Saṃyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
37. Mātugāma Saṃyutta
1. Paṭhama Peyyāla Vagga

The Book of the Kindred Sayings
4. The Book Called the Saḷāyatana-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the 'Six-Fold Sphere' of Sense and Other Subjects
37. Kindred Sayings about Womankind
1. First Repetition

Sutta 3

Āveṇika-Dukkha Suttaṃ

Special

Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids

Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[162]

[1] Thus have I heard:

The Exalted One once addressed the brethren, saying:

"Brethren."

"Lord," responded those brethren to the Exalted One.

The Exalted One thus spake:

"There are these five special^[1] woes, Brethren,
which a woman has to undergo
as apart from a man.

What five?

Herein, Brethren, a woman
at a tender age
goes to her husband's family
and leaves her relatives behind.

That is the first special woe.

Again, Brethren, a woman is subject to menses.

That is the second woe.

[163] Again, Brethren, a woman is subject to pregnancy.

That is the third woe.

Again, Brethren, a woman has to bring forth.

That is the fourth woe.

Again, Brethren, a woman has to wait upon^[2] a man.

That is the fifth special woe
which a woman has to undergo
as apart from a man.

These, Brethren, are the five special woes
which a woman has to undergo
as apart from a man."

 

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^[1] Āveṇikā (a word of doubtful origin), def. by Comy. as paṭipugga-likāni (idoneus), asadhāraṇāni purisehi (not in common with males).

^[2] Pāricariyaṇ upeti.