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१५७
जुलाई - २०१६
considered a tīrthamkara by his followers. Originally a disciple of Pasa and wearing cloths and using an alms bowl Mahāvīra after meeting Gosāla adopted nudity and eating from his cupped hands. Further, the Jains probably borrowed the idea of social classes (in the form of lesyās), and astrology and fortune telling from the Ājīvikas with whom in the beginning they may have shared a corpus of authoritative texts, the Puvvas, of which tradition the noncanonical Isibhāsiyāim perhaps became an offshoot (p. 78). These Puvvas may have contained the Mahanimittas of the Ajīvikas and were therefore probably forgotten deliberately.
PB also discusses several other beliefs and practices such as sallekhaṇā, determinism, syād-vāda/anekānta-vāda, the tripartite pattern of jīva, a-jīva and jivâjīva, and the art of the Ajivikas with many of his own photographs, and is certainly right in his last sentence: "Jainism and its contributions to Indian religious, ascetic and philosophical traditions would look quite different, had there not been Gosāla Mankhaliputta and the Ājīvikas."
The books stands out by precise analysis, is very readable despite its many learned excursions, and has an extensive bibliography and a good index. An early Indian edition is a must for Jains with real interest in the history and contents of their religion.
Prof. Dr. Willem Bollée
Don-Bosco-Str. 2 D-96047 Bamberg Tel. 0951-69481 willem.bollée@t-online.de
