Buddhist university in India, to study. Yijing says she was a 'master of the Tripitaka' — that's the entire Buddhist canon — and that she returned to Srivijaya to teach. Luna: So she was a full-fledged scholar, not just a nun. Lucas: Exactly. And the fact that Yijing recorded her by name tells us she was exceptional. Most monks and nuns in his records are anonymous. Jnanavati's name means 'knowledge-goddess' in Sanskrit, and she likely came from a wealthy family to afford the journey. We don't know exactly when she lived, but probably around the 7th century, when Srivijaya was at its peak. Lucas: Nalanda at that time was a huge complex with thousands of students, and it was supported by the Pala Empire. The abbot when Jnanavati studied there was Shilabhadra, a famous teacher who also taught the Chinese monk Xuanzang. So she was studying under some of the greatest minds of the age. Luna: And she went all the way from Sumatra to India? That's a dangerous journey. Lucas: It was. The trip could take months, and you'd be at the mercy of pirates, storms, and disease. But Srivijaya had a well-organized shipping network, and Buddhist pilgrims often traveled together. Jnanavati probably sailed from Palembang or Jambi to the Malay Peninsula, then crossed the Bay of Bengal to the port of Tamralipti, and then walked inland to Nalanda. Lucas: After her studies, she returned to Srivijaya and became a teacher at a place Yijing calls the 'Thousand Temples' monastery. That's likely the Muaro Jambi temple complex, which we've mentioned before — it was a major Buddhist center with dozens of brick temples and monasteries. So she wasn't just a passive learner; she brought back knowledge and taught the next generation. Luna: I love that. So she's proof that Srivijaya wasn't just a trade hub but also a center of Buddhist learning. Lucas: Absolutely. And she's not the only one — Yijing also mentions a monk from Srivijaya named Chenna, and others from the Malay world. But Jnanavati is the only woman. Her existence challenges the idea that women in early medieval Southeast Asia had no role in high intellectual life. She was a bhikkhuni — a fully ordained nun — and the Buddhist order at the time did allow women to study and teach. Lucas: We don't have any writings by her, unfortunately. But we do have inscriptions from the period that show nuns owned property and donated to monasteries. For example, a copper plate from the Sailendra period mentions a donation by a female lay devotee. So Jnanavati fits into a broader picture of women's religious patronage in Srivijaya. Luna: What happened to her after she returned? Do we know anything more? Lucas: Yijing's account ends there. She likely spent the rest of her life teaching and possibly writing commentaries. The Thousand Temples monastery at Muaro Jambi continued to thrive until the 13th century. Excavations there have found Buddhist statues, ritual objects, and even a stone inscription mentioning a 'teacher of the law.' It's tempting to imagine that might be connected to her legacy. Luna: It's amazing that her name survived at all. Lucas: It is. And it's a reminder that history is full of remarkable individuals we only catch glimpses of. Jnanavati shows us that Srivijaya was a place where knowledge crossed oceans, and where a woman could become a master of the Tripitaka and shape the Buddhist tradition of her homeland.