Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 25

The Parivrăjakas
ent faiths.
It is against this background that the history of the contemporary religious schools should be read. The experience of social change and sufferings is, as pointed out by Toynbee, 28 connected with the quest of new pathways in religion and philosophy. Among the contemporaries heretical teachers who were also influenced and inspired by the wave of dissatisfaction with the system of orthodox Brāhmaṇism as well as the ruthless political and unhealthy socioeconomic conditions of the period, the following names mentioned in the Pāli canons are worth-noting.
(a) Pūrņa Kassapa, a senior contemporary of the Buddha and Mahāvira, known by the appellation of ahetuvādin, 29 is said to have claimed omniscience.30 Buddhaghoşal speaks of that Kassapa came to be known by his name from the fact that his birth completed (pūrņa) one hundred slaves in a certain household. In the Digha-nikāya,32 the teacher while explaining his philosophy said that there is neither merit nor demerit in any kind of action. The doctrine is based on Akiriyāvāda or the theory of non-action in which the soul does not act and the body alone acts. B.M. Baruaa3 considers it as Adhiccasamuppannikavāda, i.e., things happen fortuitiously without any cause or condition; while Silanka, a Jaina commentator, speaks of its resemblance with that of the Sankhya system.34 But N. Dutta thinks otherwise: “It would be wide of the mark if we say Kassapa's teaching is the same as that of Sankhya, though it holds that Purusa is only an onlooker, an inactive agent, the functioning factor being the praksti."35 In fact, the doctrine of Kassapa is so peculiar that we cannot come across any similarity to the six systems of Indian philosophy.
(b) Makkhali Gośāla was at first a follower of Jainism of the Pārsvanātha tradition. As he was not appointed a gañadhara in Nigantha Nātaputta's order, he left the Jaina Sangha and founded another sect called Ajivika.36 He was a naked ascetic. Pāṇini, the noted grammarian, describes him as Maskarin as he always carries a bamboo staff.37 According to Buddhaghoşa, Makkhali Gośāla was once employed as a servant. One day while carrying an oil pot along a muddy road, he slipped and fell through carelessness although warned thus by his master: må khali (stumble not). Hence he is called Makkhali. He was designated Gośāla because he was born in a cow-shed.38 This school is known by some as ahetukaditthi or akiriyāditthi,39 while the others designate it as