W. Hoey —tSet Mahet. 
9 
and the city. Buddha here met Purna Kasyapa and probably also 
Gosala Mankhaliputta, Sanjaya, son of Vairati, Ajita Kesa-kambala, 
Karnda Katyayana and even Nirgrantha Jnataputta (Mahavira of the 
Jains). It is said that Buddha’s opponents fled in dismay on beholding 
some magical exhibitions of his power. They left him victor. Puma’s 
end was melancholy. He was beating his retreat in shame and he met 
a eunuch. It was his habit to go naked, and the eunuch chaffed him, 
asking him why he went about 4 naked,’ shameless like an ass, ignorant 
of the ‘ truth.’ Purna said he was in search of a pool to wash himself, 
and the eunuch pointed one out. Purna tied a jar full of sand round 
his neck, leaped into the water, and was drowned. 
A greater interest attaches to two other names, those of Gosala 
Mankhaliputta and Nirgrantha Jnataputta, because the latter was the 
founder of the Jain sect, and the Jain religion survived and prospered 
in Sravasti long after Buddhism disappeared. G-osala had been a dis¬ 
ciple of Mahavira, but subsequently posed as an independent teacher 
and rival of his early master. The only point to be noted here is that 
Gosala lived in the pottery bazar of the potter’s wife Halahala in Sra¬ 
vasti. He was thus established at this city as a centre for the propa¬ 
gation of his doctrines, and it is not to be doubted that Mahavira also 
made Sravasti one of his centres. Indeed, as I am inclined to think, 
Sravasti was not only the capital of a powerful kingdom when Buddha 
appeared, but it was also the home of philosophical speculation, and 
Buddha found a number of schools of thought and systems of philosophy 
already established at Sravasti, when he proposed to visit it. It may 
have been from motives of worldly wisdom that he sought the erection 
of a vihara prior to his visit. It obviously gave distinction and impor¬ 
tance to his arrival and crusade against other teachers to have a splen¬ 
did monastery ready for his reception. It is likely that the fact of the 
vihara being erected outside the city and the unwillingness of Jeta to 
part with the site, were owing to the opposition of the older schools, 
and Sariputta’s deputation to superintend the erection of the vihara 
was his commission as a pioneer to prepare the way for the entry of the 
new teacher with due circumstance. 
It is probable it was when Buddha met his opponents for the public 
controversy planned by Prasenajit, that the accusation was preferred 
against him by the woman Chinschamana, whose story is told so graphi¬ 
cally by Fa Hian (vide infra). This was not the only attempt made to 
discredit Buddha by imputations of incontinence. He was also accused 
of murdering a woman of evil character, but the charge was proved to 
be false (vide infra). 
It was not only with the opposition of rival schools and the devices 
2 . 
