History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s6.1

c15.s6.1

That Ājīvikas and Jainas were originally on good terms and indeed closely related, is evident from the Jaina tradition of the early friendship and association of Gosāla and Mahāvīra.⁶ The near relationship of the two sects is confirmed by the Buddhist tradition associating Makkhali Gosāla and Pūraṇa Kassapa, the two chief Ājīvika leaders, with Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, or Mahāvīra, as members of the group of six heretics with whom the early Buddhists waged a continuous war of words. The frequent confusion of the terms *nirgrantha* and *ājīvika* in the Buddhist texts⁷ also points in the same direction. That the confusion persisted in some Buddhist circles even as late as post-Mauryan times is shown by a story in the *Divyāvadāna*, in which [Figure: DISCOMFITURE OF A NAKED ASCETIC. (From Foucher, *L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique.*) This is believed by Foucher (op. cit., i, p. 532) to represent Visākhā defying a naked ascetic. The old man on the terrace is perhaps Migāra.]