History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c11.s5.6

c11.s5.6

The story so far, if deprived of its supernatural incidents, is not incredible, and, with Hoernle, we may believe that it is essentially true. The Pāli texts refer to all six heretical teachers together in such a manner as to suggest that their relations were by no means always mutually antagonistic,³ and numerous points of similarity in Jaina and Ājīvika doctrine and practice suggest the early interaction of the two teachings. But the account of the circumstances of the meeting seems by no means reliable. The earnest entreaties of Gosāla and Mahāvīra’s steadfast refusal to accept him as a disciple are just such elements as would be introduced into the story by an author wishing to stress the inferiority of Ājīvikism to Jainism and of Gosāla to Mahāvīra. Therefore we believe that the text is not to be trusted when it states that the former was formally a disciple of the latter.