of Buddha and Mahavira, divided mankind into six classes . Of these, according to Buddhaghosa , the third class contains the Niganthas. Gosala probably would not have ranked them as a separate, i.e. fundamental subdivision of mankind, if they had only recently come into existence. He must have looked upon them as a very important, and at the same time, an old sect, in the same way in which, in my opinion, the early Buddhists looked upon them. As a last argument in favour of my theory I may mention that in the Magghima Nikaya 35, a disputation between the Buddha and Sakkaka, the son of a Nigantha, is narrated. Sakkaka is not a Nigantha himself, as he boasts of having vanquished Nataputta in disputation , and, moreover, the tenets he defends are not those of the Gainas. Now when a famous controversialist, whose father was a Nigantha, was a contemporary of the Buddha, the Niganthas can scarcely have been a sect founded during Buddha's life.

Let us now confront the records of the Gainas about the philosophical doctrines of heretics, which they had to combat, with such as the Buddhists describe. In the Sutrakritanga II, I, 15 (<page 339> f.) and 21 f. (<page 343>) two materialistic theories which have much in common are spoken of. The first passage treats of the opinion of those who contend that the body and the soul are one and the same thing; the second passage is concerned with the doctrine that the five elements are eternal and constitute everything. The adherents of either philosophy maintain that it is no sin to kill living beings. Similar opinions are, in the Samannaphala Sutta, ascribed to Purana Kassapa and Agita Kesakambali. The former denies that there is such a thing as sin or merit. Agita Kesakambali holds that nothing real

corresponds to the current transcendental ideas. He moreover maintains: Man (puriso) consists of the four elements; when he dies, earth returns to earth, water to water, fire to fire, wind to wind, and the organs of sense merge into air (or space) . Four bearers with the hearse carry the corpse to the place of cremation (or, while it is burned) they make lamentations; the dove-coloured bones remain, the offerings are reduced to ashes.' The last passage recurs with few alterations in the Sutrakritanga, <page 340>: 'Other men carry the corpse away to burn it. When it has been consumed by fire, only dove-coloured bones remain, and the four bearers return with the hearse to their village .'