History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c13.s3.20

c13.s3.20

About Pakudha’s life and works we have no certain information. Dr. Malalasekera states that his followers did not hold him in high esteem, and that he did not lay claim to full enlightenment,⁵ but the references on which he bases his statement ⁶ repeat the same phrases for each of the six heretical leaders, and therefore do not carry conviction. Elsewhere the six are referred to as being held in great respect,⁷ and Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta and Makkhali Gosāla certainly seem to have laid claim to full enlightenment, although in the passages referred to they, along with the four other heretics, are said not to have done so.