Book Title: Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline
Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
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The incipient Stage 75
Makkhali Gośāla
There is evidently a substantial similarity between the views of Pūraña and Pakudha, as we have seen above. Indeed, the brutal rise of state power and class society, the ruthless annihilation of the existing moral values and social relations, made them quite upset. That is why the former did not hesitate to say that by killing and plundering a man would commit no sin, and the latter frankly admitted that the act of killing was nothing but transforming one element into another. The same feeling of disappointment was also shared by Makkhali Gośāla who was an influential contemporary of the Buddha and Mahāvīra. He was the founder of a sect which was distinguished as that of the Ajivikas. This sect had a long and eventful career in the religious history of India. Thanks to the efforts of Hoernle, Barua and Basham, we are now in a position to have some positive knowledge about the history and doctrine of the Ājivikas.
The main sources of information regarding Makkhali Gośāla and his doctrine are the Jain Süyagada, Bhagavati Sūtra’ and Aupapātika Sūtra, the Buddhist Sāmaññaphala Sutta, 4 Samyutta Nikāyas (which ascribes the first portion of the Sāmaññaphala account of Gośāla's views Natthi hetu, natthi paccayo, etc., to Pūraņa), Anguttara Nikāya (which confounds Makkhali Gośāla apparently with Ajita Kesakambalin), Mahasaccaka Sutta’, the Chinese and Tibetan versions of the Sāmaññaphala Suttas (where the doctrines of the six teachers are hopelessly mixed up), Milinda Pañho,9 Mahābodhi Jataka, 10 etc. 11
Gośāla in the Pali canon is mentioned as Makkhali Gośāla, but in the Jain scriptures his name is given as Gośāla Mankhaliputta. He was born of a poor family. His father was probably a mankha, i.e., an exhibitor of religious pictures and a bard. According to Jain tradi. tion he was born in a cowshed, which accounts for his name Gośāla,
11. 1.2.1-14; I. 1.4.7-9; II. 1.29; II. 6, with Silārka's commentary, 2XV.1. with Abhayadeva's commentary. *Section 118, 120. *Digha, I, pp. 53-54. with Buddhaghoşa's commentary. SIII. 69. $1. 286. *Majjhima, I-231; cf, I. 36. &Tr. in Rockhill, LB. 'Trenckner's ed. 5. 1°No. 528. 11cf. Barua, PIBP, p. 315.
