History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c10.s2.43

c10.s2.43

The second version is a little earlier, the date of its translation, as given by Rockhill, being A.D. 381-395. Here Pūraṇa becomes the materialist; Maskarin Gośāla declares “there is no present world nor the world to come, nor power nor powerlessness, nor energy. All men have obtained their pleasure and pain (?)”—an obscure doctrine, clearly owing much to Ajita’s pronouncement in the Pāli, but evidently implying fatalism in its last phrase. The prevaricating sceptic is here Ajita; “Kakuda’s” teaching is almost unintelligible in the translation—“If there be a man who has been cut off and who sees with his eyes, there can be no dispute (about the question). If the life of the body comes to an end there is nothing to grieve about in the death of life”; Sañjayin declares that there is no reward of sin or virtue—Pūraṇa’s doctrine in the Pāli Sutta; and Nirgrantha maintains that all is the effect of *karma*.