History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s3.8

c12.s3.8

The interpolation of Mahāvīra's prophecy is very significant. The writer of the Bhagavatī seems to have composed this passage with the same motive as he did that on the sesamum plant⁶—to discredit the Ājīvikas by attributing an unworthy origin to points of Ājīvika doctrine. Thus in its details the account may be unreliable; but the essential import of the passage, that Gosāla during his last illness laid down certain new doctrines based on his own actions and on the events of the time,⁷ is by no means incredible, and may be accepted for want of contrary evidence.