History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s5.12

c12.s5.12

Dr. A. S. Gopani appears to accept the accuracy of the whole of the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* story of Gosāla, including even the account of his deathbed conversion, without criticism.⁵ In this course we cannot follow him. The whole chapter is pervaded by sectarian prejudice, and, as we have seen, many of its episodes seem to have been devised in order to provide an ignominious origin for certain elements of Ājīvika belief and custom. On the other hand it seems probable that the author used as material for his biography of Gosāla authentic Ājīvika traditions, which he adapted to suit his own purposes. It is not impossible, after critical examination, tentatively to separate this hypothetical Ājīvika tradition from the Jaina interpolations and corruptions. This we have attempted to do in our treatment of the several episodes of Gosāla's life-story. There remains, however, the question : even after the most careful sifting, how much of this residue of authentic tradition is itself historically reliable ? We cannot answer this question, for both Buddhist and Hindu sources are completely silent on the most important incidents of the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* story, and therefore we have no independent confirmation of it. For want of contradictory evidence we can but provisionally accept these unconfirmed traditions wherever they are not inherently improbable, all the while bearing in mind the fact that they are based on the slender authority of a single text, compiled by the opponents of the protagonist of the story ; we must also remember that the final recension of the text in question took place over a millennium after the events it purports to describe, and was carried out by men who had scant regard for historical accuracy.