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Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (in Pali; Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī in Sanskrit) was the first woman to request...

Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (in Pali; Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī in Sanskrit) was the first woman to request ordination from the Buddha and to join the Saṅgha. She was both the Buddha's maternal aunt and adoptive mother, raising him after her sister, Queen Maya (Mahāmāyā), the Buddha's birth mother, died. Gautamī was born in Devadaha, the location of the present-day Devadaha town of Southern Nepal. An eminent Therī, Mahāprajāpatī was born at Devadaha, in the family of Suppabuddha, as the younger sister of Mahāmāyā. Mahāprajāpatī was so called because, at her birth, augers prophesied that she would have a large following; Gotamī was her gotta (Gotra in Sanskrit) name (MA.i.1001; cp. AA.ii.774). She was predicted by sages to be the one who causes Buddha to allow women to join his holy order. Ap.ii.538 says her father was Añjana Sakka and her mother Sulakkhanā. Mhv.ii.18 says her father was Añjana and her mother Yasodharā. Dandapāni and Suppabuddha were her brothers; cp. Dpv. xviii.7f. At the birth of each sister, interpreters of bodily marks prophesied that the children would be cakkavattins (Cakravartin). Both sisters married King Śuddhodana, leader of the Śākya. When Mahāmāyā died, seven days