History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s2.6

c24.s2.6

The atomism of the orthodox Vaiśeṣika school differs from both that of the Ājīvikas and that of the Jainas. The claim of the Jainas to have first formulated an Indian atomic theory may be found in their attribution of the foundation of Vaiśeṣika physics to the schismatic Rohagupta, the leader of the Trairāśika school, with which the Ājīvikas held their logic in common.⁵ This claim is not made until the late *Avaśyaka Sūtra*, and while the doctrine there attributed to Rohagupta contains the nine substances, seventeen qualities, five forms of motion, and other elements of Vaiśeṣika theory,¹ it is nowhere stated that the *aṇus* are divided into categories according to the elements. From the point of view of the text the atom of Rohagupta is still the undifferentiated atom of the Jainas, and not that of the Vaiśeṣika.