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'Nataputta' in Early Nirgrantha Literature
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In the famous "sa-bhikhu" chapter of this work, Nataputta is once more referred to in connection with the six living substantialities (sad[ Jiwa]nikāya), the five great vows (pañca-mahāvratas) and the fifty kinds of channels for control. ( sari vara) over passions:
रोतिय नातपुत्तवचनं अतसमे मनेज्जा छप्पि काए । पंच च फासे महत्वतानि पंचासवसंबरए जे सभिक्खू ||
-वशयकालिक सूत्र, १०.५.
In the Uttaradhyayana-sutra, the reference to Nataputta figures only once, as an ending sentence to its chapter six: This same sentence also figures in the Sutraklanga ( 1.2.3.22), cited in the foregoing. In both cases this seems a later addition, probably of c. first century B.C.-A.D.", though it is hard to determine. which text was the first to receive it.
Among the last works to notice Nataputta' is the Vyakhyāprajñapti, a scholiastic compilation very largely of c. 2nd-3rd cent. A.D., which uses earlier sources and occasionally incorporates phrases in the style of c. 1st cent. B.C.-A.D., particularly in its kathanuyoga passages. The work in the first place, and at two separate but otherwise identical situations, brings in Sramana Nataputta as the expositor of the five existentialities (pañcästikäyas) and statements about which of them possess form and which other are formless; this figures inside the 'Kaludayaprocha' passage where Nātaputta (sometimes with the qualifying word 'Sramapa') is five times mentioned :3
एवं खलु समणे नातपुते पंच अत्विकाए पनवेति धम्मत्थिकार्य अधम्मत्यिकायं जीवत्धिकार्य पोग्गलात्थिकायं आगासत्थिकायं ।
तत्य नं नातपुते चत्तारि अस्थिकाए अजीवकाए पन्नवेति, धम्मत्विकार्य अधम्मत्विकार्य आगासत्थिकार्य पोग्गल त्थिकार्य |
एवं च समणे नातपुते जीवत्विका अरूविकार्य जीवकायं पन्नवेति ।
तत्य नं समणे नातपुते चत्तारि अविकाए अरूविकाए पन्नवेति धम्मत्विकार्य अधम्मत्किार्य आगासत्यिकायं जीवत्यिकायें ।
एगं च नं समणे नातपुते पोग्गलत्थकार्य रूविकार्य अजीवकार्य पन्न वेति ।
Also, in the querries of the śramapopāsaka Maddua, Sramana Natapulta' once again figures in connection with the exposition of the five existentialities. (The date of this phrase may be the same as the last-noted.)
एवं खलु मया ! तव धम्मायरिए धम्मोवएसए समणे नातपुते पंच अस्थिकार्य पन्नवेति'........
In a long passage concerning Somila brahmana, Śramana Nätaputta once again appears in a phrase, though the passage may not be very early and in point
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