Jain Journal 1985 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 14

JANUARY, 1985
Maskarin class of religious mendicants...... The Maskarin, as a rule, led a solitary life and the adoption of this manner of life was open to very grave abuses. Hence some men of commanding personality conceived the task of regulating the tendency (to abuses)......by organizing the mendicants into communities governed by strict rules of conduct."
The Ajivikas emerged as an independent heretical sect in eastern India as early as the time of Buddha and Mahavira. The first Ajivika whom Buddha met and conversed was Upaka. It is stated that Buddha in course of his journey towards Sarnath (near Benaras, U.P.) for expressing his experience of 'Release' vis-a-vis preaching his Dhammatothe Pancavaggiya ascetics had come into contact with the noted Ajivika ascetic apparently near Gaya. Upaka is said to have encountered with the Buddha in connection with latter's enlightenment as well as Buddha's claim of Jina-hood.?
In fact, all these are in a conjectural stage. The history of the beginning of the Ajivikas like that of the Jainas is shrouded in many confusions and complications. Of course, a viable chronology of the history and development of the sect with considerable amount of certainty can be worked out after Gosala ; but the Pali texts never depict Gosala as the founder of the sect. Several teachers like Nanda Vaccha,' Kisa Sankicca10 and Panduputtall are mentioned in the Pali canon and it appears that at least the first two were represented as important personalities in the field of contemporary religion and philosophy. Buddhal2 declares that although the Ajivikas had existed for a long time, they had only three reputed teachers, viz., Nanda Vaccha, Kisa Sankicca and Mokkhali Gosala. It
5 ERE., i, p. 260 ; Panini, Astadhyayi, IV.1, 154 ; Patanjali's Mahabhasya (ed.
Kielhorn), II1.96. & G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, I, pp.179-80, 385 ff.;
Majjhima-nikaya, Ariyapariyesana-sutta, i, pp.160-75. ? Jataka, 1.81 ; Mahavagga (trans. I.B. Horner), p.11. 8 In fact we have no textual evidences exclusively meant for this sect. Buddhist references to Gosala's doctrine are sometimes confused, e.g., in Anguttara-nikaya, Ill. 383 his classifications are attributed to Purana and in Majjhima-nikaya, I. 513, part of his doctrines is combined with those of the Pakudha. B. M. Barua (Journal of the Department of Letter, II, pp.1-80) provides an exhaustive list of these sources and makes a comparison to these Buddhist references with those found in the Jaina texts in order to form an idea of the fundamentals of Gosalian
dogmatics. . Malalasekera, op. cit., II, p.14. 19 Ibid., 1, p. 609. 11 Ibid., II, p. 123. 12 Majjhima-nikaya, Sandaka-sutta, no. 76 ; Malalasekera, op. cit., II, p.14.