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Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 8.2 (2025): 1–22; https://dx.doi.org/10.15239/hijbs.08.02.02
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Buddhist Epigraphy and Women’s History)
Ikṣvāku Women
Alice COLLETT
University of St Andrews
ajc50@st-andrews.ac.uk
Abstract: The women I will discuss in this article are known solely from inscriptions and no other source. In this article, I will introduce the royal dynasty of the Ikṣvākus that these women were part of or linked to and discuss the women and how they lived, exploring what we can ascertain from the inscriptions. I will focus on religious aspects, and in so doing hope to demonstrate the extent to which epigraphy enhances our knowledge of otherwise unknowable aspects of the lives of ancient women.
Keywords: Ikṣvāku dynasty, women, inscriptions, Brahmanism, Buddhism
About the Author: Alice Collett’s research specialism is ancient Indian religions, with a focus on women. Her publications include Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (OUP, 2013), Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biography as History (OUP 2016) and Translating Buddhism: Historical and Contextual Perspectives (SUNY, 2021).
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
