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Sec. VIT
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
435
the city of Śrāvasti and declaring him Jinapralāpin (false Jina) and Sramanaghātaka (killer of Sramaņas), etc. Having said thus, he breathed his last with these words.
It is clear from a comparative study of all these evidences furnished by the Bhs, other Jaina texts and Buddhist works regarding the life of Gośāla Mankhaliputra that they were coloured with the sectarian bias borne against the Ājžvika sect led by him to a certain extent, though they differ in details. Certain facts emerge out of these evidences regarding the life of Gośāla that he was the greatest rival leader to Lord Mahāvira and Lord Buddha and he was an outstanding spiritual leader of the Äjivika sect, as it is admitted by the Master himself. Moreover, the study of the references to his practice of severe austerities on the Atāpanabhīmi during his stay in the premise of Hālāhalā, his fiery energy (tapateja) acquired by penance, his personality and the character of the potteress should not be taken to throw any shade of doubt upon his chaste life, though some Jain texts level the charge of unchastity against him and his followers.
It is an attempt made by the rival sects of the Ajēvikas who are motivated and guided by the sectarian bias to paint their leader and his doctrine in a blackest possible way, to establish their own religion in the society of those days. But this manner of their presentation of the life of Gośāla has placed him on the highest pedestal of glory along with the other leaders of thought of his period.
Predecessors of Gosāla Mankhaliputra
It has already been pointed out that the account of the cycle of births undergone by Gosāla shows the existence of the Ājivika sect 133 years before him. Moreover, his proclamation
1 BhS, 15, 1, 555. 1 Jaina Sutra, ii, vii, pt. 1 & Il in S.B.E. Vol. xxii & xxiji. & Ib, II, 270; II, 245.
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