• Anulā

1. Anulā.Daughter of Mutasiva, King of Ceylon, and wife of Mahānāga, who was brother and sub-king to Devānampiya-Tissa. With five hundred other women she heard Mahinda preach the Petavatthu, the Vimānavatthu and the Sacca Samyutta, and together with the others became a Stream-enterer (Mhv.Xiv.56-7; Dpv.xi.8; xii.82). Later, hearing the sermon preached by Mahinda in the Mahāmeghavana, she, with others, became a Sakadāgāmī, and expressed to the king their wish to receive ordination. It was to enable these to be ordained that Sanghamittā was sent for (Mhv.Xv.18-19; Sp.i.90ff.; Dpv. xv.73ff). Until the arrival of Sanghamittā, Anulā and her companions observed the ten precepts and lived in the Upāsikā Vihāra. Mhv.xviii.9-12. The Tikā (p.388) says they took on the ekāsanikanga vow as well; see also Mbv. pp.121, 144, 167.

After her ordination Anulā became an arahant (Mhv.Xix.65; xvi.41) and was the first woman arahant in Ceylon.

2. Anulā.Widow of Khallātanāga, King of Ceylon, and later wife of Vattagāmani (Mhv.Xxxiii.35, 36). When Vattagāmani 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, Vattagāmani killed him. (Mhv.Xxxiii.62ff).

3. Anulā.Wife of Coranāga and Queen of Ceylon for four months (in A.D. 12-16). She was a lewd woman and killed her husband that she might marry Mahācūla's son, Tissa. She soon got tired of him and poisoned him. Then, in succession, she had as husbands Siva, a palace guard; Vatuka, a Tamil carpenter; Tissa, a woodcarrier; the Tamil 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 Kutakannatissa (Mhv.Xxxiv.16-34; Dpv. xix.50ff).

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

5. Anulā.Daughter of Cūlasetthi of Benares. 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.105ff).

6. Anulā.One of the chief women-supporters of Mangala Buddha (Bu.iv.25).