History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s6.48

c12.s6.48

On a careful examination of the two stories, however, it seems by no means certain that they refer to the same campaign. The *gandha-hatthī* of the Jaina account reminds the reader of the *gandha-bhaṇḍam* of the Pāli and we may suggest that the author of the *Nirayāvalikā* and Buddhaghosa both worked on the same tradition, but that one of the two, probably the latter, had received it in a garbled form. The obscure perfumed material of the Pāli account is less plausible than the tame elephant of the *Nirayāvalikā*, and the latter therefore seems more reliable in this particular. The two stories agree on the break-up of the confederation, and on the betrayal of Vesāli by an agent of Magadha. Otherwise they have little in common.