Jaina Religion Historical Journey of Evolution

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution
It is accepted in Jaina Āgamas and their commentaries that only in the second year of Mahāvīra's renunciation Makkhali Gośāla came in close contact with him, and stayed together for a few years. But on the issues of fatalism and the concept of Puruşārtha they had differences and thus they drifted apart from each other. Hermann Jacobi has even surmised that nakedness etc. and the stringency in the code of conduct in the Nirgrantha tradition of Mahāvīra is due to the influence of Ajīvaka tradition. This is true that there was a tradition of Ajivakas, which had Acāryas such as Arjuna etc. However, due to lack of historical evidences it is difficult to say that the rigour of conduct in Mahāvīra's tradition came from Ajīvaka tradition or it was the other way round i.e. it went from Mahāvīra's tradition to the Ajīvaka tradition. Because there is no factual evidence as to whether Gośāla got attached to Ajivaka tradition after separating from Mahāvīra or he had already joined Ajīvaka tradition before, and came to Mahāvīra later. Still, it is certain that the Ajivaka tradition retained its identify till the 1" and 2nd century AD. This was a rival Šramaņa tradition against the Nirgranthas and the Buddhists, whose monks used to live naked like those of the Digambara sect of Jainas. Jainas and Ajīvakas despite being rivals used to be more respectful towards each other than with other sects of Sramaņa tradition. This is