History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c11.s9.23

c11.s9.23

The sources give few indications of Makkhali Gosāla's movements and activities during his career as a religious leader. That he sometimes left Sāvatthi is shown by the *Uvāsaga Dasāo*,⁵ which describes the conversion by Mahāvīra of a wealthy Ājīvika layman of Polāsapura, Saddālaputta the potter. Hearing of the defection of his disciple, Gosāla is said to have visited Polāsapura soon after Mahāvīra's departure, attended by a crowd of followers. He went first to the *Ājīviya-sabhā*, where he left his begging bowl, and then, accompanied only by a few of his chief followers, visited Saddālaputta. The latter greeted him without the reverence due from a disciple to his spiritual master. After some discussion Gosāla is purported to have admitted that Mahāvīra was a *mahā-māhaṇa*,⁶ and to have praised him in Jaina terms. Saddālaputta then asked him whether he felt himself competent to dispute with Mahāvīra, and he admitted that he did not. Finally the potter offered him hospitality, but only because he had praised his new teacher Mahāvīra. For some time Gosāla resided in the potter's workshop, but Saddālaputta, in spite of much persuasion, was unable to convert him to Jainism.