History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c21.s2.16

c21.s2.16

The *Mahānāradakassapa Jātaka* ⁴ also contains a number of verses expressing heterodox views, which may have been taken from authentic sources. These are put into the mouth of the ascetic teacher Guṇa, who is called indiscriminately *acelaka* and *ājīvika*, and are verse paraphrases of some of the doctrines assigned in the *Sāmañña-phala Sutta* to Makkhali, Pūraṇa, and Pakudha. Similar passages may be found in *Mahābodhi Jātaka*,⁵ and in the *Petavatthu*.⁶ These verses, and the similar prose passages in the *Sāmañña-phala Sutta* seem to have had a common source, whether in prose or verse, in an authentic Ājīvika work.