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History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s7: The Name and Titles of Makkhali Gosāla

History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c12.s7

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The Name and Titles of Makkhali Gosāla

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Before leaving the most famous of the Ājīvika leaders the question of his name and titles calls for further consideration. As we have seen, the name appears in various forms.¹ In the Pāli texts it is Makkhali Gosāla; in Buddhist Sanskrit, Maskarin Gosāla, Gośālīputra, or Gośalīkāputra; in Jaina Prākrit, Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta; and in Tamil, Maṛkali.

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¹ V. supra, p. 34.

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Of these forms the Pāli seems the best. Although the word maṅkha, which Hoernle believed to be a nonce-word, does exist outside the *Bhagavatī Sūtra*,² and even although Gosāla’s father may have been a religious mendicant called by that term,³ the nasal which has found its way into the Jaina form Maṅkhaliputta seems anomalous, and cannot well be the linguistic ancestor of the ṛ in the Tamil form Maṛkali. That this element of the name is a patronymic, as is implied by the Jaina form, is improbable, since it is refuted by the joint testimony of Pāli and Tamil sources. The *Mahāvastu’s* metronymic forms, Gośālī- and Gośalīkā-putra, are nowhere confirmed by Pāli sources, but are if anything disproved by the dubious Jaina statement that the name of Gosāla’s mother was Bhaddā.⁴ It is probable that the personal name of the teacher was Gosāla, and that Makkhali, or Maskarin, a fairly common appellation of a staff-bearing ascetic, was rather a title than a proper name.

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² V. supra, pp. 35–36.

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³ V. supra, *ibid.*

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⁴ V. supra, p. 36.

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The etymology of this word has been established by Hoernle. “It describes Gosāla,” he writes, “as having originally belonged to the Maṅkhali or Maskarin class of religious mendicants.”⁵ The word is explained by Pāṇini as a mendicant who bears a maskara, or bamboo rod.⁶ His commentator Patañjali disagrees with this interpretation. “A mendicant,” he says, “is not called *maskarin* because he has a *maskara* . . . but because he says ‘don’t perform actions, quietude is the best for you!’”¹ Patañjali’s etymology on the basis of the slogan “Don’t perform actions” (*Ma kṛta karmāṇi*) is of the same class as that of Buddhaghosa,² and does not need lengthy consideration from the linguistic point of view, although it may contain a genuine religious slogan which was used by ascetics of a heterodox type, perhaps by the Ājīvikas. Patañjali’s etymology is, however, supported by Vāmana, as a possible derivation, and substantially the same slogan is repeated. “An ascetic, being habitually inactive, is called *maskarin*, from his denial of *karma*. He says ‘don’t perform actions, quietude is best for you!’”³

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⁵ *ERE.* i, p. 260.

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⁶ *Maskara-maskariṇau veṇu-parivrājakayoḥ.* Aṣṭādhyāyī vi, 1, 154.

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¹ *Na vai maskaro 'sy' āst' iti maskarī parivrājakaḥ. . . . Mā kṛta karmāṇi, mā kṛta karmāṇi, śāntir vaḥ śreyas' ity āh' āto maskarī parivrājakaḥ. Mahābhāṣya, ed. Kielhorn iii, p. 93.* ² V. supra, p. 37. ³ *Mākaraṇa-śīlo maskarī karm'-āpavāditvāt parivrājaka ucyate. Sa tv evam āha: “Mā kuruta karmāṇi, śāntir vaḥ śreyas' iti. Kāśikā, ed. Balasastri, p. 522.* ⁴ V. infra, pp. 99–100. ⁵ V. supra, pp. 68, 11. ⁶ V. supra, p. 56. ⁷ V. infra, p. 276.

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Despite the testimony of Patañjali and Vāmana we cannot accept this fantastic derivation in the face of Pāṇini. It must be assumed that the name Maskarin, Makkhali, or Maṅkhali was connected with the fact that its owner carried a bamboo staff. That such staff bearing ascetics existed is clear from various references to *maskarins* and *ekadaṇḍins*, which will be considered in a later chapter.⁴

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The title Maskarin seems to have been that by which Gosāla was most widely known among his followers, for the Tamil texts have no apparent knowledge of his personal name, which seems to have been neglected or forgotten. It seems that, as with the names of the founders of Buddhism and Jainism, growing reverence for the Ājīvika leader led to the gradual disuse of his personal name in favour of the title. Apparently he was also known by other titles of a more exalted type. Both the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* and the *Sāmañña-phala Sutta* mention him as claiming the title of *tīrthaṅkara*.⁵ The former text adds that he called himself *jina*, *arhant*, and *kevalin*.⁶ In the Tamil we find *Maṟkali* referred to as *Āptan*,⁷ a rather unusual title which may have had a specifically Ājīvika connotation.

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