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APPENDIX A
this explains his outburts against Gośāla and his teachings. One such outburst is recorded in the Anguttara Nikāyal where Buddha calls the doctrine of Gośāla the ‘meanest doctrine' and he is branded as a moghapurisa, which means a 'stupid fellow'. It is interesting that Gośāla alone is the recipient of this epithet in the Pāli canon, but he not only succeeded in soon popularizing his religion in different parts of Madhyadeśa and eastern India but was also able to produce a number of remarkable Ajīvika teachers before his death.
The account of Gośāla's final meeting with Mahāvīra, as recorded in the Bhagavatī, deserves close scrutiny. We are told that this meeting took place in the twenty-fourth year of Gośāla's ascetic life, and 16 years before Mahāvīra's death. The venue of this fateful meeting was the Koșthaka shrine of the city of Śrāvasti.32 Here we find Mahāvīra at first ridiculing Gośāla's claim that he was in possession of perfect knowledge. Gośāla simply denies that he was ever a disciple of Mahāvīra, and asserts, as we have already noted, that he is the eighth prophet of the Ājīvika religion. One of Mahāvīra's disciples called Sunakșatra, who sought to argue on behalf of his guru was consumed by Gośāla's tejoleśyā (anger). Lord Mahāvīra too became a victim of Gośāla's spiritual power and the meeting ended abruptly We are told that the debate was inconclusive and Mahāvīra, as is apparent from a passage in the text, did not succeed in his attempt to destroy the Ajīvika organization of Śrāvastī. However, the Bhagavati represents Gośāla as dying shortly after the meeting in Srāvastī. There is little doubt that the account of Gośāla's death is highly exaggerated, and it is probable that his untimely demise promoted the Jaina canonical writer to devise this story.
That the account of his death is not based on fact will be clear from the contradictory and historical statements in the account itself. We have already noted that, according to this account, Gośāla died 16 years before the nirvana of Mahāvīra, yet in another passage we are told that the death of Gośāla coincided with the Mahaśilākantaka war,which, as we know from another passage of the Bhagavati, 44 was fought between Ajātaśatru, on the one hand, and nine Mallas and nine Licchavis, on the other. Now, we definitely know that Ajātaśatru became king 8 years before the Buddha's death, and less than 8 years before Mahāvīra's demise. Therefore, Gośāla, who according to the Bhagavatī died 16 years before Mahāvīra, was not alive when Kūņika Ajātaśatru ascended the Magadhan throne, and the passage which affirms that his death coincided with that
