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A Study in the Origins and Development of Jainism
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meeting. So the suggestion of Jacobi 'that Mahāvīra and Gośāla associated with the intention of combining their sects and fusing them into one 'can hardly be accepted. So far as joining Mahāvīra by Gośāla as disciple is concerned, we should keep in our mind that the author of the Bhagawati Sūtra is simply placing his master at higher pedastal than Gośāla and most probably he is not very wrong. It is quite possible that the spiritual interest in Gośãla might have led him to Mahavīra who had already earned quite a good reputation as an ascetic in order to learn ascetic practices. We have no other source to tell us that Gośāla had turned to be an ascetic of repute before he joined Mahāvīra. Six years rigorous ascetic practices and constant spiritual thought churning might have brought them to the level of intelleutual thinking where doctrinal differences are quite natural. I feel constrained to agree with Basham and Chatterjee that 'Bhagawati account is pervaded by deadly sectarain prejudice. It is true that Gośãla was not a disciple of Mahavīra in the true sense of the term since Mahāvīra himself was not enlightened and master of the creed at that time. But it is quite unreasonable to say, as has been done by Barua, that 'Gośãla was not a disciple of Mahāvīra, but the latter was in all likelihood either a disciple of or at least in some way connected with, the former'41. In this context it has been asserted that Gośāla was a jīna when Mahāvīra was merely a learner and also Gośāla died about sixteen years before the death of Mahavīra, but these facts do not appear to have any bearing on the nature of relationship between Gośāla and Mahāvīra. When viewed from the point of view of history, Jinahood may be taken as a state of consummation of spiritual thinking and there may not be any fixed time limit for its attainment. The time gap of sixteen years between the death Gośala and that of Mahāvīra is contradicted by another passage of Bhagawati Sutra in which it is stated that the death of the former coincided with the battle fought between Ajataśatru and the joint forces of the Licchavis and Mallas. We know from the Buddhist sources that Ajātasatru became king eigth years before the death of the Buddha. The Buddhist sources also tellus that Mahāvīra
