History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c11.s7.2

c11.s7.2

During the season of *Śarada* the couple left the *vihāra* at the village of Siddhatthagāma, and set out for Kummāragāma. Neither of these places can be located, but we may assume that they were somewhere in Magadha. On the way to Kummāragāma they passed a flourishing sesamum shrub in full bloom. Looking at it, Gosāla asked Mahāvīra a question, apparently designed to test the latter's intuitive knowledge. "Sir," he asked, "will this sesamum bush bear fruit or not, and what will become of these seven sesamum flowers?"⁴ Mahāvīra replied that the shrub would develop, and that the seven sesamum flowers would produce seven seed-pods in one cluster.¹