is the reason for the androcentric nature of the Tripitaka?
I am focussing my answer only within the Theravada context which
preserved the teachings in Pali. Theravadins believe that their
teaching is most authentic from a historical point of view.
We need to understand that the Tripitaka that we know of was
not a written work from the Buddha's time. Religious knowledge
was to be practised and handed down from teachers to chosen
disciples. Hence no religious teaching was recorded. This applied
also to the teaching of the Buddha. The Tripitaka was first
recorded in Sri Lanka not before 450 B.E. (about 90 B.C.)
recorded was according to the understanding of the monk recorders.
What they chose to record was subjective, hence it is understandable
why the Tripitaka is androcentric. The Tripitaka was recorded
by men who were ridden with Indian social values. They were
men who by the vinaya, were expected to lead lives of purity.
The most immediate obstacle to their chastity was the opposite
gender. Many teachings as preserved by these men therefore projected
women (embodiment of their obstacles) as evil, unclean, etc.
This is a necessary barrier to fence themselves off from failing
into the pit of the unchaste. While reading the Tripitaka one
must remind oneself of this limitation in order to sift the
essence from its social contextual limitations.
at the teaching from the Paramattha level, one sees clearly
that Buddhism is free from gender bias, Buddhism is the first
religion in the world to recognise the equal spiritual potentiality
of men and women. This provides a special place for Buddhism
which started in India to lift up to the world spiritual level
without boundary in race, caste, or gender.