ABSTRACT

We come across the theory of six abhijâtis professed by Goœâla in the Sâmañña-phala-sutta account, a lengthy and obscure lists of types and varieties of beings, forms and circumstances through which every living being has to go in transmigration:

‘There are 1,400,000 primary types of births from womb (yonipamukkha), 6,000 and 600 [primary types of births from womb in which every living being can be reborn]; there are 500 types of deeds (kamma), 5 types of deeds, 3 types of deeds, 1 type of deeds, and half-a-deed [i.e. ways in which actions may have effect]; there are 62 paths of conduct (paþipadâ) (i.e. religious-philosophical schools, cf. Brahma-jâla-sutta); there are 62 minor aeons (antara-kappa) [i.e. units from which a great aeon (mahâkalpa) consists]; there are six classes of people (abhijâti), 8 stages of the development of a human being (purisa-bhûmi); there are

4,900 abodes inhabited by the Nâgas [i.e., demons or, perhaps tribal groups], 2,000 faculties, 3,000 nether worlds, 36 layers (places) covered with dust (rajo-dhâtu);73 there are 7 types of birth as a conscious being, 7 types of birth as an unconscious being, 7 types of birth from grass-like nodes (nigaòþhi-gabbha); there are 7 types of divine beings, 7 types of humans, 7 types of malignant spirits (pesâca; s. piœâca); there are 7 types of lakes (sâra; ‘natures’?), 7 continuations and 700 continuations (? pavuþâ / paþuvâ),74 7 falls [to lower existences] and 700 falls [to lower existences], 7 dreams and 700 dreams [through which one may predict future]; there are also 8,400,000 great aeons-through all these [types] both fools and the wise transmigrate and will eventually make an end of their suffering. Verily, O Venerable [King], thus did the ascetic Goœâla Maókhaliputra, when requested to [explain] the tangible fruit of ascetic life, expound the purification through transmigration (Skt. samšâra-œuddhi).’ 75

We cannot be sure of the accuracy of this description and we do not know how much it was off the mark or to what degree it presented a distorted image of the Âjîvika cosmology. But, with certainty, the fact that it somehow overlaps with particular points of a similar account found in Jaina canonical literature is significant. It is hardly possible that both independent traditions would contain the same doctrinal core without a corresponding doctrine in the real world:76

‘The one in question, namely Goœâla Maókhaliputra, who was your spiritual companion, became the white one within the class of white people (œuklâbhijâti), passed away at a particular point (constellation) of time and was reborn in some other abode of heavenly beings. … In the case of all those, O experience-rich Kâœyapa, of our system (samaya)77 some of whom have become perfected or some of whom are becoming perfected, or some of whom will become perfected, they-after passing in successive order through 8,400,000 (lit. 84,00,000) great aeons (mahâkalpa), seven kinds of [births as] heavenly [beings],78 seven kinds of births through agglutination,79 seven kinds of births in wombs of sentient beings,80 seven kinds of reanimation of dead bodies (lit. discontinuance [of the current birth for the sake of a subsequent birth in a new body] due to continuation [in the same reanimated body]), 500,000 types of deeds, 60,000 [types of deeds] and 600 [types of deeds] and three kinds of partial deeds-thereafter become perfected, they become awakened, they become

liberated, they become fully emancipated, [and thereby] they have made, are making or will make an end of all suffering.’81