Women in Buddhism have been characterized in various ways in terms of their ability to achieve the truth of the Buddhahood (enlightenment) based on the Buddhist schools. For example, sutras in Early Buddhism depicted "A woman of a top master of Wisdom" as a woman who achieved enlightenment. But later Hinayana preached that such great persons, including the ten great disciples of Buddha, are limited to men, with women as inferior beings, and as a whole, denied the possibility of women's enlightenment in this lifetime (i.e. woman should be reborn as men in future lifetime). Then Mahayara again stated woman's enlightenment as a result of the present time practices.