Six Heretic Teachers:

600-500 BC
 Who are the heretic teachers and why are
they called so?
Heresy is belief or opinion which is in contrast to
orthodox religious doctrine, or dissension against
the accepted and general social norms. These six
people that we are going to discuss about –
namely, Purana Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala, Ajita
Kesakambali, Pakudha Kaccayana, Nigantha
Nataputta and Sanjaya Belatthiputta – constitute a
movement which is going directly against Vedic
religion, philosophy, ethics and social organization.
 Why were these teachers necessary?
Vedic religion, and the underlying religious, ethical and social
norms were going against the common people’s welfare. The
religion is considered as having bias towards social hierarchy
and discrimination. Dr. Ambedkar makes it clear in the
seminal text Who were the Sudras? That the main text of
Veda has a section consisting of ten shlokas that
metaphysically asserts the existence of discrimination of a
society by occupation and further perpetuating the social
discrimination through unequal distribution of wealth and
power, and making a class of people always live at the
bottom. This created a social disharmony and people were
unhappy and in need of a philosophy that reflected their own
weal and woes.
 Initiation of a social movement
• Vedas were written in Sanskrit, and by the Rishis. But
common people spoke in Pali or Prakrit. They neither spoke or
read nor understood Sanskrit. Social hierarchy also made
them unfit for the text and its philosophy. They badly needed
someone who would talk about life in the language they
understand.
• All the heretic teachers talked in Pali language, and they
appeared around 600-500 BC. They were either predecessors
or contemporary to Mahavira and Gautam Buddha. Together,
all of them formed a force of common people against the
Vedic religion and culture, ultimately renouncing the Vedic in
favour of new philosophical thoughts that were by the people,
of the people and for the people, and most importantly in
their own language.
 Purana Kassapa
(6th c BC, contemporary of Buddha and Mahavir)
• Proponent of a school that is known as Amoralism,
which means ultimate disregard towards morality.
• Proposes that one should not expect any reward or
punishment for a good or a bad. This goes against
Vedantic philosophy and ethics.
• This school later spoke about akriyavada. For the
lack of any moral position, it undermines any deed
as such, and goes directly against the Hindu notion
of Karma Phala.
 Makkhali Gosala
(5th c BC, earlier to Buddha and his major rival)
• Proponents of Niyativada or Fatalism.
• They believe that everything is predestined, and
refutes any idea of deeds, since there is no point
having moral values. Every step of human life has been
decided a priori.
• This school validates the caste system inherent to Vedic
society and thus, have been opposed vehemently by
the Buddhist and Jain doctrines.
• Their philosophy is known as Ajivika, the word meaning
“about life”, the teachings on life proposed by Ajivika
has talked about atoms their cosmic forces. A later and
updated version of this appears in Vaisheshika.
• Ajivika is a atheistic philosophy, it found most followers
during Bindusara’s rule, in 4th century BC, and were popular
among warriors, merchant class. Until 14th century AD, in
pockets in Tamilnadu and Karnataka, we find evidences of
the existence and followership of this school.
• Antinomian ethics: According to buddhist text, they had no
objctive moral laws, it conforms to the simple facts of life
which are beyond our powers and absolutely unalterable.
• Bindusara and his wife were recorded to be the Ajivika
followers.
• Ajivika, despite their lack of moral laws, have been
observed as having lived simple and ascetic life without any
material possessions.
• This sect fought with Buddhist and Jain followers on several
occasions in the past, over major philosophical as well as
ideological disagreements.
 Ajita Kesakambli
(6th century BC, contemporary to Buddha and Mahavira)
• Proponent of Lokayata school, also known as Carvaka school.
• Brihaspati was the father of this school.
• Carvaka believes in direct perception, empiricism and
conditional inference as the main sources of knowledge.
• Totally rejects ritualism and supernaturalism.
• Believes in philosophical doctrine of skepticism. This
skepticism leads them to hold on to simple enjoyments of
life and material consumption.
• Has a rich epistemplogy based on accepting reality only
through empirical observation and perception.
• This lokayata school didn’t believe in afterlife
and Karma, or rebirth,
• Debiprasad Chattopadhayay wrote in 1959
Lokayata: A study in Ancient Indian Materialism
where he, as an avowed Marxist scholar, shows
how the Carvaka or Lokayata epistemology had
already given hints about the materialistic
philosophy that is based on the very present
that we live in, instead of all the other spiritual
and idealistic schools that were prevalent
around that time.
 Pakudha Kaccayana

• Pakudha Kaccayana is the proponent of Sassatavada or Eternalism.

• This school believed in the eternal manifestation of the life.
• This school believed that there is every element and object, being
and life, conserved as they are since eternity and will continue to
remain as such. If an object is not seen, it is in its latent state, and
if an object is appearing, it is in its manifested state. This proposed
that individuals have an unchanging self.
• The very opposite school of thought to this is ucchedavada or
annihilationism.
• Buddha rejected ucchedavada for its extreme nihilism, and
sassatavada for its extreme inertness or inaction.
 Niggantha Nataputta
• Proponent of Jainism.
• Epithet for Mahavira.
• Mahavira was a priest who left home at 30 to become an ascetic.
• Believes in life’s path towards victory over several rebirths, by
leading an ethical life which will ultimately liberate the soul.
• The principle of ahimsa as the fundamental tenet.
• Another principle tenet is anekantavada, also known as many-
sided reality. Reality is not possible to express through language.
The expression of truth is always partial.
• Non-attachment to worldly possessions, or aparigraha is another
important aspect of Jain philosophy.
• Asteya or not stealing is another ethical duty.
• Brahmacharya or celibacy is another.
Abstinence from any sensual pleasures
organizes their ethical life.
 Sanjaya Belathiputta
“If you ask me if there exists another world [after death],
if I thought there exists another world, would I declare
that to you? I don’t think so. I don’t think in that way. I
don’t think otherwise. I don’t think not. I don’t think
not not. If you asked me there isnt another world…
Both is and is not…If there are beings that transmigrate,
both are and are not…neither not nor are’nt… If
Tathagata exists after death…doesn’t…neither exists nor
doesn’t exist…do you think I will declare that to you? I
don’t Think so. I don’t think in that way. I don’t think
otherwise. I don’t think not. I don’t think not not.”
-Sanjaya, as quoted in Samannaphala Sutta.
• In Pali literature, Sanjaya’s teachings have
been characterized as evasive and agnostic.
• He is the proponent of the ajnana school. He
doesn’t believe in systematic knowledge in
any form.
• Hecker (1994) have termed his thought as a
kind of “dialectical existentialism”.
• Philosophy of skepticism.