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Anulā

1. Anulā.– Daughter of Muṭasiva, King of Sri Lanka, and wife of Mahānāga, who was brother and sub-king to Devānampiyatissa. With five hundred other women she heard Mahinda teach the Petavatthu, the Vimānavatthu, and the Sacca Saṃyutta, and together with the others became a Stream-winner.¹ Later, hearing the discourse taught by Mahinda in the Mahāmeghavana, she, with others, became a Once-returner, and expressed to the king their wish to receive ordination. It was to enable these to be ordained that Saṅghamittā was sent for.² Until the arrival of Saṅghamittā, Anulā and her companions observed the ten precepts and lived in the Upāsikā-vihāra.³ The Subcommentary (ṭīkā) says they took on the one-sessioner’s practice (ekāsanikaṅga) as well.⁴

After her ordination Anulā became an Arahant ⁵ and was the first woman Arahant in Sri Lanka.

¹ Mhv.xiv.56‑7; Dpv.xi.8; xii.82. ² Mhv.xv.18‑19; Sp.i.90 ff; Dpv.xv.73 ff.

³ Mhv.xviii.9‑12

⁴ p.388, the ascetic practice of eating only once a day at a single sitting; see also Mbv. pp.121, 144, 167.

⁵ Mhv.xix.65; xvi.41.

2. Anulā.– Widow of Khallāṭanāga, King of Sri Lanka, and later wife of Vaṭṭagāmani (Mhv.xxxiii.35, 36). When Vaṭṭagāmani had to flee from his enemies, she was the only one of his wives whom he took with him, because she was with child (Mhv.xxxiii.45). Later, when they were hiding in Malaya, under the protection of Tanasiva, Anulā quarrelled with the wife of Tanasiva and, as a result, Vaṭṭagāmani killed him. (Mhv.xxxiii.62 ff).

3. Anulā.– Wife of Coranāga and Queen of Sri Lanka for four months (in A.D. 12‑16). She was a lewd woman and killed her husband that she might marry Mahācūḷa’s son, Tissa. She soon got tired of him and poisoned him. Then, in succession, she had as husbands Siva, a palace guard; Vaṭuka, a Tamil carpenter; Tissa, a wood-carrier; the Damiḷa Niliya, a palace priest — all of whom she removed by poisoning. The last one she killed because she wished to live indiscriminately with thirty-two palace guards.

In the end she was killed by Kuṭakaṇṇatissa (Mhv.xxxiv.16‑34; Dpv.xix.50 ff).

4. Anulā.– The chief female disciple of Kassapa Buddha. Bu.xxv.40; J.i.43.

5. Anulā.– Daughter of Cūḷaseṭṭhi of Bārāṇasī. She lived with her husband in Andhakavinda, and after her father’s death she fed brahmins in his name, but this pious act was of no benefit to him (PvA.105 ff).

6. Anulā.– One of the chief female supporters of Maṅgala Buddha (Bu.iv.25).