[Buddha-l] Re: Magic

[L.S. Cousins]

Joy,

I don't really know. Ideas of dangerous witchcraft are, as far as I 
know, rather widespread in many cultures. I assume that there would 
be ideas of such a kind in at least some of the cultures of 
North-East India in the fourth and third centuries A.D. But I have 
not researched the matter.

An alternative would be to assume that the education of women was not 
socially acceptable at the time the rule was formulated. If so, the 
specific permission to teach reading and writing (lekha) is 
interesting.

Lance

>  >One is historical. The rule is applied only to nuns in the 
>>Suttavibhanga. Only later in the Khandhakas is it extended in a minor 
>>degree to monks. Fears of witchcraft ?
>
>What do you call witchcraft here? Who were considered witches (or 
>the equivalent) in those days?