Read the passage and answer the question:

The Therigatha

This unique Buddhist text, part of the Sutta Pitaka, is a collection of verses composed by bhikkhunis. It provides an insight into women's social and spiritual experiences. Punna, a desi or slave woman, went to the river each morning to fetch water for her master's household. There she would daily see a Brahmana performing bathing rituals. One morning she spoke to him. The following are verses composed by Punna, recording her conversation with the Brahmana:

I am a water carrier:
Even in the cold
I have always gone down to the water
frightened of punishment
Or the angry words of high-class women.
So what are you afraid of Brahmana,
That makes you go down to the water

(Though) your limbs shake with the bitter cold?
The Brahmana replied:
I am doing good to prevent evil;
anyone young or old
Who has done something bad
is freed by washing in water.

Punna said:
Whoever told you
You are freed from evil by washing in the water?...
In that case all the frogs and turtles
Would go to heaven, and so would the water snakes
and crocodiles!
(Instead) Don't do that thing,
the fear of which
leads you to the water.
Stop now Brahmana!
Save your skin from the cold...

Women who entered the 'sangha' and became teachers of "dhamma', and had attained liberation were known as:

Theris

The correct answer is Option (2) → Theris

Initially, only men were allowed into the sangha, but later women also came to be admitted. According to Buddhist texts, this was made possible through the mediation of Ananda, one of the Buddha’s dearest disciples, who persuaded him to allow women into the sangha. The Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami was the first woman to be ordained as a bhikkhuni. Many women who entered the sangha became teachers of dhamma and went on to become theris, or respected women who had attained liberation.