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Bhagwan Mahavir ]
[ 371
Akampita of Vimalapuri, Achala Bhrata of Kaushala City, Taitarya ( Maitarya ) of village Tungika, and Prabhasa of Raja-griha, with three hundred of their students each.
These eleven scholars were highly learned and were regarded as authorities in all matters pertaining to theology. But, in fact, they had doubts about many religious points. Doubt and knowledge are contradictory, and they cannot exist together; and, therefore, it can be easily concluded that their knowledge was not perfect. They were quite well-known but their knowledge was one-sided. But they had become so famous and were so very proud of their knowledge that they regarded it as an insult to have their doubts removed by telling them to others. That was why they were always labouring under the weight of their doubts. Sometimes they were subject to self-rebuke; but they were so particular about their false vanity that they did not even try to understand themselves. Not only one Pundit or two, but all the eleven had one kind of doubt or the other in their minds. Indra-bhuti doubted in the " existence of Jiva,” and Agnibhuti, in the "existence of karma". Vayu-bhuti's doubt was, "Is this body the so-called Jiva, or Jiva is some-thing else ?"; and Vyakta's doubt was," Is this world real or unreal ? " Sudharma was uncertain about the different forms of a Jiva in its various births, while Mandita was always busy in thinking as to whether the soul was really destined for " bondage " and " liberation ". Maurya doubted in the existence of the gods, while Akampita was troubled with the question of the existenee of hell." Similarly Achala-Bhrata was doubtful abot' the existence of good and evil,' Maitarya about the existence of the next-world ( paraloka ) and the
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