Q. Who among the following unorthodox teachers, as mentioned in Buddhist scriptures was an atomist and a predecessor of the Hindu Vaisesika school? Answer:
Pakudha Kathyayana
Notes:
Purana Kassapa, was an ‘antinomian’ who believed that virtuous conduct had no effect on a man’s karma.
Makhali Gosala (Gosala Maskariputra), was the leader of the sect of Ajivikas, which survived for some two thousand years after the death of its founder. He agreed with Purana that good deeds did not affect transmigration, which proceeds according to a rigid pattern controlled by an all powerful cosmic principle, which he called niyati (fate).
Ajita Kesakambalin, was a materialist.
Pakudha Kathyayana was an atomist, a predecessor of the Hindu Vaisesika school, putting forward his theories probably a century or more before Democritus in Greece developed a similar doctrine of eternal atoms.
Nigantha Nataputta (Nirgrantha Jnataputra) was none other than Vardhamana Mahavira, the leader of the sect of Jainas.
Sanjaya Balatthipura, was a sceptic, who denied the possibility of certain knowledge altogether.