History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c13.s2.43

c13.s2.43

We may tentatively reconstruct the relations of the two prophets as follows :—Pūraṇa, a heretical leader of long standing, maintaining a fatalistic doctrine with tendencies to antinomianism, came in contact with Makkhali Gosāla, a younger teacher with doctrines much the same as his own, but with a more successful appeal to the public. Recognizing his eclipse, he admitted the superiority of the new teacher, and accepted the sixfold classification of men, which placed Makkhali Gosāla and his forerunners Nanda Vaccha and Kisa Saṅkicca in the highest category.¹ Soon after this he decided that his star had set, and ended his own life.