Therigatha Studies: Meg Gawler and the Therigatha Poems

Discussion
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I spent a 1.5 hour drive this morning listening to Meg Gawler’s talks on the Therigatha, found on Audio Dharma. She seems to have a good command of the Pali and has written an academic thesis on Voices_of_Early_Buddhist_Nuns . I enjoyed the talk, her approach, and her willingness to take on Ven. Thanissaro’s assertion that the Therigatha’s order of placement in the KN establishes it as a late text. Using techniques that Bhante Sujato has discussed previously here on SC, she argues effectively as to the early qualities of most of the Terigatha, and generally celebrates this important text in a very positive and engaging way. A nice talk from 11/17 that I wanted to share.

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/8437.html (Part 1)

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/8438.html (Part 2)

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Thanks so much. I agree, it seems to me obvious that Theragatha and Therigatha are for the most part within the scope of composition of the rest of the EBTs. Sure, a few a clearly late, but so are some suttas in DN and elsewhere; indeed, personally I’d tend to think that DN is on average later. But averages are really not significant, what matters is looking closely at specific contexts.

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