History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.4

c12.s6.4

Reliable synchronisms of the events of Gosāla’s life with that of the Buddha do not exist. The Sāmañña-phala Sutta depicts him, together with the other five heretical teachers, as being alive during the reign of King Ajātasattu of Magadha,¹ but this statement is of little value as a synchronism, especially when it is remembered that all six are referred to in the Milinda Pañha as the contemporaries of King Menander of Sākala.² In the Saṃyutta Nikāya³ King Bimbisāra, Ajātasattu’s father and predecessor, is reported to have told the Buddha that the six heretics were well established in their status as teachers,⁴ while the Buddha was young and had but recently become a mendicant.⁵ This suggests that Makkhali Gosāla was considerably older than the Buddha, but no value can be placed on the statement, for the heretics seem here obviously introduced as representatives of older and well-established philosophic schools, and not as individuals.