Khema

Khema was, by tradition, the chief consort of King Bimbisara of Magadha before her renunciation, renowned for her beauty. She is said to have resisted visiting the Buddha, wary of a teacher reputed to criticize attachment to physical appearance, until Bimbisara arranged for her to hear him regardless; the Buddha is said to have conjured a vision of an exquisitely beautiful woman aging before her eyes into decay and death, after which Khema grasped the impermanence of the beauty she had prized and asked to be ordained. She went on to attain arahantship and was declared by the Buddha to be foremost among his nun disciples in wisdom, the female counterpart in that respect to Sariputta among the monks. Verses attributed to her appear among the Therigatha, and she is remembered for a recorded dialogue with King Pasenadi of Kosala on the nature of the Buddha after death.