She was the daughter of a good and wealthy merchant of Ujjenī. Having come of age, she was given in marriage to the son of a merchant in Sāketa.

For one month she lived with him as a devoted wife; then because of her past kamma, her husband became estranged from her, and turned her out of the house. She was married again with the same result, and a third time to a friar. Isidāsī’s father persuaded him to give up the pilgrim’s life; he dwelt with his wife only for a fortnight and refused to stay with her any more. Isidāsī then met the therī Jinadattā, whom she entertained to a meal at her house. Under Jinadattā, Isidāsī joined the Order and became an arahant.

The Therīgāthā, Thig.400–447 which contains forty-seven verses ascribed to her, describes not only her present life, but also her past lives. She had been a worker in gold in Erakaccha and had committed adultery in that life. As a result she was born in hell for a long time, and, in subsequent births became an ape, a goat, an ox, a hermaphrodite slave and a carter’s daughter. In this last birth she was sold to a merchant in payment of her father’s debts. When she was sixteen, the merchant’s son, Giridāsa, fell in love with her and married her. He had already one wife, and the new one caused dissension between her and her husband. Therefore it was that in this life she was hated by her husbands.