Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c21.28

c21.28

Thus the Buddhists were only one among other Samaṇa sects of the country; the Buddha was only one, though the most illustrious one, among many other religious reformers like Mahāvīra, Gosāla, at first a pupil and later a rival of the former, and his nephew Jamāli leading an independent sect; nay, even the Buddha was not the first to be honoured by that title of 'the enlightened one' or the other title of Jina, the Conqueror. Thus the Buddha himself was frequently styled 'the Samaṇa Gotama', and his disciples 'the Samaṇas who follow the son of the Śākya house'.