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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
Bṛhajjataka1 and the Laghujātaka, Varāhamihira mentions them as one of the seven important sects during this time. Their existence in the subsequent centuries is also proved by Silanka3 (circa 876 A. D.), Halayudha* (950 A. D. ) and Somadeva (959 A. D. ). According to the NC., the disciples of Gośāla were known as Pāṇḍurabhikkhus,7 while they have been identified with the Digambaras by Sīlānka.8
The word 'Ajíviya' (Skt. Ajivika) originally denoted a class of mendicants who followed special rules with regard to their livelihood." We are told that Gośāla and his father followed the profession of a mamkha, i. e. earning the liveli hood by exhibiting pictures. In the NC. we find a mamkha earning his livelihood by exhibiting pictures depicted on a canvas or wooden-board (mamkha-phalaga) and telling their religious significance to the people, i. e. the causes of happiness and suffering. 10 Being satisfied by his explanations people provided him with different varieties of food and other requisites. According to the commentary of the Brhat Kalpa Bhasya, a mamkha, who keeps a clean wooden-board (phalaka)
1. Bṛhajjataka, XX.
2. Laghujataka, IX. 12.
3. Suyagada Tikā, 1. 3. 38.
4. Abhidhana Ratnamala, II. 189-90.
5. Yasastilaka, VII. 43, p. 406; see also-Handiqui, op. cit., pp. 284, 373. 6. Three leaders of the Ajivaka school, viz. Nanda Vacca, Kesa Sanikicca and Makkhali Gosāla are known to us, of which nothing except the names of the first two are known. According to A. S. Gopani, the Buddhist references to the Ajivaka school point only to the Ajīvaka school headed and led by Gosala and not the first two.-"Ajīvaka School-A New Interpretation", Bharatiya Vidya, Vol. III, pt. 1 (1941), p. 55.
7. आजीवगा गोसालसिस्सा पंडरभिक्खुआ वि भण्णंति - NC. 3, p. 414.
8. Sūyagaḍa Tikā, 1. 338.
9. Sikdar, op. cit., p. 425.
10. ताहे सो मखो तं दिसिं गंतु वड्याए मंखत्तणेण संखफलकहत्थो गओ । सुहं दुक्खं afa-NC. 3, p. 428; Brh. Vr. 1, p. 65,
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