Philosophical speculation in the 6th century B.C.

The unique feature of the period marks the differentiation of the religious milieu in which Buddhism was founded by the rapid production of sects in the Ganga Valley, which spanned a wide range of ideas from annihilationism (ucchedvada) to eternalism (sasvatvada), and from the fatalism of the ajivikas to the materialism of the Carvakas. Regular references to other sects (anna titthiyas) have been made by the Buddhist texts and the Brahmajala sutta of the Digha Nikaya mentions 62 such sects.^[1] The existence of many sects^[2] have been confirmed by Jaina sources as well. Of these, special status has been given to six contemporary ‘non-conformist’ mendicant philosophers in the Pali canon^[3], which indicates the eminence and influence which early Buddhist tradition attributed to these six dissident teachers.^[4] A Pali text, the Milindapanha, attributed to the first century B.C.^[5] have a curious reference to the same six sects and their leaders, which is indicative of the continuation of the significance of dissident tradition even into later years.