History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s1.103

c23.s1.103

*M ā n u s a*. These are also seven. Buddhaghosa accepted this word literally, and noted that the total number of men was not seven, but infinite. Were it not for the equivalence of the *Bhagavatī’s* *sanni-gabbhe* and of the *saññi-gabbhā* of the Pāli, it might be suggested that the seven *mānusa* were the last seven human births of the soul. It is also possible that they are connected with the *paüṭṭa-parihāras*, and represent the seven human bodies which the soul reanimates in its last existence, but these are better represented by the *paṭuvā* below. We have already seen that, according to the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* the Ājīvika heavens were called *mānasa* and *māṇusuttara*. It is possible that *mānusa* in the Pāli list is an error, and that the term should be *mānasa*, the seven heavens which the soul inhabits in its last seven divine births. It will be recalled that the confusion of *mānasa* and *māṇusa* occurs in the Prākrit text itself.