Verses of the Senior Nuns
The Therigatha ("Verses of the Senior Nuns") is a Khuddaka Nikāya collection of seventy-three poems attributed to the earliest generation of enlightened Buddhist women — among the oldest surviving spiritual autobiography by women in world literature. Unlike the Cariyapitaka's past-life stories, these are first-person accounts of this life: the hardships that led each woman to renounce the world, her struggle in practice, and the moment of her own awakening.
This collection is complete, all seventy-three poems across sixteen books, organized by the number of verses attributed to each poet, from the Book of the Ones through to the Great Book, Sumedhā's single long closing poem. Each entry has the same reading guide, full Sujato translation, and self-check quiz as our other series.
Linked rows have a published reading guide. The remaining books are being added in order.
