History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.7

c12.7

The passage describing the visit of the *disācaras* is of great obscurity. The author introduces into the story six new characters, who seem to have been responsible for the collation of the Ājīvika scriptures from earlier material. The character of the newcomers is obscure, and the compound *disācara* seems unique. It is not quoted either in the St. Petersburg Lexicon or in the Dictionary of the Pāli Text Society, and seems not to occur elsewhere in the Jaina texts, this being the only reference given in Ratnacandrajī's *Ardha-māgadhī Dictionary*.