History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s3.45

c17.s3.45

But although the four sects were akin they are nowhere said to have been identical. None of the statements contained in the *Samavāya* or the *Nandi*, or in their commentaries, justifies Hoernle’s view that the Ājīvikas and the Trairāśikas of Rohagupta were the same sect. We interpret them to mean that the Ājīvikas were sometimes also called Trairāśikas, because they maintained the doctrine of the three *nayas*. From one of the statements¹ it would appear that the Trairāśikas were also occasionally called Ājīvikas. The Rohagupta Trairāśikas, who had some points in common with the Ājīvikas and some with the Vaiśeṣikas, were probably in other respects much closer to Jaina orthodoxy than were the Ājīvikas of Gosāla’s sect. That the commentaries to the *Nandi* and *Samavāya* use the words “founded by Gosāla” only in respect of the Ājīvikas, and never of the Trairāśikas, also strongly suggests that the two were separate though in some respects similar. The Trairāśika sect of the Jaina church was founded by Rohagupta; but the Ājīvikas, who were also *trairāśikas* were founded by Gosāla. In using the phrase *Gosālaka-pravartita* the commentators seem to have been consciously trying to avoid any cause of confusion between the two communities.