Sanjaya Belatthaputta

Who is Sanjaya Belatthaputta?

Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta was an Indian ascetic teacher who lived around the 6th or 5th century BCE, contemporaneous with Mahavira and the Buddha.

In the Pali literature, Sanjaya's teachings have been characterized as "evasive" or "agnostic." Hecker contextualizes it as "a kind of dialectical existentialism" in juxtaposition to the popular materialist views of the day For example, in the Samannaphala Sutta, Sanjaya is recorded as saying:

'If you ask me if there exists another world [after death], if I thought that 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 if there isn't another world... both is and isn't... neither is nor isn't... if there are beings who transmigrate... if there aren't... both are and aren't... neither are nor aren't... if the Tathagata exists after death... doesn't... both... neither exists nor exists after death, 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.'