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296 and stopped in the Mahavana grove, but in the following year he again repaired to Kapilavastu, and was present at the death of his father, then ninety-seven years of age.

His widowed stepmother Prajapati Gautami, and his hardly less widowed wife Yasodhara, had now no ties to bind them to the world, and insisted on joining the Order established by Gautama. The sage had not yet admitted women to the Order, and was reluctant to do so, but his mother was inexorable and followed him to Vaisali, begging to be admitted.

Ananda pleaded her cause, but Gautama still replied, "Enough, Ananda! Let it not please thee that women should be allowed to do so." But Ananda persisted, and asked:—

"Are women, Lord, capable—when they have gone forth from the household life and entered the homeless state, under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Blessed One—are they capable of realizing the fruit of conversion or of the second path or of Arhatship?

There could be only one reply to this. Honour to women has ever been a part of religion in India, and salvation and heaven are not barred to them by the Hindu religion. "They are capable, Ananda," replied the sage, whereupon they were admitted to the Order as Bhikkhunis under some rules making them strictly subordinate to the Bhikkhus.

In the sixth year, after spending the rainy season at Kosambi, near Prayaga, Gautama returned to Rajagriha, and Kshema, the Queen of Bimbisara, was