India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c11.s3.7

c11.s3.7

In the canonical scriptures of the Jains, Makkhali Gosāla has been mentioned as Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta (*Uvāsaga Dasāo*, Hoernle, p. 97), while in the Sanskrit Buddhist texts he figures under the name of Maskarī Gośāliputra (*Divyāvadāna*, p. 143) (Chatterji, op. cit. p. 331, who concludes that Makkhali was undoubtedly a Maskarī ascetic). The views of this teacher are echoed in the Brahmanical literary tradition under the name of Maṅki who discarded *paurusha* in favour of a belief in destiny alone (*Śuddhaṁ hi daivamevedaṁ haṭhe naivāsti paurusham*) and preached *nirveda* (cf. the doctrine of *Śānti* attributed to Maskarī in the *Bhāshya*) as the best principle (*Śāntiparvan*, Ch. 177, vv. 1-14).