History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c11.s9.29

c11.s9.29

The adulatory terms in which Gosāla is said to have praised Mahāvīra may have no basis of fact. This passage, like many others in the Jaina scriptures, seems to have been composed with the disparagement of Gosāla and the Ājīvikas in view; but if it has any historical significance it is as an indication that the rift between the two teachers was by no means so profound as the Bhagavatī Sūtra indicates. Saddālaputta, even after his conversion by Mahāvīra, continued to give some patronage to Gosāla, thus anticipating the practice of Aśoka and other Indian monarchs of later times, who, while maintaining one specially favoured doctrine, were quite ready to support the representatives of several others.