Sumangalmata (6th c. BCE?), the wife of a maker of shade umbrellas and hats, was a member of the earliest community of women followers of Shakyamuni Buddha. Many of these women left accounts of their practice in poetry.

A Women Well Set Free

At last free,
at last I am a woman free!
No more tied to the kitchen,
stained amid the stained pots,
no more bound to the husband
who thought me less
than the shade he wove with his hands.
No more anger, no more hunger,
I sit now in the shade of my own tree.
Meditating thus, I am happy, serene.