[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Dictionary of Pali Proper Names](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937) › v1.c14.1052 # Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c14.1052 Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names v1.c14.1052 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c14.1052](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14.1052) 1. Gotamaka.—A class of ascetics, enumerated in a list of such classes.¹ Rhys Davids thinks² they were almost certainly the followers of some other member of the Sākyan clan, as distinct from the Buddha, and suggests that it might have been Devadatta or possibly a brahmin of the Gotamagotta. The \*Lalita-vistara\*,³ however, speaks of the Gautamas in a list of nine such sects; the Gotamakas and the Gautamas are evidently identical, as several of the other classes correspond with the Pāli. According to the \*Lalita-vistara\*, these sects existed even before the Buddha, for they are represented as meeting and addressing him in the sixth week after the Enlightenment, on his way to the Ajapāla-tree. We hear no more of them in subsequent history. - [Previous: v1.c14.1051.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14.1051.2) - [Next: v1.c14.1053](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14.1053) - [Up: v1.c14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14.1052](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.malalasekera-1937.v1.c14.1052) · Pramāṇa