History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s6.29

c15.s6.29

Thus the early relations of the two sects seem to have been of a friendly and mutually respectful type, broken only from time to time by quarrels over doctrine and discipline. We have already suggested that relations between Ājīvikas and Buddhists worsened owing to strenuous competition in conversion. With the Jainas the same worsening may have taken place, and for the same reason. The *Uvāsaga Dasāo* speaks of two conversions from Ājīvikism, the first that of Saddālaputta by Mahāvīra,¹ and the second that of an unnamed Ājīvika *deva* by the Jaina layman Kuṇḍakoliya of Kampilla.² The *Bhagavatī* states that many of Gosāla’s adherents deserted him after the magic duel at Sāvatthi. We have no mention of counter-conversions from Jainism and Buddhism to Ājīvikism, but if the lost Ājīvika scriptures were restored to us records of these too would doubtless be forthcoming. Dr. Barua has ingeniously suggested that the *Bhagavatī* account of the killing of the two Jaina disciples Savvāṇubhūti and Suṇakkhatta³ conceals their defection from Jainism to the cause of Gosāla. In view of the clear statement of the text this must remain an unproved and unacceptable hypothesis. More probable is Barua’s further suggestion, that Mahāvīra’s ban on all contact between his followers and those of Gosāla may represent measures taken by the early Jaina community to counteract large-scale defections to the Ājīvikas.⁴