History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c11.s9.26

c11.s9.26

The town of Polāsapura is referred to only in the Jaina scriptures, and no clear indications of its location are given.⁷ We may assume that it was a small town somewhere in the Ganges watershed. The description of Gosāla, attended on his journeyings by many disciples, bears a generic likeness to the stories of the progresses of Buddha and Mahāvīra as recorded in the Buddhist and Jaina scriptures. It is to be noted that the town is depicted as having already an Ājīviya-sabhā, or meeting-place of the Ājīvikas,¹ but that Gosāla did not reside in it, but in the workshop of one of his local supporters; he followed the same practice at Sāvatthi, where his usual place of residence was in Hālāhalā’s pottery. These two instances suggest that he gave his special patronage to the potter caste.