ཀན་ཏ་རྒྱ་བ་སན་རངས་ཀྱས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད intro.7
The Questions of Dīrghanakha the Wandering Mendicant intro.7
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intro.7
In the Pravrajyāvastu (The Chapter on Going Forth), the first chapter of the Vinayavastu (Toh 1) in the Kangyur, we find a lengthy biography of Dīrghanakha interwoven with that of his nephew Śāriputra.⁸ This narrative tells of Koṣṭhila (Dīrghanakha)’s upbringing as the son of the learned brahmin Māṭhara who, during the reign of King Bimbisāra, was awarded the entire village of Nālada by winning a debate. We see Koṣṭhila’s privileged upbringing before he is vanquished in debate by his own sister Śārikā and driven to a life of wandering. Finding himself in another country, he becomes a student of the brahmin Tiṣya, a follower of the materialist Lokāyata philosophy that rejected rebirth and the afterlife.