Ajivikas

The History of the Ajivikas commenced, as the Buddhist records indicate,

with Nanda Vaccha who was succeeded in leadership of the sect by Kisa
Samkicca. The third leader of the Ajivikas and the greatest exponent of their
religio-philosophy in the time of Buddha Gotama was Makkhali Gosala who is
often mentioned as the second in the Buddhist list of six heretical teachers.In
the first four Nikayas and in the most of the Pali texts and commentaries
Nanda Vaccha and Kisa Samkicca are hardly more than mere names, since
these Buddhist sacred books keep us entirely in the dark regarding the
personal history of the two teachers. It is only in the Canonical Jataka Book
and its commentary that we find the mention of a Kisa Vaccha among the
seven chief pupils of a renowned Brahman hermit and teacher named
Sarabhanga. The hermit, known as Jotipala to his parents, is addressed in
one of the Jataka verses by his family name as Kondanna (Sk. Kaundinya).
His hermitage was built on the banks of Godhavari, in the Kavittha forest.
Seeing that his hermitage became crowded, and there was no room for the
multitude of ascetics to dwell there he ordered most of his chief pupils to go
elsewhere, taking with them many thousands of ascetics. But Kisa Vaccha
was one of those who, following the instruction of their teacher, went away
alone. He came to live in the city of KumbhavatI, in the dominion of King
Dandakl. It is related in the Jataka that this king having sinned against Kisa
Vaccha, the guileless hermit, was destroyed with his realm, excluding its
three subordinate kingdoms, of which the Kings Kaliiiga, Atthaka and
Bhimaratha were among the lay followers of Sarabhanga.

The Jataka

literature of the Buddhists also preserves a brief account of another Brahman

hermit called Samkicca, who like Sarabhanga is honoured as a Bodhisatta. 4
It is to be judged from Samkicca's allusion to Kisa Vaccha's humiliation in the

past that he was a successor of the latter. But neither Kisa Vaccha nor
Saiiikicca is represented in the Jataka as a leader of the Ajivika sect. Further,
in view of the discrepancy that exists between the two names, by no stretch
of imagination can Kisa Vaccha be transformed into Nanda Vaccha. The same
difficulty arises in connection with the two names Saiii- kicca and Kisa
Saiiikicca, since the epithet Kisa (lean), applied to the second name, was
apparently.
It is stated that Gosala in his first human existence was born as Udai
Kundiyayana who left his home early in youth for religious life, and that after
having acquired Samkhanarii (higher knowledge), he underwent the seven
changes of body by means of re-animation. The seven reanimations were
undergone successively by Gosala since his Udai-birth in the bodies of
(1) Enejjaga (Sk. Rinaiijaya), outside Rayagiha, for 21 years ;
(2) Mallarama, outside Uddandapura, for 21 years ;
(3) Mandiya, outside Campa, for 20 years ;
(4) Roha, outside Vanarasi, for 19 years ;
(5) Bharaddai (Sk. Bharadvaja), outside Alabhiya, for 18 years ;
(6) Ajjuna Gomayuputta, outside Vesali, lor 17 years;
(7) Gosala Maiikhaliputta, at Savatthi in Hfilabala's pottery bazar, for 16
years.