Queen Srimala Gallery

What I Learned from Queen Srimala

Queen Srimala was a remarkable laywoman, whose tale of enlightenment exists within the life of the Buddha’s. Praised for her intelligence and compassion instead of her beauty and wealth, the queen’s story is told in the The Sutra of Queen Srimala of the Lion’s Roar, an early Mahayana scripture believed to be written around 300 BC.

The name Srimala means “glorious garland”. Some believe it refers to the story that her mother, Queen Malika was a garland maker when she met her father, King Prasenajit. Though it is hard to pin down her historical personage, the couple did have a daughter named Vajira. It is said that the king called her Srimala in admiration of her intelligence and virtue. Even though, other people could put on garlands, Srimala, was a garland. This is a foreshadowing of the of her sutra’s content, in which Srimala keeps insisting that “the embracer of the Illustrious Doctrine is himself the embrace of the Illustrious Doctrine.”