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Sundarī-Nandā

1. Sundarī-Nandā.– Younger sister of Thullanandā; she had two other sisters, Nandā, and Nandavatī. Sāḷha Migāranattā (q.v.) seduced her, and she was proclaimed guilty of an offence of defeat (parājikā) (Vin.iv.211 f). She was also blamed for her greediness as regards food. Vin.iv.232 f., 234.

2. Sundarī-Nandā.– A Therī. She was the daughter of Suddhodana and Mahā Pajāpatī and sister of Nanda Thera. Seeing that most of her kinsmen had joined the Order, she too became a nun, not from faith, but from love of her kin. Being intoxicated with her own beauty, she did not go to see the Buddha lest he should rebuke her. The rest of her story is very similar to that of Abhirūpa Nandā. The Buddha taught her and she became a Stream-winner. He then gave her a topic of meditation, and she, developing insight, became an Arahant. Later she was declared foremost among nuns in power of meditation, an eminence which she had resolved to obtain in the time of Padumuttara Buddha. Thag.vs.82‑6; ThigA.80 f; Ap.ii.572 f; A.i.25; AA.i.198 f.

She seems to have been called Rūpanandā (AA.i.198) too; there seems to have been some confusion in the legends of the different nuns named Nandā.