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{{Short description|Ascetic teacher of ancient India}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| image = Four Scenes from the Life of the Buddha - Parinirvana - Kushan dynasty, late 2nd to early 3rd century AD, Gandhara, schist - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC05119.JPG
| alt = Makkhali Gosala
| caption = On the left: [[Mahakashyapa]] meets an Ajivika and learns of the [[Parinirvana]]<ref>Marianne Yaldiz, Herbert Härtel, Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums; an Exhibition Lent by the Museum Für Indische Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982
p. 78</ref>
| religion = Founder of [[Ajivika]]
}}
{{PaliCanonSamanaViews}}
'''Makkhali Gosala''' ([[Pāli]]; [[Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit|BHS]]: Maskarin Gośāla; [[Jain]] [[Prakrit]] sources: Gosala Mankhaliputta) or '''Manthaliputra Goshalak''' was an [[shramana|ascetic]] teacher of ancient India. He was a contemporary of [[Gautama Buddha|Siddhartha Gautama]], the founder of [[Buddhism]], and of [[Mahavira]], the last and 24th [[Tirthankara]] of [[Jainism]].

== Sources ==
Details about Gosala's life are sparse. All of the available information about Gosala and about the [[Ājīvika]] movement generally comes from Buddhist and Jain sources. As Gosala's teachings appear to have been rivals of those of the Buddhist and Jain leaders of his day, this information is regarded by most scholars as being overtly influenced and coloured by sectarian hostilities.

Two primary sources describe Gosala's life and teaching: the Jain [[Bhagavati Sutra]], and [[Buddhaghosa]]'s commentary on the Buddhist Sammannaphala Sutta.<ref name="Basham">{{cite book |last=Basham |first=A.L. |author-link=A.L. Basham |title=History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas |year=2002 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |location=Delhi, India |isbn=81-208-1204-2}}</ref>{{rp|35}} The Bhagavati Sutra goes into detail about the career of Makkhali Gosala and his relationship with Mahavira; the Sammannaphala Sutra itself mentions Makkhali in passing as one of six leading teachers of philosophy of the Buddha's day, and Buddhaghosa's commentary provides additional details about his life and teaching.

== Early life ==
According to the ''Bhagavati Sutra'', Gosala was born in the village of Saravana, a name meaning 'thicket of reeds'.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|37}} His mother's name is given as 'Bhadda', a name used in many Jaina sources to refer to the unknown mother of some mythological figure, while his father's name is given as Mankhali.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|35–36}} Gosala's father was said to be employed as a ''mankha'', a somewhat obscure class of mendicant or ascetic that seems to have been occupied with carrying an image of a god or goddess, and with singing religious songs.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|35}}

The name 'Gosala' literally means 'cow shed', and both the Bhagavati Sutra and Buddhaghosa claim that Gosala was so named because he was born in a cow shed, his parents being unable to find more suitable lodgings in the village of Saravana.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|36}} The Bhagavati Sutra reports that Gosala went on to follow his father's profession, becoming a ''mankha''. Meanwhile, Buddhaghosa claims that Gosala was born into slavery, and became a naked ascetic after fleeing from his irate master, who managed to grab hold of Gosala's garment and disrobe him as he fled.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|37}} While it is possible that the broad outlines of Gosala's birth story or early life are correct—that he was born into poverty in a cowshed—it may be equally likely that these versions of his early life were concocted by Buddhist and Jain partisans to bring a rival teacher into disrepute.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|38}}

The philosopher's true name seems to have been Maskarin, the Jaina Prakrit form of which is Mankhali and the Pāli form Makkhali. "Maskarin" is explained by Pāninī (VI.i.154) as "one who carries a bamboo staff" (maskara). A Maskarin is also known as Ekadandin. According to Patañjali (Mahābhāsya iii.96), the name indicates a School of Wanderers who were called Maskarins, not so much because they carried a bamboo staff as because they taught "Don't perform actions, don't perform actions, quietism (alone) is desirable to you". The Maskarins were thus fatalists or determinists.{{sfn|Barua|1920|p=12}}

==Makkhali Gosala and Mahavira==
The Bhagavati Sutra states that Gosala became Mahavira's disciple three years after the start of Mahavira's asceticism, and travelled with him for the next six years.{{sfn|Dundas|2002|p=29}}<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|40}} A commentary to the Jain Avasyaka Sutra provides details of these six years of association, many of them reflecting poorly on Gosala- another likely indication of sectarian bias.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|41–45}} Several incidents in the narrative show Mahavira making predictions that then come true, despite Gosala's repeated attempts to foil them. These incidents were likely included in the narrative to provide motivation for Gosala's later belief in the inevitability of fate.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|40}} Some of these incidents may in fact have been adapted from Ajivika sources but recast by Jaina chroniclers.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|46}}

Another possible adaptation of an Ajivika story is found in Mahavira's explanation of the end of the association between himself and Gosala, recorded in the Bhagavati Sutra.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|48–49}} On coming to a plant by the roadside, Gosala asked Mahavira what the fate of the plant and its seeds would be. Mahavira stated that the plant would grow to fruition, and the seed pods would grow into new plants. Determined to foil his master's prediction, Gosala returned to the plant at night and uprooted it. Later, a sudden rain shower caused the plant to revive and re-root itself. Upon approaching the plant again later, Gosala claimed to Mahavira that he would find his prophecy to have been foiled. Instead, it was found that the plant and its seeds had developed exactly as predicted by Mahavira. Gosala was so impressed by the reanimation of the plant that he became convinced that all living things were capable of such reanimation. The terms used in the story of the Bhagavati Sutra for reanimation mimic a technical term for reanimation of the dead that is also found elsewhere in Ajivika doctrine.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|48–49}} Mahavira disagreed with this thesis, and this seems to have been the cause of the separation of the two ascetics. Mahavira is, however, later depicted as having rescued Gosala from an attack by an enraged renunciant using magical powers acquired through the practice of austerities; this is claimed to motivate Gosala's pursuit of the same sort of magical powers.<ref name="Basham"/>{{rp|49–50}}

==Death==
[[A. L. Basham]] dates the death of Gosala in 484 BC on the basis of ''[[Mahavamsa]]''.{{sfn|Kailash Chand Jain|1991|p=75}}

==In literature==
Gosala appears briefly as a "cameo" character in the 1981 [[Gore Vidal]] novel ''[[Creation (novel)|Creation]]'', a fictional account of the [[Persian Wars]] of the 5th century BC, told from the perspective of a widely travelled Persian diplomat, Cyrus Spitama, who is depicted as the grandson of [[Zoroaster]] and boyhood friend of [[Xerxes I]]. In early adulthood, thanks to his facility with languages, Cyrus is appointed by King [[Darius I]] as the Persian ambassador to the kingdoms of India. While travelling across the Subcontinent, Cyrus stops at the city of [[Mathura]], where he is accosted by the Jain sage, who lectures Cyrus about his views on the inevitability of fate, and his disagreements with Mahavira.<ref>Gore Vidal, ''Creation: A Novel'' (Random House, 1981), pp.189-192</ref>

'Khanti Kikatia' is a novel focused on the life of Makkhali Gosala, written by Ashwini Kumar Pankaj in the [[Magahi]] language.<ref>Ashwini Kumar Pankaj, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CIlVDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Khanti Kikatia]: A Novel based on life and thought of Makkhali Goasala'' (Pyara Kerketta Foundation, 2018)</ref>

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book |last=Barua |first=B.M. |title=The Ajivikas| year=1920 |publisher=University of Calcutta | url = https://archive.org/stream/ajivikas00barurich#page/n3/mode/2up }}
* {{cite book |last=Basham |first=A.L. |title=History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas| orig-year = 1951| year=2002 |edition=2nd |publisher=Moltilal Banarsidass Publications |location=Delhi, India | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BiGQzc5lRGYC |isbn= 81-208-1204-2 }} originally published by Luzac & Company Ltd., London, 1951.
* {{citation |last=Jain |first=Kailash Chand |author-link=Kailash Chand Jain |title=Lord Mahāvīra and His Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-TxcO9dfrcC |date=1991 |publisher=[[Motilal Banarsidass]] |isbn=978-81-208-0805-8 |ref={{sfnref|Kailash Chand Jain|1991}} }}
* Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) and [[Bhikkhu Bodhi|Bodhi, Bhikkhu]] (ed.) (2001). ''The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya''. Boston: Wisdom Publications. {{ISBN|0-86171-072-X}}.
* [[Thanissaro Bhikkhu]] (trans.) (1997). ''Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life'' ([[Digha Nikaya|DN]] 2). Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html.
* Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (trans.) (1995). ''The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya''. Somerville: Wisdom Publications. {{ISBN|0-86171-103-3}}.
* {{citation |last=Dundas |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Dundas |title=The Jains |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8iAAgAAQBAJ |edition=Second |date=2002 |orig-year=1992 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-26605-X }}

== External links ==
*[http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/ma/makkhali_gosala.htm Makkhali Gosala – Buddhist perspective]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gosala, Makkhali}}
[[Category:6th-century BC Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Date of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Date of death unknown]]
[[Category:Spiritual teachers]]
[[Category:Indian slaves]]
[[Category:Ancient slaves]]

Makkhali Gosala - Revision history

UpdateBot at 17:33, 17 February 2022