History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c13.s1.15

c13.s1.15

Meanwhile we have evidence that, at an even later period, Pūraṇa was not forgotten. In the *Tarka-rahasya-dīpikā*, Guṇaratna’s commentary on Haribhadra’s *Ṣaddarśana-samuccaya*, the author presents in his preface a list of theories on the nature of the world, which is interesting from many points of view. “Various theorists,” writes Guṇaratna, “propound various theories on the nature of the world. For instance some declare the world to be born of Nārīśvara; others maintain that it arose from Soma and Agni; . . . some that it is made by Time; . . . the Sāṅkhyas, that it arose from *prakṛti*; the Buddhists, that it is a mere conception (*vijñaptimātram*); Pūraṇa, that it is born of Destiny (*Pūraṇo niyati-janitam*); Parāśara, that it arises by natural evolution (*pariṇāma-prabhavam*); the Turks, that it comes into existence through a wholly divine man from among their religious teachers.¹ These and other teachers of various doctrines are to be found."² Guṇaratna’s list proves that the memory of Pūraṇa survived as late as *c.* A.D. 1400.³ It is surprising that he did not quote Gosāla as the representative of the *niyativādins*, for he must have known the name from its frequent occurrence in his own Jaina literature, which makes only one dubious reference to Pūraṇa. By this time it is doubtful whether Ājīvikas survived in northern India, and those members of the sect with whom Guṇaratna may have come in contact had perhaps deified Makkhali and looked upon Pūraṇa only as their human prophet. As will be shown in a later chapter, at least some of the Dravidian Ājīvikas seem to have held this view.⁴