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What about Buddha's wife? We all know that Prince Siddhartha left
his wife and infant son to begin his journey to enlightenment.
The Pali canon does not mention the woman he left behind.
Yasodhara enters the commentarial tradition around the first
century CE and lives on in the folk tradition, growing from a
shadowy figure to a nun and arahat (an Enlightened One), even
gaining magical powers. In this book, Ranjini Obeyesekere offers
a translation of two works from Sri Lanka on this intriguing
figure. The Yasodharavata (The Story of Yasodhara) is a folk
poem, whose best-known verses are Yasodhara's lament over the
departure of her husband. The Yasodharapadanaya (The Sacred
Biography of Yasodhara) is an account of Yasodhara as a nun
capable of miracles, who has traveled through sam|sara with the
Bodhisattva, and who is praised by him. Obeyesekere places these
works within their historical and literary context and provides a
glossary of Buddhist terms.

"The translations are fluid, appealing, and quite readable. This
book illuminates the `shadows' that obscured Yasodhara from the
modernist, essentialized telling of the Buddha story, thereby
enriching the growing genre of narratives of women in Buddhism."
-- Donald K. Swearer, author of The Buddhist World of Southeast
Asia

"In her beautiful translation, Obeyesekere provides access to a
world of Buddhism that has only been available to Sinhala
readers. Many people will now be able to read, enjoy, and study
these stories as an important aspect of what can be called
`devotional Buddhism.'" -- George D. Bond, author of Buddhism at
Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya
Movement --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.