History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c10.s1.16

c10.s1.16

From this, and from many other passages in the Pāli canon, it is quite clear that Buddhism in its early stages had to contend not only with the orthodox brāhmaṇas and with the adherents of the twenty-fourth *tīrthaṅkara* of Jainism, who is the sixth teacher of the above list, but also with the followers of several other religious leaders. The six heretics must have been the most important members of a class which contained many lesser men, with smaller more localized followings, whose names and doctrines have now completely vanished. There is no need to accept the view which, both implicitly and explicitly, is to be found expressed in Dr. B. M. Barua's *Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy*, that these men were philosophers or theologians in a modern sense. Rather it seems probable that in the sixth century B.C. the mental life of India was in ferment, and was permeated by a mass of mutually contradictory theories about the universe and man's place therein, some verging on the bizarre in their fancifulness, others more capable of a logical justification. The chief mouthpieces of the new ideas were Buddha and Mahāvīra, but many others, including the six heretics, must have made some contribution to the thought of their time.