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THE AJIVIKAS
UC-NRLF
B 3 351 M?T
By
B. JV\. BARUA, M.A., D.Lit.
PART I
Published by the
UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA
1920
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THE AJIVIKAS
By
B. M. BARUA, M.A., D.Lit.
PART I
Published by the
UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA
1920
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THE AJIVIKAS
A Short History of their Religion and Philosophy
Part I
HISTORICAL SIM MARY
Introduction
The History of the Ajivikas can broadly he divided
into three periods in conformity with the three main
stages of development through which their doctrines had
passed. The general facts about these periods are
summed up below with a view to indicate the precise
nature of the problems that confront us in the study of
each. The periods and problems are as follows : —
1. Pre-Makkhali Period.
Problems. — The rise of a religious order of wander-
ing mendicants called the Ajlvika from a
Vanaprastha or Yaikhanasa order of the
hermits, hostile alike in attitude towards the
religion of the Brahmans and the Vaikhanasas,
bearing yet some indelible marks of the parent
asrama ; a higher synthesis in the new Bhiksu
order of the three or four asramas of the
Brahmans.
2. Makkhali Period.
Pro /terns. — Elevation of Ajlvika religion into a
philosophy of life at the hands of Makkhali
•77847
2 THE AJIVIKAS
Gosala ; his indebtedness to his predecessors,
relations with the contemporary Sophists, and
originality of conception.
3. Post-Makkhali Period.
Problems — The further development of Ajlvika
religion, the process of Aryan colonisation in
India, the spread of Aryan culture, the final
extinction of the sect resulting from gradual
transformation or absorption of the Ajlvika
into the Digambara Jaina, the Shivaite and
others ; other causes of the decline of the
faith ; the influence of Ajlvika religion and
philosophy on Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism ;
determination of the general character of a
history of Indian religion.
1. Pke-Makkhali Period.
The History of the Ajivikas commenced, as the
Buddhist records indicate, 1 with Nanda Vaccha who
was succeeded in leadership of the sect by Kisa Samkicca.
The third leader of the Ajivikas and the greatest
exponent of their religio-philosophy in the time of Buddha
Gotama was Makkhali Gosala who is often mentioned as
the second in the Buddhist list of six heretical teachers. 2
In the first four Nikayas and in the most of the Pali
texts and commentaries Nanda Vaccha and Kisa Samkicca
are hardly more than mere names, 3 since these Buddhist
sacred books keep us entirely in the dark regarding the
personal history of the two teachers. It is only in the
Canonical Jataka Book and its commentary that we
find the mention of a Kisa Vaccha among the seven
1 Majjhima, I, p. 238; I, p. 524 ; Anguttara, Part IIT, p. 384.
a E.g., Digha, T, p. 48; Majjhima, IT, p. 2.
J Papaflca Sudani (Oeylonese edition), p. 463 : Tattha Nando 'ti tassa naniarii,
Vaccho'ti gottam ; Kiso'ti tassa nainan'i, Sarakicco'ti got tain.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 3
chief pupils of a renowned Brahman hermit and teacher
named Sarabhanga. 1 The hermit, known as Jotipala
to his parents, is addressed in one of the Jataka verses
by his family name as Kondanna (Sk. Kaundinya 2 ).
His hermitage was built on the banks of Godhavari,
in the Kavittha forest. Seeing that his hermitage
became crowded, and there was no room for the
multitude of ascetics to dwell there he ordered most
of his chief pupils to go elseAvhere, taking with them
many thousands of ascetics. But Kisa Vaccha was one
of those who, following the instruction of their teacher,
went away alone. He came to live in the city of
KumbhavatI, in the dominion of King Dandakl. It is
related in the Jataka that this king having sinned against
Kisa Vaccha, the guileless hermit, was destroyed with his
realm, excluding its three subordinate kingdoms, of which
the Kings Kaliiiga, Atthaka and Bhimaratha were among
the lay followers of Sarabhanga. 3 The Jataka literature
of the Buddhists also preserves a brief account of another
Brahman hermit called Samkicca, who like Sarabhanga
is honoured as a Bodhisatta. 4 It is to be judged from
Samkicca's allusion to Kisa Vaccha's humiliation in
the past that he was a successor of the latter. 5 But
neither Kisa Vaccha nor Saiiikicca is represented in
the Jataka as a leader of the Ajivika sect. Further,
in view of the discrepancy that exists between the
two names, by no stretch of imagination can Kisa
Vaccha be transformed into Nanda Vaccha. The same
difficulty arises in connection with the two names Saiii-
kicca and Kisa Saiiikicca, since the epithet Kisa (lean),
applied to the second name, was apparently . meant to
1 Jataka No. 522.
- Fausboll's Jataka, V, p. 140.
5 Fausboll's Jataka, V, p. 135.
♦ Ibid, V, p. 151; V, p. 277.
» Ibid, V, p. 2(57.
4 THE A.1IVIK.AS
distinguish the Ajlvika leader from all his namesakes,
Samkicca and the rest. In point of fact, then, there is
no other ground to justify the identification of Kisa
Vaccha with Nanda Vaccha, or of Samkicca with Kisa
Samkicca, than the fact that the views of Sarabhariga,
the teacher of Kisa Vaccha, bear a priori, like those of
the hermit Samkicca, a close resemblance to the ethical
teaching of Makkhali Gosala at whose hands the Ajivika
religion attained a philosophical character. Without
being dogmatic on such a disputable point as this, I
cannot but strongly feel that all possible enquiries con-
cerning Nanda Vaccha and Kisa Samkicca are sure to
lead the historian back to a typical representative of the
Vauaprastha or Vaikbanasa order of Indian hermits,
such as Sarabhariga. The same, I believe, will be the
inevitable result, if we enquire into the Jaina history of
Gosala Marikhaliputta. The 15th section of the 5th
Jaina Ariga, commonly known as the Bhagavati Sutra,
contains a quaint story of six past reanimations of Gosala,
consummated by his jDresent reanimation as Maiikhali-
putta. 1 It is stated that Gosala in his first human
existence was born as Udai Kundiyayana who left his
home early in youth for religious life, and that after
having acquired Samkhanarii (higher knowledge), he
underwent the seven changes of body by means of re-
animation. The seven reanimations were undergone
successively by Gosala since his Udai-birth in the bodies of
(1) Enejjaga (Sk. Rinaiijaya), outside Rayagiha, for
21 years ;
(2) Mallarama, outside Uddandapura, for 21 years ;
(3) Mandiya, outside Cam pa, for 20 years ;
(4) Roha, outside Vanarasi, for 19 years ;
1 See extracts from the Bhagavati in Rockhill's Life of 'the Buddha. Appendix
II, p. 252.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 5
(5) Bharaddai (Sk. Bharadvaja), outside Alabhiya,
for 18 years ;
(6) Ajjuna Gomayuputta, outside Vesali, lor 17
years ;
(7) Gosala Maiikhaliputta, at Savatthi in Hfilabala's
pottery bazar, for 16 years.
One need not be surprised if in this fanciful enu-
meration and chronology of the seven reanimations under-
gone by Gosala since his Udai-birth during a period of
117 years there is preserved a genealogical succession of
seven Ajivika leaders, together with a list of such suc-
cessive geographical centres of their activities as liaya-
giha, Uddandapura, Campa, Vanarasi, Alabhiya, Vesali
and Savatthi. This is at any rate the only legitimate
inference to be drawn from the manner in which Gosala
Maiikhaliputta is made to enumerate and describe his
reanimations in the Bhagavatl. It is not difficult to
ascertain that Gosala used the word ' reanimation ' rather
figuratively, in a secondary sense. He did not mean
thereby that one teacher having died, was reborn as
another, but that one leader having passed away, the
spirit of his teaching was continued in a reanimated or
rejuvenated form in the teaching of his successor. Let
me cite a passage from Professor Leumann's translation
of the extracts from the Bhagavatl, Section XV, in
illustration of the point at issue. Gosala is represented,
in the 16th year of his career as an Ajivika teacher,
as declaring :
" With the seventh change. I left in Savatthi in
Halahalas pottery bazar the body of Ajjunaga and
entered that of Gosala Maiikhaliputta for the space of
16 years.'" Here by the ' space of 16 years ' he referred,
as is evident from his history in the Bhagavatl, only to
1 Leumann's ttxtract* from the Bhagavatl, XV. See Rockhill's Life of the
Buddha, Appendix II, p. 254.
6 THE AJ1VIKAS
the interval of time reckoned from the year of his succes-
sion as an Ajivika leader, and certainly not to the period
which had elapsed since his real birth-day. This suspicion
is forced upon us as Ave remember that Savatthi, where;
he is said to have been reanimated in his seventh change,
is the very city where he became first recognised as a
teacher (Jina), and found shelter in the premises of a
rich potter woman named Halahala. 1
The Bhagavati account does not mention the place
where Udai Kundiyayana (Sk. Udayi Kaundinya) lived,
nor does it state the reason why the Udai-birth was not
counted among the past reanimations of Gosala. But it
is clearly stated that Udai, too, was a homeless recluse
who had obtained higher knowledge. Can we not reason-
ably suppose, even in the midst of such uncertainty, that
Udai Kundiyayana of the Jaina Sutra was, like Sarabhaiiga
Kondanna of the Buddhist Jataka, just a typical represen-
tative of an ancient religious order of the hermits?
Are we not justified in presuming that the Ajivika sect
sprang originally from a Vanaprastha or Vaikhanasa
order of the hermits and gained an independent foot-
hold as the result of its gradual differentiation from
the parent asrama ? I would say yes, because accepting
this as a working hypothesis the historian can well
explain why the Ajlvikas representing as they did a
religious order of wandering mendicants, antagonistic in
many ways to the religion of Brahmans and Hermits,
should and did retain some clear traces of the austere
mode of discipline followed generally by the hermits
in the wood, austere enough to be classed promiscuously
in certain Buddhist passages' 2 with the practices of
the Vanaprastha order. The Bhagavati account of
1 Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, Appendix II, p. 252. Cf. Hoernle's tranela-
tiou of the UvasagadasSo, Appendix I, p. 4.
1 Ahguttara, Part I, p. 295.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 7
the past reanimations of Gosala, quaint and fanciful
though it is, enables the historian to carry back the history
of the Ajivikas for 117 years counted backwards from
Gosala, and to suppose that a new Bhiksu order, having
kinship with the Jainas and the Buddhists, completely
differentiated itself, within a century or more, from a
Vanaprastha order from which it arose. It is, at all
events, certain that the Ajivikas had a history before
Gosala, and whether that history commenced with Nanda
Vaccha or with Enejjaga, both the Buddhist and Jaina
records lead us back to a Sarabhariga Kondanna or to a
Udai Kundiyayana who might be regarded as a distin-
guished representative of the ancient hermits. To deny
this, I am afraid to say, will be just to record the names
of a few predecessors of Gosala, a procedure hitherto fol-
lowed by the Indian ists, e.g., Professor D. B. Bhandarkar
and Dr. Hoernle. I have to premise, therefore, that the
pre-Makkhali history of the Ajivikas is the history of a
formative period during which they brought about a
radical change in the religious life of ancient India by
the modification of certain rules and views of the hermits
and by the gradual differentiation of their standpoint
from that of others.
2. Makkhali Period.
The central figure in the history of the Ajivikas is
Makkhali Gosala whose teaching served to supply a
philosophic basis to Ajlvika religion. His career as a
recluse covers, according to his history in the Bhagavatl,
a short period of 24 years, of which the first six were
profitably spent in Paniyabhumi, in the company of
Mahavlra whom he had met for the first time, in Nalaihda
near Rayagiha. After a close association for six years
the two ascetics separated in Siddhatthagama on account
of a doctrinal difference that arose behveen them, and
8 THE AJfVIKAS
never met afterwards hut once in Savatthi shortly before
the ignominious death of Gosala, which took place 16 years
before the Nirvana of Mahavira. The bone of contention
was a theory of reanimation which Gosala formulated from
his observation of periodical reanimations of plant-life, and
generalised it to such an extent as to apply it indiscrimi-
nately to all forms of life. 1 'Gosala for his part, after the
separation, went to Savatthi, where in Halahala's potter-shop
after a six months* course of severe asceticism, he attained
Jinahood.' There he became the leader of a sect, called the
Ajlviya. In the 24th year of his mendicancy he was visited
by six Disacaras or Wanderers with whom lie discussed
their respective theories. These Disacaras, convinced by
his theory of ' the change through reanimation ' (bautta-
parihara), placed themselves under his guidance. It is
stated in the Bhagavatl that Gosala had a severe attack
of fever a few weeks before his death and that his words
and actions in a state of delirium gave rise to some new
tenets and p v actices of the xljlviyas, notably the doctrine
of eight finalities (attha caramaim) and the use of four
things as drinks and four substitutes. In spite of his
last instruction that his body should be disposed of
with every mark of dishonour, his disciples 'gave his
body a public burial with all honours according to his
original instructions.' His death was coincident with
an important political event, namely, the war between
King Kuniya of Amga and King Cedaga of Vesali.
There is indication in the Bhagavatl account of Gosala
that he vie wed the grotesque practices of the Brahman
ascetics with contempt. It is related, for instance, that
at the sight of the ascetic Vesiyayana ' sitting with up-
raised arms and upturned face in the glare of the sun.
while his body was swarming with lice,' he quietly
dropped behind, and derisively enquired of the ascetic
Evarft khaln Barvajivavi parittapariharaih pariharamti."
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 9
whether he was a sage or a bed of lice. His conduct
provoked the Brahman ascetic so much that he attempted
to strike Gosala with his magic power. This unpleasant
incident happened while Mahavira and Gosfila were travel-
ling together, a few months before their separation, from
the town Siddhatthagama to Kumraagaraa and back. 1
With regard to his early years, it is related in the
BhagavatI that he was born in the settlement Saravana,
in the vicinity apparently of the city of Savatthi. He
came of low parentage. His father was a Maiikhali,
i.e., a mendicant who earned his livelihood by showing a
picture which he carried in his hand. Once on his wan-
derings Maiikhali came to Saravana and failing to obtain
any other shelter, he took refuge for the rainy season in
the cowshed (Gosala) of a wealthy Brahman Gobahula,
where his wife Bhadda brought forth a son who became
famous as Gosala Maiikhaliputta. When grown up, he
adopted the profession of his father, that is, of a
Maiikhali. In his wanderings, Gosala happened to meet
the young ascetic Mahavira in Nalaihda, near Rayagiha,
and observing that the latter, although yet a mere
learner, was received with great honour by a rich house-
hole er of Rayagiha, he approached Mahavira with the
request to accept him as a disciple.
It goes without saying that quaint humour and bitter
irony runs through the Bhagavatl-account of Maiikhali-
putta Gosala. There is an attempt throughout, a conscious
effort on the part of the Jaina author, to represent the
greatest Ajlvika teacher as a person of most contemptible
character, a man of low parentage, of low profession,
who was induced to adopt the ascetic life by a prospect
of material gain, an apostate disciple of Mahavira, of a
more heinous character than another disciple, Jamali,
the son-in-law of Mahavira. He is represented as an
1 Hoernle's translation of the Uvasagadasao, Appendix I, p. 3.
10 THE AJIVIKAS
ungrateful wretch who deserted the company of his teacher
on account of a doctrinal difference, and shamelessly
declared himself to be a Jina, denying his deep indebted-
ness to his teacher. Even as a teacher and leader of the
Ajlvika sect, he is said to have taught all false doctrines
and erroneous views which did more harm than good to
mankind. He is made to appear as a craze before his
death in his words and actions, and confess his shame
even to his own followers. But complete and full of
historical truth though it is, the BhagavatI account must
be considered as production of a later self-conscious age,
and cannot therefore be accepted en bloc. As a canonical
commentary (Viyahapannatti, Vyakhya-prajnapti), the
Bhagavatl-sutra must be taken as later in point of date
than some of the Arigas, e.g., Ayaramga, Suyagadamga
and Uvasagadasao, which are wanting in detail about
the personal history of Gosala, and where the account of
his views is more sober.
The historian is apt to commit a great mistake and do
injustice to Gosala, if he accepts without proper examina-
tion the Jaina account in the BhagavatI as a piece of
genuine historical record. In view of other records
coming from the Buddhists and the Brahmans which
contradict in many points the statements in the
BhagavatI, no implicit reliance can surely be placed
on all that the Jaina would have us believe. On closely
examining the literature of the Buddhists, we notice
that in all the later accounts there is a similar
conscious attempt to reconstruct the early history of
Gosala in such a manner as to make him appear as a
person of low parentage and vicious character. In these
respects the later Jaina and Buddhist traditions agree.
For instance, Buddhaghosa in his commentaries, speaks
of Gosala as a servant in the household of a rich man,
who walking on a muddy piece of ground, with an
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 11
oil-pot in his hand, stumbled from carelessness and began
to run away through the fear of his master. The latter
ran up and caught the edge of his garment, and he letting
go his cloth, fled away naked (acelako hutvfi). 1
I leave it to the sober critic to judge if the above
story of Gosala was not a fiction invented by the Bud-
dhist commentator in order to account for the fact that
Makkhali was a naked ascetic as all the Ajivikas were.
Buddhastfiosa agrees with the Jaina historian in the
Bha<?avatl in relating that Makkhali came to be called
Gosala from the circumstance of his being born in a
cowshed, although he does not expressly mention, like
the Jaina, that the name was given by his parents. But
the Buddhist commentator differs entirely from the Jaina
with regard to the etymology of the name Makkhali,
just as Fanini, the most celebrated Sanskrit grammarian,
differed in this respect from the Jainas and Buddhists
as well as from his own commentators. While the Jaina
compiler of the Bhagavati derived the name Mankhali
from Mankha, i.e., a picture carried by a mendicant in
his hand (or better, as Dr. Hoernle suggests, the picture
of a deity which a beggar carried about him and tried to
extract alms from the charitable by showing it, just as
in the present day in Bengal such beggars usually carry
crude pictures or representations of Sltala or Olabibi, and
in Puri they carry pictures of Jagannath), the Buddhist
commentator Buddhaghosa had recourse to a more fanci-
ful etymology, viz., that the name Makkhali was derived
from the warning of his employer expressed in the words
" Tata, ma khaliti," i.e., " My dear man, take care lest
you stumble !" 2
1 Sumangala Vilasini, I, p. 144.
2 Sumangala Vilasini, I, p. 144. See Hoernle's Translation of the Uvasagadasao,
App. II, p. 29; Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p. 301. Cf. Manorathapurani,
the commentary ou the Anguttaranikaya (Ceylonese edition), p. 287. Makkhaliti
ma khaliti vacanam upadaya evam laddhanamo titthakaro.
1% THE AJIVIKAS
Against these ingenious etymologies of Maiikhali
and Makkhali, we obtain from Panini an important sutra
setting forth the real import of Maskarina, the Sanskrit
form of the name. Panini in the sutra VI. 1. 154, de-
scribes the Maskarinas as a class of wanderers who carried
a maskara or bamboo staff about them.
CLu^ " Maskara-maskarhW venu-parivrajakayoh."
On the other hand, Patafijali in his comments on the
above sutra of Panini, suggests that the Maskarina was
called Maskarina not so much because this class of
wanderers carried about them a maskara or bamboo staff
as because they taught " Ma krita karmani, ma krita
karmani, etc.," — " Don't perform actions, don't perform
actions ; quietism (alone) is desirable to you." 1
'Ihe later glosses on the same sutra in Kaiyata's
Pradlpa and the Kasika-vritti do not merit any further
consideration, as these are based upon the authority of
Patanjali's Mahablmsya, and all point to the fact that the
maskarinas denied the efficacy of action. 2
With regard to the relation of Makkhali with Maha-
vlra, the Buddhist records differ from the Jaina which
seeks to represent the former as an apostate disciple of
the latter, who became separated from his teacher after
a close association for six years spent in Paniyablmmi.
This account of Makkhali in the BhagavatI is contra-
dicted by certain statements met with in the same sutra
and elsewhere. 3 First, in the BhagavatI itself it is stated
that Gosala became recognised as a Jina and a leader of
the Ajlviyas two years before Mahavlra's Jinahood, and
1 Bhanclarkar's 'Ajivikas,' Indian Antiquary, Vol. XLI, 1912, p. 289 ; Hoernle's
' Ajivikas,' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Patafijali says, " maskaro' syastlti
maskarl parivntjakah. Kim tarhi ma krita karmani ma krita karmani santirvah
sreyasityahato maskari parivrajakah."
2 See the quotations in Bhanclarkar's ' Ajivikas,' Inch Ant., Vol. XLI, 1912,
p. 270.
3 The point is discussed in Hoernle's Translation of the Uvasagadasao, p. Ill,
f. n. 255.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 13
that he predeceased the latter by sixteen years. Secondly,
the KalpasQtra rel ates that Mahavira lived one year in
Paniyablmmi and six years in Mithila.
Both the Jainaand Buddhist records agree in speaking
of Gosala as a leader of the Ajivika sect and the power-
ful exponent of the Ajivika system. They also agree in
calling the Ajlvikas naked ascetics (acelakas), in differen-
tiating their rules of life from those of the hermits of
the Vanaprastha order, 1 in magnifying their uncleanli-
ness, in emphasizing their corruption of morals, in
imputing a secular motive to their religious life, and in
mercilessly criticising their fatalistic creed. In both the
records, Savatthi is mentioned as the Ajivika head-
quarters. 2 In some of the Buddhist passages we meet with
the form Ajlvaka, and the term in either form is ex-
plained as meaning a mendicant worse than a person with
household ties. 3 In a Dialogue of the Jaina Sutra
Kritanga, Ardraka, a Jaina teacher, openly accuses Gosala
of sexual immorality. 4 The Mahasaecaka sutta of the
Majjhima Nikaya preserves a Dialogue where Saccaka, the
Jaina, in reply to Buddha's question whether Ajlvikas or
the followers of Nanda Vaccha, Kisa Sariikicca and
Makkhali Gosala, practised the most austere mode of bodily
discipline, says that they indulged in all sorts of sensual
pleasures. 5 The Buddhist literature contains a love story
1 The rnles of the Ajlviyas, set forth in the Aupapatika Sutra (Leumann's
edition, p. 80, sec. 120), are the same as those stated in the Majjhima Nikaya, I,
p. 318, and in the Digha, I, p. 165, sec. 14.
Again, the rules of the Vanaprastha hermits, described in the above Jaina
Upanga, p. 68, sec. 74, are similar to those stated in the Digha, I, p. 166, sec. 14.
- That the Ajlvikas were naked ascetics and that Savatthi was their head quar-
ters are clear from two episodes in the Vinaya Mahavagga VI. 2 ; VIII. 15. Cf. Ind.
Ant., Vol. XLI (1912), p. 288.
3 Majjhima Nikaya, I, p. 483.
* Sutra Kritanga (ed. Dhanapati), II. 6. Cf. Jaina-Sutras, Pt. II, p. 411 : "those
who use cold water, eat seeds, accept things especially prepared for them, and have
intercourse with women, are (no better than) householders, but they are no
oramanas."
1 Majjhima, I, p. 238.
14 THE AJIVIKAS
of an Ajlvika named Upaka, who married Capa, the
fowler's daughter ; and Upaka describes himself as having
been a latthihattha, i.e., a wandering mendicant with a
staff in hand. I have reason to believe that in the Buddhist
stories of Cinca 1 and Sundarl 3 an evidence is lurking
of the immorality and lack of principle of the Ajivikas,
who did not scruple to get the Buddha into trouble by
spreading damaging rumours about his character and
getting up a murder case through the instrumentality
of those two of their womenfolk. Although the stories
declare indefinitely that all the heretics were allied in this
conspiracy, it is difficult to conceive that such an alliance
was possible because of the fact that Savatthi, where the
scene is laid, was predominantly the headquarters of the
Ajivikas, and that the Ajivikas were in conflict with other
heretical sects. But it can be imagined that both
Cinca s and Sundarl l either belonged to the Ajlvika order,
or had, at any rate, very intimate connection with it.
Suffice it to say that we have positive statement from the
Buddhist literature 5 that the Ajlvika community, like
the Jaina or the Buddhist, consisted of recluses and
householders, both male and female. It is clear that the
corruption of their morals which the Buddhists and the
Jainas insinuate and exaggerate, is not without founda-
tion, and that some individual cases of moral transgression
have only been generalised by their opponents and applied
to the whole sect. Eor it is difficult to imagine that if
the Ajivikas were as a body so viciously immoral and
encroached on the decency of the civic society, they
could retain, as they did, an important position among the
1 Jataka, I, pp. 280, 437, 440 ; II, pp. 121, 160 ; III, p. 298 ; IV, p. 187 f.
- Jataka, II, p. 415 f. ; Dhammapada-Comy. on Verse 306.
: ' She is described in the Jataka, I, p. 280, as a female wandering ascetic in
Savatthi (paribbajika Savatthiyam).
* Sundarl, too, is described similarly, e.g., in the Jataka, II, p. 415.
5 E. (/., Anguttara, Pt. Ill, p. 304.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 15
rival sects. On the other hand, taking a man as man,
and a woman as woman, we can well understand how
such states of things came to he among the Ajlvikas, as
anions: all the Orders, the Jaina or the Buddhist, the
Saiva or the Sakta, the Vaisnava or the Christian. The
Uvasagadasao and the BhagavatI Sutra make mention of
a few rich lay disciples of Gosala belonging to the Vaisya
class, e.g., potters and bankers, such as Kundakuliya, a
citizen of Kampillapura, a banker l ; Saddalaputta, a rich
potter of Polasapura 2 ; Halahala, in whose potter- shop in
Savatthi Gosala found shelter and spent the greater part
of his ascetic-life 3 ; and Ayampula, a citizen of Savatthi. 4
The Majjhima Nikaya mentions a coach-builder who
belonged to the Ajivika sect, 3 According to the Dham-
mapada commentary Migara, a banker of Savatthi was a
lay follower of the Ajlvikas. 6
That the Ajivika community consisted of recluses and
householders, both male and female, is well borne out
by the Buddhist version of Makkhali's doctrine of chaja-
bhijatiyo — division of mankind into six abhijatis or mental
types. Gosala is said to have placed the Ajivika house-
holders 7 in the Yellow class, the Ajlpka mendicants and
the Ajlvakinis in the White class, and the three Ajivika
leaders including himself in the Supremely White class. 8
1 Uvasagadasao (ed. Hoernle), Lecture VI.
- Ibid, Sec. VII.
3 Leumatm's Extracts from the BhagavatI, XV. See Rockhill's Life of the
Buddha, Appendix II, p. 252. Hoernle's translation of the Uvasagadasao, Appendix
I, p. 4 if.
* Hoernle's Appendix, ibid, p. 9.
5 Majjhima Nikaya, I, p. 31.
B Dhammapada-Comy. on Verse 53.
7 Lit. " the householders who wear white clothes and are the adherents (savakS)
of the unclothed one (acelaka)." Hoernle's Appendix II, ibid, p. 22.
• Anguttara Nikaya, part III, p. 38-4 : " haliddabliijati pafinatta : gihi odatava-
sana acelakasavaka sukkabhijati pafinatta ajivaka ajivakiniyo parama sukka-
bhijSti pafinatta : Nando Vaccho, Kiso Samkicco, Makkhali Gosala." Note that the
doctrine is wrongly attributed to Parana Kassapa. Cf. Dlgha Nikaya I, p. 58 •
Sumangala VilasinI, I, p. 162, where the dootrine is attributed to Makkhali GosSla.
16 THE AJIVIKAS
In the Buddhist texts, 1 Makkhali Gosfila and other
five, heretical teachers, Parana Kassapa, Nigantha Nata-
putta (Mahavira) and the rest, are spoken of in the same
terms as " the head of an order, of a following, the teacher
of a school, well known and of repute, as a sophist, revered
hy the people, a man of experience, who has long been a
recluse, old and well-stricken in years."- In the canonical
Jataka Book, 3 the Heretics are compared in a body to a
crow, stripped of its gain and fame after the appearance
of the crested and sweet-voiced peacock, while the com-
mentator, who identifies the crow of the Jataka story with
Nigantha Nathaputta 4 compares the Heretics with the
fire-flies whose faint light faded before the rising glory
of the sun, i.e., the Buddha. 5 Similarly, the Divyavadana
contains a curious story of two magic-fights in each of
which the Buddha overwhelmed the six Heretics by his
superior Riddhi, once in Bajagriha and the second time
in Sravastl. 6 There are again canonical Discourses where
the Samana Gotama is described as a younger contem-
porary of the six Titthakaras, both younger by birth and
junior by renunciation. 7 This receives confirmation
from the Jaina tradition, recorded in the BhagavatI,
that Gosala predeceased Mahavira by 1 6 years, 8 and from
the Buddhist tradition, recorded in the Samagama and
1 Digha Nikaya, I, pp. 47-49 : "Samghi c'eva gani ca ganacariyo ca Sato yasassi
titthakaro sadhu sammato bahu-janassa rattaunii cira-pabbajito addhagato vayo
anuppatto." Cf. Sutta Nipata, III, No. 6, p. 91 ; Milindapanho p. 4.
s Dialogues of the Bnddha, II, p. 66.
* See Baveru Jataka in Fausboll's Jataka, No. 339, Vol. Ill, p. 128.
* Fausboll's Jataka, Vol. Ill, p. 128 : Tadil kako Nigantho Nathaputto.
s Ibid, p. 126: Titthiya. hi anuppanne Buddhe labhino ahesura, uppanne pana
hatalabhaskkara suriyuggamane khajjopanaka viya jata.
Divyavadana, p. 143 foil. The Heretics are named Puranah KaSyapo, Maskari
Gosalaiputrah, Samjayl VairattTpntrah, Ajitah Kesakambalah, Kakudah Katyayano,
Nirganthah Jfiatiputrah.
' Sntta Nipata, p. 91 ; Saniano hi Gotamo daharo c'eva jatiya, navo ca pabbajjaya.
Cf. Samyutta, T, 70.
* See ante, p. 13.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 17
such other Suttas, that Nigantha Nataputta, i.e.,
Mahavira, predeceased the Buddha 1>y a few years, 1 the
decease of the former at Pava having been followed by
a schism dividing his disciples, the Niganthas, into two
rival parties. 2 The Milindapanho on the other hand,
represents the six Heretics as if they were all contem-
poraries of King Milinda, identified by Dr. Rhys Davids
with the Greco- Bactrian ruler Menander, who reigned,
according to the Buddhist tradition, five centuries after
the Buddha's Parinibbana. 3 But remembering that they
are described in an older canonical discourse, viz., the
Samaiinaphala Sutta, exactly in the same way as the
contemporaries of Ajatasattu, King of Magadha, I have
reason to suspect that the Milinda-story grew out
of literary plagiarism involving an anachronism, which
can by no means be either explained away or harmonized
with the earlier and more authentic chronology furnished
by the Jaina and Buddhist texts. The Milinda account
of six Heretics must accordingly be rejected as spurious
and false. The deep mystery which hangs like mist over
the relation of Makkbali with Mahavlra cannot fully be
unravelled in this introduction, the express purpose of
which is to present, on a traditional basis, an outline of the
history of the Ajivikas. Suffice it to say, that the evidences
derived from either the Jaina or the Buddhist sources
of information, do not bear out the Jaina pious belief
that Gosala was one of the two false disciples of Mahavlra,
and tend rather to prove the contrary. I mean that if
the historian be called upon to pronounce a definite
opinion on this disputed question he cannot but say that
1 Majjhima Nikaya, II, p. 143 : Ekaifi samayam Bhagava Sakkesu viharati
Samagame. Tena kho pana samayena Nigantho Nataputto Pavayam adhunfi
kfilakato hoti. Tassa Kalakiriyaya bhinna Nigantha dvedhikajata bhandanajSta
kalahajata vivadapanna, annamannam mnkhasattihi vitudanta viharanti.
2 Trenckner's Milinda, p. 4 foil.
3 DIgha Nikaya, I, p. 47 foil.
3
18 THE AJlVIKAS
indebtedness, if any, was more on the side of the teacher
than on that of one who is branded by the Jaina as
a false disciple. And the critic, before judging one
way or the other, shall do well to consider the following
points : —
1. That the priority of Gosala regarding Jinahood
before Mahavira can be established beyond doubt by
the history of Mankhaliputta in the Bhagavatl, confirmed
in some important respects by the history of Mahavira in
the Kalpa Sutra.
It is expressly stated in the Kalpa Sutra that out of
the 72 years of Mahavlra's life, he lived 30 years as
householder, and spent 42 years as recluse, viz., 12 as a
learner (Sekha) and 30 as a Jina or Kevalin. Again out
of the 12 years of his Sekhahood, he spent upwards of one
year as a clothed mendicant, while in the second year he
became a naked ascetic. 1 That is to say, he spent the
first year as a member of the religious order of Pars'va-
natha, whose followers, called Nirgranthas, used to wear
clothes, but in the second year he left that order and
joined the Ajlvikas. " The latter year," as Dr. Hoernle
specifies, "coincides with that in which Mahavira, accord-
ing to the Bhagavatl, met Gosala and attracted him as
his (apparently, first) disciple." 2 Of the remaining ten
years, he spent six in association with Gosala. If out of
the 24 years of his ascetic life, Gosala spent 8 years
as a learner and 16 as a Jina, it follows that after their
separation, Mahavira had to wait four years longer before
his Jinahood, while Gosala attained this exalted state
within two years from the date of separation. Dr. Hoernle
admits that this priority of Gosala in regard to Jinahood,
before Mahavira is a noteworthy point.' 3 But here I
1 Jacobi's Kalpa-Sutra, Sec. 117.
- Hoernle's translation of the Uvasagadasao, p. 110, f.n. 253.
3 Ibid, p. Ill, f.n. 253.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 19
would ask, is it the right conclusion to be drawn from
this, as Dr. Hoernle has done, that Gosala was originally
a disciple of Mahavlra, a fact which, according to
him, ' naturally enough explains the intense hostility
towards him, of Mahavlra, who resented the presumption
of a disciple in taking precedence of his master ? ' ' How
can it he imagined that Mahavlra received Gosala as a
disciple at a time when he himself was a mere learner ?
Are not a learner and a teacher in his case a contra-
diction in terms ? And can we not reasonably understand
that neither Gosala nor Mahavlra was technically a
disciple or a teacher, but two intelligent members of the
same religious order, two disciples of a common teacher,
and two comrades under the guidance of an Ajiviya leader?
It is clear from the BhagavatI story of the seven re-
animations of Gosala that Ajjuna was the Ajiviya leader
before their separation, and that Gosala succeeded him
two years after his separation from Mahavlra. The
general history of Mahavlra, so far as it can be gathered
from the Jaina literature, goes to show that he attained
Jinahood four years after his separation from Gosala,
when he founded a new Nirgrantha order with which the
old order of Parsvanatha was amalgamated afterwards,
through the intei cession of Kesl and Gautama into a
common Jaina school of religio-philosophy.' 2 The Bhaga-
vatI account does not precisely state what sort of relation
Gosala had with the Ajiviyas before his separation from
Mahavlra, but it will certainly be going too far away from
the historical truth to suppose that he had no con-
nexion whatever with them until after he was separated
from the latter. Apart from this, there are a few
other facts which go to disprove the Jaina tradition.
These are —
Hoernle's translation of the Uvasagadasao, p. Ill, f.n.
Uttaradhyayana, Leo. XXIII.
20 THE AJ1VIKAS
2. That in the Jaiua and Buddhist fragments on the
Ajlvika views and religious observances there are preserved
certain terms and phrases of Gosala which are neither
Ardha-Magadhi nor Pali, but represent at once some older
vehicle of expression or literary medium, more closely allied,
as will be shown later, to the Dialect, i.e., earlier than the
more literary forms of Magadhi Prakrits, i.e., the languages
of the Niganthas and Sakyaputtiya samanas.
3. That the Bhagavati account of Gosala goes to
prove that he was conversant with the Ajlviya literature
consisting of eight Mahanimittas and two Maggas, the
former of which probably formed, as Professor Leumann
conjectures, part of the original Jaina canon, though no
trace of them can be found in the existing one *
4. That both the Jaina and Buddhist interpretation
and criticism of Gosala's views and practices indicate that
they belonged to an earlier stage of religious evolution,
older at least than the Jaina or the Buddhist system
where the Ajlvika creed is sharply criticized and consider-
ably modified and improved.
5. That the intense hostility of Mahavlra towards
Gosala cannot reasonably be brought forward as a proof
of the latter's discipleship and insincerity, since there is a
strong evidence to prove that the Buddha, though neither
a teacher nor a disciple of Gosala, openly denounced him
as the greatest enemy of mankind 2 and considered his to be
the worst of all heresies, like unto a piece of hair-garment
which is cold in cold weather and hot in the heat. 3
1 Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, Appendix II, p. 249, f. n. 1.
2 Anguttara Nikaya, Part I, p. 33 : Nahath bhikkhave antiam ekapuggalam pi
samanupassami yo evara bahnjanahitaya patipanno bahnjanasukhaya bahuno janassa
anatthaya ahitaya dukkhaya devamanussanam y at hay 1 dam bhikkhave Makkhali
Moghapnriso. Cf. ibid, p. 287.
3 Ibid, p. 286 : Seyyathapi bhikkhave yani kanici tantavutanam vatthanam
kesakambalo tesam patikittho akkhayati. Kesakambalo bhikkhave site sito unhe
unho dubbanno duggandho dukkhasamphasso, evam eva kho bhikkhave yani kanici
puthu samanappavadanam Makkhali-vado tesam patikittho akkhayati.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 21
6. And lastly, that the hostile attitude of Mahavlra
towards Gosfila ought, as in such other historical instances
as those of Buddha and Mahavlra, Aristotle and Plato,
Ramanujaand Saiikara, or of Kant and Hume, to be viewed
as a positive proof of priority, the logical priority at least,
of the latter whose views are sharply criticised by the
former, leaving out of the question, in this particular
instance, whether the thinker so criticised was a younger
or an elder contemporary of the critic himself.
After a careful consideration of these points along with
the main theses of Gosala's philosophy, I am tempted to hold
with Prof. Hermann Jacobi, that " the greatest influence
on the development of Mahavlra's doctrine, must be
ascribed to Gosala, the son of Makkhali," and that " we
have no reason to doubt the statement of the Jaina, that
Mahavlra and Gosala for some time practised austerities
together ; but the relation between them probably was
different from what the Jainas would have us believe." 1
I am tempted, in other words, to believe that Gosala
represents, as a teacher at least, an earlier stage of
thought-evolution and religious discipline, earlier at any
rate than the period covered by the early history of
Jainism and Buddhism as expounded by Mahavlra and
Gotama. Gosala must be ranked among the five heretical
teachers who together with Nigantha Niitaputta (Maha-
vlra) are distinguished as six titthiyas from the Brahman
wanderers on the one hand, and from the Brahman hermits
and legislators on the other. They are distinguished as a
class of recluses and sophists who differed from the
Brahmans in character, intelligence, earnestness, purpose
and method. An analysis of Gosala's tenets goes to
prove that he belonged as a thinker to the sophistic age
when biological consideration and animistic belief were
1 Jaiua Sutras, Pt. II, Introd., p. xxix.
22 THE AJlVIKAS
predominant in the realm of religious thought and meta-
physical speculation. The creative genius of the older
Upanisad period, the period of the Aranyakas and the
Brahmana Upanisads, was followed hy a new spirit
of free-thinking and sophism under the influence of
which the intuitional philosophy of the Upanisad itself
became sectarian at the hands of the Brahman wan-
derers, a chaotic state of conflicting ideas and religious
sentiments when philosophy failed to provide a correct
and comprehensive view of the universe, and a sound and
rational theory of life, acting as an unfailing guide to
human conduct and affording a general standard for the
determination of ethical values. In this respect the
Dogmatists, the Sceptics and the Moralists are put by
the Jainas and the Buddhists, with certain reservations,
in the category of Akriyavadins — the upholders of the
doctrine of non-action. It also may be inferred from the
Jaina or the Buddhist description of these three classes
of thinkers that they all agreed in recognising in diverse
ways that quietism was after all the summum bonum of
spiritual life.
Now, in the absence of any records from Gosala
himself or from his followers, it is an extremely difficult
task to endeavour with success to render a complete
and faithful account of Gosala's views and practices.
A few isolated fragments have survived, no doubt, in the
existing literatures of the Jainas, the Buddhists and the
Brahmans, but these too are so much coloured by
sectarian bias and so very contradictory in places that it
is well nigh impossible to bring them all into a focus.
Before any way can be made, evidences must be collected
from all the possible sources of information, and the
evidences thus collected must be sifted with the minutest
care. Over and above this, a tremendous effort of imagi-
nation and genial intellectual sympathy are essential at
HISTORICAL SUMMARY ?.S
every step. So far as the sources of information are con-
cerned, I may here remain content with mentioning the
following : —
1. Jaina Sources — (a) Suyagadariiga (I. 1.2.1-14;
I. 1.4.7-9; II. 1.29; II. 6) with Sllanka's
Tlka.
(b) Bhagavatl Sutra (Saya XV, Uddesa I) with
A bhayadeva's Commentary,
(c) Leumann's Das Aupapatika Sutra (Sees. 118
and 120).
2. Buddhist Sources — (a) Samannaphala Sutta
(Digha I, pp. 53-54) with Budclhaghosa's
commentary.
(b) Samyutta Nikaya, III, p. 69, ascribes the first
portion of the Samannaphala account of
Gosala's views, N'atthi hetu, n'atthi paccayo,
etc., to Purana Kassapa.
(o) Aiiguttara Nikaya (Pt. I, p. 286) with the
Manorathapurani confounds Makkhali Gosala
apparently with Ajita Kesa-kambala.
(d) Anguttara Nikaya (Pt, III, pp. 383-84) with
the Manoratha-Purani represents Kassapa
as if he were a disciple of Makkhali
Gosala.
(e) Mahasaccaka Sutta (Majjhima I, p. 231), of.
also I, p. 36.
(/) The Chinese and Tibetan versions of the
Samannaphala Sutta, translated in Rockhill's
Life of the Buddha, where the doctrines of
the six Heretics are hopelessly mixed up.
(g) Trenckner's Milinda-Panho, p. 5.
{h) Mahabodhi-Jataka (No. 528), cf. Aryasura's
Jataka-Mala, XXIII.
U THE AJIVIKAS
Comparing these sources and noting their points of
agreement and difference I mav mention just a few
characteristic features of Gosala's philosophy : —
1. Gosala was, to start with, the propounder of a
1 doctrine of the change through re-animation' (pautta-
parikaravdda), 1 or, better, of a theory of natural trans-
formation (parinamavada), 2 which he came to formulate
from the generalisation of the periodical re-animations of
plant life. This is the central idea of his system
according to the Bhagavati account.
2. r lhe basic idea of this theory as explained and
illustrated in the Bhagavati and in the Samannaphala Sutta
implies a process of natural and spiritual evolution
through ceaseless rounds of births and deaths, 3 i.e.,
samsara-suddhi ', as the doctrine is aptly summarised in
the Majjhima 4 and in the Mahabodhi Jataka. 5
3. The Parinamavada seeks to explain the diversity
of the organic world by these three principles —
(a) Fate (niyati = niyai) 6
(/;) Species (sarigati = sarigai 7 = pariyaya) 8
(<?) Nature (bhava=sabhava) 9
" Niyati-sangati-bhava-parinata. , ' , °
1 The term is so rendered by Prof. Lenmann. See his translation of the extracts
from the Bhagavati, XV, in Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, Appendix II, p. 251.
5 The term is implied in the adjective parinata, cf. the Digha I, p. 53.
3 Digha, I, p. 54: sandhiivitva samsaritva dukhass' antam karissanti, cf. the
Bhagavati text quoted by Prof. Leumann (Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, A pp. II,
p. 253, f. n. 3) :— anupuvvenam khavaittS paccha sijjhanti bujjhanti Java antam
karenti.
* Majjhima, I, p. 31.
4 Fausboll's Jataka, V, p. 228.
8 The Prakrit form of niyati occurs in the Suyagadanga, I, 1.2.4.
7 - ! The forms sangai and pariyaya are to be found in the Buyagadaiiga, I, 1.2.3 ;
I, 1.4.8.
9 According to Buddhaghosa's comment, bhavo = sabhiivo, Sumangalavilasini,
I, p. 161.
10 Digha, I, p. 53. Buddhaghosa explains parinata as meaning diversified
(nfinSppakaram patta).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 25
4. The organic world is characterised by six constant
and opposed phenomena, viz., gain and loss, pleasure and
pain, life and death.
" Savvesirii pananaim savvesim bhuyanaim
Savvesim jivanaim savvesim sattanaiih
imaim sanaikkamaniairii vagaranaim
vagarai — tarii labham, alabham, suharh
dukharii, jiveyam, maranath.'' 1
5. The Parinamavada involves a conception of the
infinity of time with the recurrent cycles of existence,
and the same theory conveys a great message of hope hy
inculcating that even a dew-drop is so destined as to
attain in course of natural evolution to the highest state
of perfection in humanity.
6. The longest period or duration fixed for the
evolution of life from the meanest thing on earth to the
greatest in man covers S4 hundred thousand Mahakalpas. L>
7. This necessitates a division of time into Maha-
kalpas, Kalpas, Antarakalpas and so forth, during which
the uuiverse of life progresses onward along the fixed
path of evolution. 3
8. The theory of progression itself necessitates the
classification of the living substances on different methods,
and groups them on a graduated scale in different types
of existence which are considered as unalterably fixed.
9. The Parinamavacla seeks to establish, even by
its fatalistic creed, a moral government of law in the
universe where nothing is dead, where nothing happens
by chance, and where all that is and all that happens
and is experienced are unalterably fixed as it were by a
pre-determined law of nature.
1 The passage is an extract from the Bhagavati, Saya, XV, Uddesa I.
! Bhagavati text quoted by Prof. Leumaim. See Rockhill's Life of the Buddhn,
App. II, p. 253, f. n. 3; DIgha, I, p. 54.
3 Rockhill's Life of the Bnddha, App. II, pp. 253-54; Digha, I, p. 54.
4
2fi THE AJIVIKAS
10. It teaches that as man is pre -destined in certain
ways and as he stands highest in the gradations of
existence, his freedom, to he worth the name, must be
one within the operation of law, and that the duty
of man as the highest of beings is to conduct himself
according to law, and so to act and behave himself as not
to trespass on the rights of others, to make the fullest
use of one's liberties, to be considerate and discreet, to be
pure in life, to abstain from killing living beings, to be
free from earthly possessions, to reduce the necessaries
of life to a minimum, and to strive for the best and
highest, i.e., Jinahood, which is within human powers. 1
11. The fatalistic creed which is a logical outcome
of Parinamamda confirms the popular Indian belief that
action has its reward and retribution, and that heaven
and hell are the inevitable consequences hereafter of
merits and demerits of this life.
12. In accordance with the deterministic theory of
Gosala, man's life has to pass through eight develop-
mental stages or periods (atthapurisabhumiyo), 2 at each
of which the physical growth proceeds side by side with
the development of the senses and of mind with its moral
and spiritual faculties 3 ; and from this underlying theory
of interaction of body and mind it follows that bodily
discipline (kava-bhavana) * is no less needed for purifica-
tion of soul than mental (citta-bhavana).
13. The division of mankind, or, better, of living
beings, into six main types (abhijatis) involves a concep-
tion of mind which is colourless by nature and falls into
different types— mlakaya, pltakaya, etc.— by the colouring
of the different habits and actions, and hence the supreme
1 DTgha. I, p. 54 ; Anguttara, III, pp. 383-84; Majjhima, I, p. 238; AupapStika
Sutra, Sec. 120.
s Digha, I, p. 54.
3 Sumnncrala-Vilasiiii, T, pp. 162-163.
* Majjhima, I, p. 238.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 27
spiritual effort of man consists in restoring mind to its
original purity, i.e., rendering it colourless or supremely
white by purging it of all impurities that have stained
it. 1
By a glance at these features one can easily discern
that Gosala's philosophy was not entirely a new growth in
the country, but one which bore a family likeness to the
older and existing doctrines and theories in the midst of
which it arose, with a new synthetic spirit seeking to
weld together the higher metaphysics of the Upanisads
and the civic and moral life of the Aryan people into one
scheme of religious ethics. Considered in this light, a
better understanding and fuller appreciation of the
theoretic aspect of his philosophy and the practical side
of his religion are impossible without a comparative
study of the older theories and current beliefs which, as
I expect to show in the following pages, constituted a
natural environment for his own system. Accordingly,
the history of Makkhali-period is to be conceived as a
process of continued development of thought whereby the
rigorous religious discipline and the simpler ethical doc-
trines of the pre-Makkhali teachers of the Ajlvikas were
firmly established on a deeper scientific theory of
evolution, side by side with and in the close environment
of several conflicting theories and mutually contradictory
dogmas, all interconnected in the organic development
of Indian thought.
3. Post-Makhali Period.
Marikhaliputta Gosala died, according to the Jaina
evidence, at Halahala's potter-shop in Savatthi, in the
twenty-fourth year of his ascetic life (leaving behind him
a glorious record of his career as a leader of the Ajlviyas
and a teacher of philosophy). He had a severe attack of
1 Digha, I, 53 ; Anguttara, III, pp. 383-84 ; Sumangala-Vilasini, I, p. 162 ;
Majjhima, I, p. 36.
28 THE AJIVIKAS
typhoid fever of which he died, and died, as may be infer-
red from a prediction of Mahavira's, in seven days ; and
he predeceased, as it is implied in another prediction of
Mahavira, the latter by sixteen years. His death (better
Nirvana) was coincident with an important political event,
viz., the war between Kuniya (Ajatasattu), formerly the
Viceroy of Ariga and then the King of Magadha after
the usurpation of his father's throne, and Cedaga (Sk.
Cetaka), the King (better, a powerful citizen) l of Vesali.
Some important details are preserved in the Bhagavati
of the suffering and intense pain that attended Gosala's
fever. The Jaina historian is fond of looking upon his
fever with its attendant ailments as the dire consequence
of a magic duel which he had so foolishly fought with
Mahavira, his former teacher and then his superior rival.
These details are important, as I presently expect to
show, as having a far-reaching effect on the course of
Ajlvika religion. The Bhagavati account 2 mentions,
among others, the following facts : —
(a) Visit of a company of six Disacaras or Vagabonds
(better, Wanderers) to Savatthi — Sana, Kalanda, Kaniyara,
Attheda, Aggivesayana and Ajjana Gomayuputta, with
whom Gosala discussed their respective theories in the
twenty-fourth year of his asceticism.
(b) Acceptance of Gosala's theory of re-animation by
the Disacaras and their conversion to the Ajlviya faith.
(c) Extracts made by the Disacaras, according to their
own ideas, from the ten canonical books, viz., the eight
Mohammittas contained in the Puvvas and the two
Maggas.
(d) Deduction of six principles, gain and loss, pleasure
and pain, life and death, from the teaching of the Maha-
nimit.tas.
1 Jaina-Sutras, Part I, Introd., p. xii.
' Hoernle's Appendix I, pp. 4-11.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 29
(c) Visit of Mahavira to Savatthi, accompanied by
his chief disciple Indabhui and by Anarhda, Savvanubhiii
and Sunakkhatta among his other disciples.
(/) Gosala's conversation with Anarhda whom he tried
to convince by a story of some merchants and a fierce
serpent in an ant-hill, that he possessed magic powers of
destruction which the latter must beware of.
(g) His interview with Mahavira near Kotthaga-ceiya
and concealment of his former relations with the latter
by means of his theory of re-animation.
(/*) Mahavlra's denunciation of Gosala who acted
like a thief in pretending himself to be a Jina.
(i) Destruction by Gosala's magic power of tw r o dis-
ciples of Mahavira, — Savvanubhui and Sunakkhatta who
censured Gosala for his improper behaviour towards his
former teacher.
(/) Magic duel fought between Gosala and Mahavira,
which resulted in the defVat and discomfiture of the
former.
(k) Advantage taken by the Niggantha ascetics under
Mahavlra's instruction of this mental state of Gosala, and
conversion of many Aj I vivas to the Jaina faith.
(I) Gosala's shameless words and actions in the deli-
rium of fever, e.g., holding a mango in his hand, drinking,
singing, dancing, improperly soliciting the potter-woman
Halahala, and sprinkling himself with the cool muddy
water from a potter's vessel.
(«/) Question of Ayampula, an Ajiviya layman, as to
the nature of the Holla insect, and Gosala's foolish reply
(made after the attendant theras had taken away the mango
which he was holding in his hand) : " This which you see
is not a mango, but merely the skin of a mango ; you want
to know what the Walla insect is like ; it is like the root
of the bamboo, play the lute, brother, play the lute !"
80 THE AJIVIKAS
(n) Development of a few new doctrines of the
Ajlviyns from Gosala's personal acts and from events at
or about the time of his death, viz.,
(I) the doctrine of Eight Finalities (attha eara-
mairii) ; the last drink, the last song, the last dance, the
last solicitation, the last tornado, the last sprinkling
elephant,' the last tight with big stones as missiles, and
the last Titthai'ikara who is Mankhaliputta himself -;
(II) the doctrine of Four Drinkables and Four
substitutes (cattari panagaim ; cattari apanagaim)' : the
former include what is excreted by the cow, what has been
soiled by the hand (e.g., the water in a potter's vessel),
what is heated by the sun, and what drops from a rock ;
and the latter include —
(1) Holding a dish or a bottle or a pot or a jar which
is cool or wet with water, instead of drinking
from it ;
(2) squeezing or pressing with one's mouth a mango
or a hog-plum or a jujube fruit or a titiduka
fruit when it is tender or uncooked, instead of
drinking of its juice ;
(3) squeezing or pressing with one's mouth kalaya
or mudga or inasa or simbali beans when these
are tender or uncooked, instead of drinking of
their juice; and
(A) ' the — pure — drink ' consisting in eating pure
food for six months, lying successivelv, for two
1 Seyaiiaga = Sk. Secanaka, the Sprinkler. In the Nirayavaliya Sutta (Warren's
ed. 17) it is related that this elephant used to carry the royal ladies of Cain pa to
their bath and sport in the Ganges. See Hoernle's Appendix 1. p. 7, F. n.
- Hoernle rightly points out that the first four items refer to the last personal
acts of Gosala. and that of the remaining four items the first three refer to events
which happened at or about the time of Gosala's death. Appendix 1. p. 7. f. n.
n The commentary explains panagaim by " jalavisesa" vratayogySh, i.e., kinds of
water that are fit to be drunk by the ascetics: and apanagaim by "panaka-sadrisani
sitalatvcna dahdpaSama-hetava," i.e., objects that resemble water, because, on account
their coolness, they serve to assuage internal heat. Appendix I. p. 8, f. n.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 31
months at a time, on the bare earth, on wooden
planks and on darbha grass.
(o) Gosala's prophecy that Mahavira, struck by his
magic ])ower, would die of typhoid fever in six months,
and Mahavlra's counter prophecies that the former having
been hit by his magic power, would die of the same fever
in seven days, while he himself, although attaeked with
the same malady would live for sixteen years longer the
life of a Jina.
(p) Gosala's repentance and confession of shame, and
declaration that Mahavira was the true Jina while he
himself was Gosala, the son of ATarikhali, a wicked man,
whose body deserved to be dragged, after his death, by a
rope for people to spit at, and buried with every mark of
dishonour. 1
(q) His death in the premises of Halahala's potter-
shop and a public burial of his body with all honours,
according to his original instructions.
(r) Synchronism of his death with the war between
Kiiniya and Cedaga.
(s) His rebirth as a Deva in the Accuya world (Accue
Kappe), being the reward, as some of the Jainas believe,
of his repentance and self -confession, followed by a long
series of rebirths and redeaths, the first of which is repre-
sented by King Mahapauma of Punda, at the foot of the
Vinjha mountains.
(/) Persecution of the Niggantha Samanas by King
Mahapauma at tin? instigation of the Ajlviyas whose royal
patron he was, and destruction of the wicked king by the
magic potency of the Jaina saint named Sumamgala.
(m) Blind worship of Mankhaliputta Gosala whom
his Ajlviya followers honoured as the last Tittharikara.
1 Heart of Jainiam, p, 60, f, n
32 THE AJIVIKAS
Those who are inclined to accept the BhagavatI
account of Gosala's last days as true in the literal sense,
may find their views beautifully expressed in Mrs.
Stevenson's " Heart of Jainism " (p. 60), where she makes
the following observation : " Now he (i.e., Gosala)
brought forward another doctrine, that of re-animation,
by which he explained to Mahavira that the old Gosala
who had been a disciple of his was dead, and that he
who noAv animated the body of Gosala was quite another
person ; this theory, however, deceived nobody and
Gosala, discredited in the eyes of the townspeople, fell
lower and lower, and at last died as a fool dieth."
I have been at pains to place. before the reader almost
all the main facts to be gathered from the BhagavatI
account of Gosala's last days, and that with the single
object of enabling him to judge for himself how brittle
and insufficient are the materials with which a systematic
history of the post-Makkhali period of the Ajlviya religion
is to be built. And any intelligent student of history,
1 am confident, can easily perceive that many real
facts about the Ajlviyas lie buried under the debris of
myth and sectarian misrepresentation. He may miss all
other points, but not one, which, I believe, is the Jaina
motive to make Gosala who is the greatest Ajlviya teacher
to appear as a mischievous mad man to posterity, to
whom he bequeathed the richest treasures of his wisdom
and erudition, and, above all, an invigorating message
of hope through his theory of re-animation. I leave it to
the future historian of the Ajlviyas to decide how far he
had merited such inhospitable and impolite treatment in
the hands of the Jaina author of the BhagavatI Sutra.
But I cannot help making one or two observations in
passing.
First, it does not surely speak well either of the Jaina
author or of the Jaina order whose glory and powers the
HISTORICAL SUMMARY S3
former is so anxious to bring out in his account, that he
has recorded without any apology the conduct of the
Niggantha Samanas who had taken advantage of and
doubly increased the mental worries and discomfiture of
Gosala by going to discuss with him some serious pro-
blems of Jaina religion and theology, and that at the
opportune suggestion from Mahavira himself. However,
in spite of his deliberate attempt to make the best use
of Gosala's words and actions in the delirium of fever,
without a word of sympathy for the agony under which
he suffered, he has not been able to conceal a few out-
standing facts of the latter's life. He has mentioned,
for instance, that the question which A\/ampula, an
Ajiviya layman, put to his dying master Avas about the
nature of the Ha/la insect, just in the same way that
he has related that the two ascetics, Mahavira and Gosala,
had separated in Siddhatthagama on account of a doc-
trinal difference which arose between them in connexion
with the latter's theory of re-animation. These two points,
marking out as they do the beginning and close of his philo-
sophic career, go only to indicate that he was a naturalist,
one whose life was spent in the study of plants and all
other forms of life, and in finding out scientific explana-
tions for their peculiar characteristics, habits, experiences
and destinies.
Secondly, I do not clearly see as to what spiritual
advantage the Jaina author has sought to gain by des-
cribing Gosala's fever as the dire consequence of a ma°>ic
duel he had so foolishly fought with Mahavira, though
not unaware of the fact that a Jaina himself was inclined
to attribute the typhoid fever from which Mahavira
himself suffered shortly afterwards to a similar cause. 1
1 Hoernle's Appendix, I, p. 10 : '-Soon after his arrival at the Salakotthaga
Ceiya near the town of Midhiyagama, Mahavira got a severe attack of bilious fever,
5
3 4 THE AJIVIKAS
I cannot, indeed, suggest any other plausible explanation
for some of the later accounts, whether Jaina or Buddhis-
tic, which seek to claim the superiority of Mahavlra
or of the Buddha, as a teacher, by his superior and over-
whelming magical powers of destruction, than that in
the absence of the master, the spirit of his teaching was
entirely lost sight of by those of his followers who courted
only popularity of their faith among superstitious people
at large.
It seems true that the visit of Mahavlra to Savatthi
with his disciples who resembled in many respects
the Ailviyas but who were more exalted withal in
social position and more refined in manners, and whose
doctrines were more rational and articulate than,
although similar in many points to, the Ajlviya, proved
fatal to the reputation of the Ajlviya leader and checked
further progress of the Ajlviya creed in the ancient
city of Savatthi which is so famous also in the history
of Buddhism. It may be a fact that some of the
Ailviyas were won over to the new faith of the Jainas
which was rapidly spreading its net over the Mid-Land
like a spider at the cost of the mother creed. But was
the victory only one-sided, I would ask, or did Mahavlra
o-ain some only to lose others, despite the fact that he
o-ained far more than lost ? AVhat does the Jaina author
mean when he relates that Mahavlra's disciples, Savvfinu-
bhui and Sunakkhatta, were killed by Gosala's magical
powers of destruction ? I am of opinion that both
Savvauubhui and Sunakkhatta were converted to the
Ajlvika faith. As to Sunakkhatta in particular there
are two versions of an important Buddhist discourse,
characterised as "horror-striking " (lomahamsa), 1 in both
and all the people of the town thought that Gosala's prophecy was going to be fulfilled
This greatly troubled the mind of one of Mahavlra's disciples, called Siha."
1 The discourse is embodied in the Mahaaihanada Suttn, Majjhiina, I, pp. 68-83,
and in the Lomahamsa- Jataka (No. 94-).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 35
of which lie is introduced as a Licchavi prince Avho
severed his connexion with the Buddhist order, and in
both the versions the Buddha sets up an enquiry into
the tenets of Ajlvika religion, which is a circumstantial
evidence proving that Sunakkhatta had something to do
and was in some way connected with the Ajlvikas at some
later period of his life. All the stories about him,
whether older or later, emphasize certain facts about his
religious views and outlook which manifestly show that
he was just the sort of man who attached greater
spiritual value to outward asceticism than to the moral
behaviour of a recluse, and whose standard of judgment
of a teacher's greatness consisted in mystical faculties
and magic rather than in self-culture and rationality.
He had joined the Buddhist Order apparently in the
hope of finding in the great Buddha and his religion of
the Middle Path all that he wanted to get, and when
disappointed, he left it to join with a Korakhattiya in
repudiating the Buddha in public as a theorist without
higher intellectual perception and superhuman faculties. 1
According to Garuda Gosvamin's Amavatura, he next
attached himself to a Jaina recluse named Kalara-
matthuka, and again returned to the Buddha only to
go back again to a self-conceited Jaina named Patika-
putta. It was while the Buddha was staying in the
Patikarania, near Vesali, that he gave his famous ' horror-
striking' discourse by dwelling on the religious views of
Sunakkhatta which were consonant with the Ajlvika
1 " N'atthi Samanassa Gotamassa uttarimanussaadhammo alamariyananadassana-
viseso, takkapariyahatam samano Gotamo dhammarii deseti. " The Lomaharfisa Jataka
relates that Sunakkhatta reverted to a lay life through the influence of Kora the
Ksatriya about the time when this latter had been reborn as the offspring of
Kalakafijaka Asura. The Mabasihanada Sufcfca does not mention Kora Khattiva.
The story of Sunakkhatta in the Singhalese Amavatura seems to have been based
upon the Patika-Sutta of the Digha Nikaya, Vol. I IT. The older version of the
story is to be discussed in Part II. Chap. T.
36 THE AJIVIKAS
faith and discipline. The Mahasihanada Sutta, which
lays the scene in a forest-grove, in the western suburb of
Vesali, embodies a more detailed analysis and elaborate
discussion of the principles and practices of the Ajlvikas,
and this older account in the Majjhima confirms, as will
be shown anon, the Jaina account in the Bhagavati in
many important phases of Ajlvikism as it developed after
the Nirvana of Gosala. Thus with the aid of contem-
porary and subsequent accounts from the Buddhists I
can suggest that the true meaning of the Jaina state-
ment about the destruction of Sunakkhatta 1 by Gosala's
magical powers is that he passed many a time from one
order to another, and that the last order which he joined
and the last faith in which he died was the Ajiviya.
Next as to Mahavlra's prophecy that Gosala having
been hit by his magic power must die of bilious (typhoid)
fever in seven days, I doubt if it can be viewed as sober
history. This prophecy of his is in conflict with his
statement that eight new practices of the Ajiviyas
emerged from Gosala's personal acts. Considering that
the first seven practices — drinking what is excreted by
the coav, what has been soiled by the hand, etc., are
traceable in hisacts in the delirium of fever, a presump-
tion is apt to arise that the eighth practice, called
the Pure Drink, also arose from his personal example,
and as we know, to practise this hard penance of suicidal
starvation, the Ajiviyas had to lie down for six months,
lying successively for two months at a time on the bare
earth, on wooden planks and on darbha grass. If the
Ajiviyas observed this practice in blind imitation of
their master, as I believe they did, Mahavlra's prophecy
can be reconciled with his statement about Gosala's
1 The story of Sunakkhatta in the Dhammapada commentary and the Amavatura
goes on to relate that his dead body was dragged by a rope to the charnel field
(aniaka-snsana).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 37
death only by the supposition that he did not actually
die in seven days, but survived the attack of fever for
a period of six months, during which he practised the
penance of Pure Drink in the manner above described,
and attained after his death to the immutable world
(Accue Kappe).
The new Ajlvij a doctrine of eight finalities preserves
the memory of a war between Kuniya and Cedaga, and
these reminiscences, combined with Mahavira's second
prophecy that Gosala would predecease him by sixteen
years, can serve to furnish a clue to the date of Gosala's
death, being synchronous with some natural and political
events such as tornado and war, which left its influence
on Ajlviya religion. An account of this war is em-
bodied in the Nirayavaliya sutta 1 , but it would be an
unpardonable digression here to discuss the complicated
question of date. It can nevertheless be imagined that
the strange coincidence of Gosala's death with tornado
and war made such a deep impression on the Ajlviyas as
to lead them to associate these events in their memory,
to look upon them as the work of some mysterious
spiritual agencies and turn their coincidence into a
doctrine : the last drink, the last song, the last dance,
the last solicitation, the last tornado, the last sprinkling
elephant, the last tight with big stones as missiles, and
the last titthaiikara who is Marikhaliputta himself. 2
According to the BhagavatI account Savatthi was the
main centre of the Ajlviya activity during the leadership
of Gosala and subsequently, and this is confirmed by a
few passages of the Vinaya Pitaka pointing to Savatthi
as the place where a naked ascetic was invariably
1 Warren's edition, p. 17. foil.
- Bhagavati, XV. I. 1254: carime pane, carime wire, carime riatte, carime
amjalikamme, carime pokklialassa samvattae maliamelir. carime seyanae gamdhahatthi,
carime mahasilakariifcae... carime bitthamkare.
oS THE AJIVIKAS
sidered to be an Ajivika. Professor D. R. Bhandarkar
draws attention 1 to an interesting episode in the Maha-
vagga recording two instances, where a maid in the service
of lady Visakha mistook the Buddhist bhikkhus for the
Ajlvikas when she saw them "with their robes thrown off,
letting themselves be rained down upon "- and the second
time, when the bikkhus entered, into their respective
chambers, taking off their robes after cooling their limbs
and being refreshed in body," The Ajlviya lay-disciples
mentioned in the Uvasagadasao, the BhagavatI sutra
and in the Dhammapada commentary were all either
citizens of Savatthi or residents of some outlying districts
and suburbs of Savatthi, and they are classed as rich
potters and bankers as will appear from the following
list :—
(1) Kundakoliyn, resident of Sahassambavana near
Kampillapura in the dominion of King Jiya-
sattu, alias Pascnadi Kosala. He married lady
Pusa and is said to have possessed " a treasure
of six kror measures of gold deposited in a safe
place, a capital of six kror measures of gold,
put out on interest, a well-stocked estate of the
value of six kror measures of gold and six
herds, each herd consisting of ten thousand
heads of cattle." 1 He had a seal inscribed with
his name Cnama-mudda) and is addressed as the
lay-disciple of the Samana and beloved of the
gods. 5 Subsequently he is said to have become
a Jain a.
(2) Saddalaputta, a rich potter of Polasapura, a
town near Sahassambavana in the dominion of
1 Ind. Ant., 1912, Vol. XLI, p. 288.
- Mahavagga, VIII, 15.3. Vinaya Texts, S. B. E., Part II, p. 217.
3 Mahiivagga, VIII, 15.4. Vinaya Texts, op. c-it. p. 21S.
1 Hoemle'a edition and translation of the pTasaga DasSo, VI. 163.
Ibid, VI. Hi<> ; '' Ham bho KundakoKya samanovasaya devannppiya."
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 39
King Jiyasattu. He married Aggimitta and vied
with Kundakoliya in opulence. 1 He ran 500
potteries where a large number of employees
received food in lieu of wages, day by day,
prepared a large number of bowls, pots, pans,
pitchers and jars of six different sizes, 2 and
used to carry on a trade on the king's high-
road with that large number of bowls and jars
of various sizes." He, too, is said to have become
a Jaina later on.
(3) Halahala, a potter- woman in whose premises in
Savatthi Marikhaliputta found shelter and lived
and died.
(4) Ayampula, a citizen of Savatthi.
(5) Migara, 4 a banker of Savatthi, who possessed
40 Kror measures of gold (cattalisakotiyo
mahasetthi). His son Punnavaddhana married
the Buddhist lady Visakha, daughter of
Dhananjaya, a banker of Magadha, naturalised
subsequently in Kosala. The banker Migara
o-ot rid of his Aiivika creed and embraced
the Buddhist faith through the instrumentality
of his daughter-in-law. Hence the standing
epithet Migaramata, the mother of Migara,
applied to the name of Visakha.
There are a few Buddhist discourses which bear out
the fact that the Ajlvika propaganda work was not confined
to Kosala, but ranged over a wider area extending as far
west as Avanti, and as far east as the frontier district of
Bengal (Vangantajanapada). For instance, in a passage
of the Majjhima Nikaya, a Brahman wanderer tells the
Buddha that Ariga and Magadha were seething with
1 Ibid, VII. 182.
! - 3 Uvasaga Dasao, VII. 183.
4 Dhammapada Commentary, p. 384, foil.
40 THE AJ1VIKAS
speculative ferment stirred up by the six tittharikaras of
whom Makkhali Gosiila was one ' ; and in another passage
Sariputta informs Moggallana that he met an Ajlvika named
Panduputta, the son of a coach-repairer, near Rajagaha. 2
The story of Upaka, of which there are several versions
in the Buddhist literature,' 5 relates that the Buddha had
met the Ajlvika en route to Benares from Gaya, shortly
after his enlightenment. According to a later version of
the same story in the Suttanipata-eommentary, Upaka
having parted company with the Buddha proceeded as
far east as the frontier district of Bengal where he was
entertained by a fowler with meat broth. He fell in love
with Capa, the fowler's daughter, and when their love
affair Avas disclosed she was given him in marriage. lie
became sick of household life after Capa had given birth
to a son and went back to the Buddha whom he came
to look upon as ananta-jina, the peerless Master. The
District where he had so long lived as householder was
situated outside the Middle Country, as may- be inferred
from the expression that "he proceeded towards the
Majjhimadesa." 4 Thus, the Buddhist evidences can be
brought to bear upon the BhagavatI account which speaks
of Rayagiha, Uddandapura, Campa, Vanarasi, Alabhiya,
Yesali and Savatthi as the several successive centres of
the Ajiviya activity.
A number of Gosala's disciples survived him and
amongst them may be included the Disacaras, and
Sunakkhatta and others. The Disacaras formed a group
of six wandering mendicants before their conversion to
the Ajiviya religion, and they are named Sana, Kalanda,
"ijjhima-Nikaya, II, p. 2.
- Ibid, 1, pp. 31-32.
3 Ibid I, p. 170, foil.; Therigatka ; Paramattha-jotika, II, Vol. 7, pp. 2oS-L'(30.
* Paramatthajotika, II, Vol. I, p. 260 : Majjhima desabliimukho pakkami. The
boundaries of the Middle Country are discussed by Prof. Bhandarkar with his
characteristic thoroughness in his Carmichael Lectures, Lee. II, p. 42, foil,
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 41
Kaniyara, Attheda, Aggivesayana, and Ajjana Gomayu-
putta. 1 Of them the last, i.e., Ajjana Gomayuputta
seems to have been the same person as the Ajlvika whom
the Buddhist Thera Sariputta met outside Rajagaha, and
who is named Pandupiitta puranayanakaraputta in the
Majjhima (I. p. 31) — Pandu's son, i.e., Ajjuna, the son
of a repairer of old carts. The Disacaras met Gosala
in the 24th year of his mendicancy. The BhagavatI
account keeps us in the dark as to who they were before
their interview with Gosala. It represents them as if
they had belonged to a separate school of thought and
religious order, the past traditions (puvvas) whereof they
collected and arranged into a canon consisting of eight
Mahanimittas and two Maggas, which ultimately became
the sacred literature of the Ajlviyas. 2 The account goes
so far as to indicate that this literature sprang out of the
extracts made by the Disacaras according to their own
ideas from the Puvvas, and that Gosala derived the six
characteristic features of the organic world therefrom.
It seems prima facie impossible that the six wanderers
should have paid a visit to Gosala with a literature of
their own and that this literature should have been
accepted by Gosala and his disciples as canonical. The
better interpretation would seem to be that the disciples
of Gosala who survived him assembled to collect and
systematise the teachings of their master and the tradi-
tions of their order after Gosala's death, and probably
they formed a council of six for the purpose, a procedure
followed later in principle by the Jainas and Buddhists
after the death of their masters.
The BhagavatI Sutra does not explain what its
author understood by the Puvvas wherein the eight
1 Some texts read the names as Sana, Kanamdn, Kaniyara, Aechula, Aggivesayana
and Ajjuya Gomayuputta.
■ Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, Appendix II, p. 249.
6
42 THE AJIVIKAS
Mahanimittas were contained, nor does it state what his
idea was of the contents of the Ajlviya canon. The
commentator says that the Maggas consisted of two
treatises on music : gitamarga-nrityamarga-laksanarii,
which is hardly correct.
It appears from the Bhadrabahu inscription at Sravana
Belgoja ' that the eight Mahanimittas formed part of the
original Jaina canon, although no trace of them, as
noticed by Prof. Leumann, can be found in the existing
one. 2
There seems to be much truth in Leumann 's surmise;
at any rate, the traditional connexion of the Mahanimittas
and Maggas with the Puvvas can be rendered clear by the
history of the Jaina canon. According to the Jaina
tradition, whether &veta,mbara or Digambara, " besides
the Aiigas, there existed other and probably older works,
called Puvvas, of which there were originally fourteen." 3
The ^vetambara tradition says that the fourteen Purvas
were incorporated in the twelfth Ariga, the Dristimda,
which was lost in the 10th century after Mahavlra's
death. This tradition is in conflict with the Jaina inter-
pretation of the word Puvva, according to which Mahavlra
himself taught the Puvvas to his disciples called the
Ganadharas and the latter composed afterwards the Angas.
That there is some truth in this traditional interpretation
none can deny. 4 The substance of Prof. Jacobi's views
on this point is that the fourteen Puvvas or oldest sacred
books of the Jainas were superseded by a new canon, for
the very name Puvva means " former," i.e., the earlier
composition. The most natural interpretation of the
tradition that the Angas and the Puvvas existed side by
1 Bhadra Bahu and Sravana Belgola b}' Lewis Rice, Ind. Ant,, Vol. Ill, p. 153.
A§taftgamahauiinittara = atthnrhg-antha Mahanimittam of the Bhagavati Sutra.
2 Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, Appendix II, p. 249, f. n. 1.
3 Jacobi's Jaina-siitras, Part 1, Introd., p. xliv.
4 Weber, Indische Studien, xvi, p. 353,
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 43
side up till the council of Pataliputra, which was held in
the 4th century B.C., is that the first eleven Angas did
not derive their authority from the Puvvas, and were in
a sense later innovations.
As to the tradition that the 14 T * areas were incorpo-
rated in the Twelfth Anga, the Dristicada, Prof. Jacobi
justifies it by the contents of the Aiiga itself. The
Dristivada, as its name implies, dealt chiefly with the
dfistis or philosophical views of the Jainas and other
schools. " It may be thence inferred that the purvas
related controversies held between Mahavira and rival
teachers. The title pravada which is added to the name
of each purva t seems to affirm this view." The Jaina
scholars headed by Jacobi, Weber and others tend to hold
that the purvas represented the older Jaina doctrines in
their traditional form which were later abridged, systema-
tized and partly superseded by the Arigas. 1
The same process of abridgement, systematisation,
and partial supplementation seems to have taken place
in the growth of the Ajivika canon. The eight Maha-
nimittas did not surely exhaust the puvvas when it is ex-
pressly stated that they were only contained in them, and
consisted of extracts made thereof by the Disacaras accord-
ing to their own ideas. Some idea of the contents of
the Mahanimittas can be formed from the Bhadrabahu
inscription referred to above and quoted below : —
" Bhadrabahu-svamina Ujjayinyam astanga-mahani-
mitta-tatvajiiena traikalya-darsina nimittena dvadasa sarii-
vatasara-kala vaisamyam upalabhya."
The extract may be rendered as follows : —
" By Bhadrabahu-svamin, who possesses the knowledge
of the Eight Mahanimittas, the seer of the past, present
and future, was foretold by the study of signs a dire
* Hoernle's Introduction to his translation of the Uvasaga Dasao, p. x. Seo
other references mentioned by him in a footnote.
44 THE AJIVIKAS
calamity in Ujjayini, lasting for a period of twelve years.
It is clear from this that the Eight Mahanimittas con-
sisted chiefly of astrological and astronomical works. It
is doubtful if the Maggas were treatises on music, as the
Jaina commentator suggests. These dealt perhaps with
the rules of the Ajiviya community. It js no wonder
that these were later additions to the Ajlvika canon,
although it is difficult to say when exactly these additions
were made. The puvvas from which the -abstracts on
astrological and astronomical matters were derived con-
tained perhaps, like the Puvvas of the Jainas, the philo-
sophical views and controversies besides the rules of the
Ajiviya order. The separation of the Mahanimittas from
the general body of Ajiviya tradition was coeval probably
with a change which came about in the life of the Ajlviyas
after their master's death. The change is nothing else,
as will be pointed out hereafter, than that the Ajlviyas
departing from the line of strict religious discipline and
purpose of their Masters inclined more and more to make
astrology and divination their profession.
The literary traditions of the Ajlviyas, like those of
many other schools of thought, have been lost perhaps for
ever, and no one knows where to seek for them or what
fruitful results they will yield when discovered. At the
present state of our knowledge, I can only say that the
Ajlviyas, like the Jainas and the Buddhists, had a
literature of their own, and it is painful to think that
it should have been irrevocably lost. Prom the evidence
of the Bhadrabahu inscription of Sravana Belgoja the
historian is tempted to believe that it is not lost absolutely,
but that it has survived in some form or other in the
existing literature of the Jainas, the Buddhists and the
Brahmans, and chiefly in that of the Jainas.
A few stereotyped fragments that have survived in
the Jaina and Buddhist literatures seem to preserve
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 45
certain turns of expressions which, meagre though they
are, bear evidence to the fact that the Ajlvikas had
developed a literary medium or vehicle of expression and
scientific nomenclature of their own, closely allied to
the Dialect on one side, and to Ardhamagadhi on the
other, distant from Pali and still more distant from
Sanskrit. It is difficult, as in the case of Ardha-
magadhi and Pali, to point out any local dialect on
which the Ajlvika language was based. Considering
that Savatthi was the main centre of their religious
propaganda during the leadership of Gosala and subse-
quently, one may be tempted to hold that it was derived
mainly from the dialect of Kosala, while its scientific
nomenclature was partly coined and partly derived from
the Brahmanical literature then extant. But the objec-
tion will arise that if their language was of a local
origin, how could it be spoken and well understood over
the whole of the Middle Country, or why should it be
different, however slightly, from Ardhamagadhi and Pali,
although Savatthi was as much the centre of the Ajlvikas
as that of the Jainas and Buddhists ? I am far from
saying that their language was entirely free from all
local influences, but I must say that in the study of the
growth of literary languages in the sixth century B.C.,
no less than in that of the rise of different political
powers and religious orders, the historian and the
philologist will do well to bear in mind that the tribal,
caste and communal factors were far more potent and
operative than local. To take an illustration : supposing
that the languages of the Ajlvika canon and Buddhist
Pitaka had developed side by side in Kosala, where the
local influences were theoretically the same, the
differences between them in matters of phonetics, syntax
and affinity with Sanskrit can be best accounted for
not so much by a grand theory of provincial peculiarities
46 THE AJlVIKAS
as by that of tribal, caste and communal differentiations,
conscious or unconscious. The communal differentiation
is conscious, while the tribal and caste differentiations
arc generally unconscious, and conscious only where a
member of a tribe or caste makes himself conspicuous
to his fellows by his imitation of the diction and accent
of some other tribe or caste. The tribal or race influence
is partly local in so far as ;i place is inhabited by a tribe
or a race. Proceeding on these lines, the greater
refinement of Pali and its closer affinity with Sanskrit
can be explained by the fact that it had originated with
a highly cultured member of an aristocratic clan, and
was adapted to the languages of the nobility and learned
Brahmans, while the Ajivika language having originated
with a person of lower social position, and having been
adapted to the dialects of the Vaisyas, e.g., the bankers,
the potters and the coach-builders, naturally lacked gram-
matical precision, the purity of diction, and refinement
in tone This is confirmed by the fact that wherever
in the Nikayas we come across homely dialogues and
folk-tales, similes and maxims, it is found that the
language differs invariably from the standard Pali of
the Buddhist Theras and Theris, and approximates more
or less to the Dialect, i.e., to the language of the
Middle Country with its local, tribal and caste variations.
A fuller discussion of this intricate linguistic problem
is reserved for Part II. Here I must remain content
with citing a few instances in order to illustrate the
nature of the Ajivika language under notice.
1. (a) The doctrine of Gosala is reproduced in
Ardhamagadh i :
" Gosalassa Mankhaliputtassa dhammapan-
natti : n'atthi utthane i va kamme i va bale i
va virie i va purisaparakkame i va — niyaya
sabbabhava " (Uvasaga Dasao, VI, 166).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 47
(b) The same is reproduced in Pali:
" N'atthi attakare n'atthi parakare n'atthi
purisakare, n'atthi balam n'atthi viriyam
n'atthi purisa-thamo n'atthi purisa-
parakkamo. Sabbe satta sahhe pana
sabbe bhuta sabbe jiva avasa abala
aviriya niyati-sari gati-bhava-parinata "
(Dl^ha., I, p. 63).
(c) The same abridged and more adapted to Pali
reads :
" N'atthi balam n'atthi vlriyari n'atthi
purisatthamo n'atthi purisaparakkamo,
sabbe satta abala aviriya niyati-
sangati-bhava parinata (Majjhima, I, p.
407).
2. {a) Caurasiti mahakappasayasahassaim, satta-
divve, satta sarhjuhe, satta sannigabbhe,
satta pauttfiparihare, panca kammanisaya-
sahassaim satthim ca sahassani cha ca
satinniya kammamse aniipuvvenarii kha-
vaitta tau paccha sijjhanti hujjhanti Java
antarii karenti '" (Bhagavati, XY. 1.).
(b) " Cuddasa kho pan' imani yoni-pamukha-sata-
sahassani satthifi ca satani cha ca satani,
panca ca kammani tlni ca kammani kamme
ca addha-kamme ca, dvatthi-patipada
satta sannigabbha satta asanfiigabbha,
satta niganthigabbha, satta deva satta
manusa, satta pesaca, 2 satta
supina, satta supina-satani, cullaslti
1 In Rome edition the text reads : sijjhanti bujjhanti mnccamti parinivvaiihti
sabl a dnkkhanarii itu'itaih karimsu va karimti va karissamti va. The phrase Java
aihtaro karenti frequently ocenrs in the Bhagavati, XV. 1.
2 The variant is pisaca. This reading i-< adopted by the commentator.
48 THE AJIYIKAS
maha-kappuno ' satasahassani yani bale
ca pandite ca sandhavitva samsaritva
dukkhass' antarii karissanti " (Digha,
I, p. 5 1).
3. («) " Se-jje inie gam'-agara Java sannivesesu
Ajlviya bhavanti, tarn jaha : du-gharauta-
riya ti-gharantariya satta-gharantariya up-
palaventiya ghara-samudaniya vijjuyan-
tariya uttiya-samana " (Aupapatika Sutra,
Sec. 120).
(b) " Acelaka muttacara hatthapalekhana na
ehibhadantika na titthabhadantika na
abhihatam na uddissakatam na niman-
tanam sadiyanti, Te ekagarika
va honti ekalopika, dvagarika va honti
dvalopika, sattagarika va honti sattalo-
pika " v Majjhima, I, p. 23S).
The reader may notice that in the instances cited above
the language is not that of the Ajlvikas, certain views
and rules of theirs being reproduced in highly crystallised
and distorted forms by the Jamas and Buddhists in
their own languages, i.e., in Ardhamagadhi and Pali res-
pectively. In so doing, they have retained just a few
turns of expressions and grammatical forms which appear
to stand nearer to Ardhamagadhi or Jaina Prakrit. Eor
instance, in the Jaina extract 1(a), the nominative singu-
lars, whether masculine or neuter, have for their case-
ending e, while in Pali declension the case-ending in
similar cases is o for masculine stems and am for neuter.
The Jaina extract reads : " n ' atthi utthane i va
purisaparakkame i va." The Buddhist extract from the
Digha, catalogued as 1(b), contains similar grammatical
forms in "n' atthi atta-kare n'atthi para-kare n'atthi
1 The reading Mahakappuno is accepted in the commentary.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 49
purisakare," while these expressions are altogether
omitted in the extract from the Majjhima, marked 1(c),
where the Ajivika language is more adapted to Pali.
The contrast in view can at once he brought out by com-
parison of 1(a) and 1(c).
1(a) : n'atthi bale i va vlriye i va purisa-parak-
kame i va.
1(c): n'atthi balam n'atthi vlriyam n'atthi purisa-
thamo n'atthi purisa-parakkamo.
It may be inferred from this that the Ajivikas did not
draw any distinction in their declension between masculine
and neuter stems ending in a, in so far as the nominative
singular is concerned. Mahakappuno occurs in 2(b) as
a genitive singular of mahakappa, whereas the genitive
plural mahakappanam would have fitted more the context,
if the language had been Pali. Moreover, the genitive
singular of mahakappa is always mahakappassa in
Pali,
The extract 2(b) also contains an Ajivika word supina,
the meaning of which is confounded by the Buddhist
commentator with that of the Pali word supina. " Satta
supina, satta supina-satani." Professor Rhys Davids
following the authority of Buddhaghosa's commentary,
renders these expressions by " seven principal and seven
hundred minor sorts of dreams." 1 Supina stands in Pali
for dream, and Buddhaghosa naturally explains it: "supi-
nati mahasupina, supinasataniti khuddaka supina-satani." 2
but as a matter of fact, the word is Ajivika and denotes
bird, like its analogous forms suvina in Ardhamagadhi,
supanna or suvannu in Pali and suparna in Sanskrit.
These forms — supina, suvina, supanna, and suparna, when
put side by side, can well indicate the relative position of
the Ajivika language, Ardhamagadhi, Pali and Sanskrit.
1 Dial, B. II, p. 72.
3 Snmangala-vilasini, I, p. 164.
50 THE AJIVIKAS
The Buddhist story of Upaka preserves an Ajivika
expression " huveyya pavuso m with its variants " hupeyya
pavuso," 2 " hupeyya avuso," ;H which is Sanskritised in the
Lalita Vistara as " tad bhavisyasi Gautama," 4 and may
be rendered " perhaps it may be so, my good friend !" 5
Huveyya or hupeyya which is an optative form of the
verbal root v/bhii is not a recognised Pali word, the usual
Pali form of the verb being bhaveyya. It appears more-
over from the variants mentioned above that the sounds
p and v were interchangeable in the Ajivika language.
Furthermore, in a later version of the same story , ti
the Buddhist commentator displays humour by repro-
ducing Upaka's actual words : " sace Cavam labhami,
jlvami ; no ce, maramiti," i.e., " If I gain Cava, I will
live ; if not, I will die/' The Ceylonese edition of Bud-
dhaghosa's Papanca Sudani (p. 38S) supplies a variant
of the above reading, which is " Chavarii labhami, jlvami;
no ce, maramiti." 7 Here the name Cava or Chava
whereby Upaka refers to the fowler's daughter with
whom he fell in love is not Pali, the usual Pali form
of the name being Capo,. 8 It also may be noted that
the use of the present tense marami instead of the
future form marissami is unidiomatic in Pali. The idio-
matic use of the verb can be best illustrated by these
two sentences : " Yena tena upayena ganha, sace na
labhissami marissamiti " 9 ; " marissami no gamissami
n'atthi bale sahayata. " 10 That the general tendency of
1 Majjhima, I, p. 171 ; Paramattha-jotika, II, Vol. I, p. 258.
2 - 3 MahSvagga, Vol. 1, p. 8.
* Lefmann's Lalita-vistara, p. 406.
5 Papafica-Sudani, Ceylonese edition, p. 388 : evam pi nama bhaveyya.
6 Paramattha-jotika, II, Vol. I. p. 258.
' C/. Paramattha-jotika, II, Vol. I,'p. 259. " Sace chavam labhami, jlvami, no
cemaramlti." %
8 Paramattha-jotika, II, Vol. I, p. 258.
9 Anderson's Pali Reader, p. 1.
10 Phammapada-commentary, I, p. 17,
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 51
the Pali idiom is to use the future tense in such cases is
evident also from the extracts 2(a) and 2(b). Instead
of "Java aiitam karemti " in the Jaina extract 2(a) we
meet with " dukkhass' antarh karissanti " in the Buddhist
extract 2(b). I need not multiply instances here. The
cases already cited include instances where the masculine
and neuter stems ending in a are not distinguished in
declension in so far as the nominative singular is con-
cerned, and where the numbers and tenses are not
properly differentiated. Are these not sufficient to justify
the surmise that the Ajivika language may be judged
from its crude grammatical forms as standing nearest to
the Dialect and closely allied to Ardhamagadhi ?
With regard to two new Ajlviya doctrines which are
said to have been formulated on the basis of Gosala's
personal acts and incidents, I find substantial agreement
between the Jaina and Buddhist accounts. The doctrines
as enumerated in the BhagavatI Sutra comprise (1) that of
eight Finalities, and (2) that of four Drinkables and four
Substitutes. These are interdependent as the last drink
which is included in the former seems to have afforded
a basis for the latter. It is not easy to understand the
real signification of the doctrine of eight Finalities : the
last drink, the last song, the last dance, the last solicita-
tion, the last tornado, the last sprinkling elephant, the
last fight with big stones as missiles, and the last Titthan-
kara who is Maiikhaliputta himself. Of these, the first
four items refer, as pointed out by Dr. Hoernle, to
Gosala's delirious acts, and of the remaining four, the
first three items refer to events that happened at or about
the time of Gosala's death. The conjunction or coincid-
ence of the death of Gosala, the last Ajlviya Titthaiikara,
with tornado and war was prima facie turned into a
theological doctrine of which the meaning is obscure.
The doctrine finds no mention in the Buddhist literature,
52 THE AJIVIKAS
nor is any explanation of it given in the BhagavatI Sutra.
But the last item which relates to the Ajiviya attitude
towards Gosala may furnish a clue to its meaning ; it goes
to show that Gosala came to be regarded, as the last
Titthankara of the Ajiviyas. This is corroborated by the
evidence of the Buddhist texts which state that the
Ajlvikas recognised only three persons as their leaders
or peerless masters (anantajinas) of whom Makkhali
was the last. In a Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya the
Brahman wanderer Sandaka says, " The Ajlvikas act like
sons of those whose sons are dead. They exalt them-
selves and disparage others, and recognise three only as
their leaders, viz., Nanda Vaccha, Kisa Samkicca, and
Makkhali Gosala. " J It appears from the Ariguttara
explanation of Gosala's doctrine of six abhijatls, wrongly
ascribed to Purana Kassapa, that the Ajlvikas placed
their three leaders in the supremely white class, while
they placed themselves in just the white class and their
lay disciples in the yellow. The Jaina expression " last
Titthankara " also implies that the Ajiviyas recognised
more titthaiikaras than one. It is important to note that
Gosala came to be honoured as the last Ajivika titthan-
kara in the life-time of the Buddha. This enables us to
surmise that he predeceased the Buddha, although it
is difficult to say by how many years. Seeing that
the Ajlvikas looked back to Gosala after his death
as their last Titthankara or peerless master, one can
suggest the following as the most natural and probable
interpretation of the doctrine of eight Finalities : the
synchronism of Gosala's death with such natural and
political events as tornado and war was quite providential,
and that it is to be regarded as a divine testimony of
Gosala being the last titthankara, whose death was
1 Majjhima, 1. p. 524 : Ajivika puttamataya putta, attananceva ukkamseti pararii
vambhenti, tayo ceva niyyataro pannapeuti, seyyathidam Nandam Vaccharii, Kisam
Samkiccam, Makkhalim Gosalam.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 53
rendered doubly significant in human history by its coin-
cidence with many other tragic and fateful occurrences.
It seems to me that the practices of four Drinkables
and four Substitutes were all connected with the hard
penance of suicidal starvation to which the Ajiviyas
attached a peculiar religious sanctity and spiritual value,
and that these appertained to three successive stages of
religious suicide (marana indiya) as the Jainas call it. In
the first stage, the dying Ajiviya saint was permitted to
drink something, e.g., what is excreted by the cow, what
has been soiled by the hand, what is heated by the sun,
and what drops from a rock ; in the second stage, he was
permitted not to drink anything but to use some substi-
tutes, e.g., to hold in his hand a dish or a bottle or a pot
or a jar which is cool or wet with water, instead of drink-
ing from it ; to squeeze or press with his mouth a mango
or a hog-plum or a jujube fruit or a tinduka fruit when
it is tender or uncooked, instead of drinking of its juice ;
or to squeeze or press with his mouth kalaya or muclga or
masa or simbali beans when they are tender or uncooked,
instead of drinking of their juice ; while in the third or last
stage, he had to forego even that. In practising the
penance of Pure Drink the Ajiviya had to lie down for
six months, lying successively for two months at a time
on the bare earth, on wooden planks and on darbha
grass. This indicates that the longest period allotted
for the penance was six months, each stage of it having
been gone through in two months, and therein lay the
novelty of the Ajiviya method of attaining salvation by
means of religious suicide. This new method of death
by starvation seems to have been similar to the ' thrice-
threefold way ' {tidha tidha) introduced by Nayaputta,
i.e., Mahavlra, 1 as an improvement on the older method
1 AySratnga Sutta, I, 7.8.12 : Ayam se avare dhamme Nayaputtena sahie, ayavajjam
padiyaram vijnhejja tidha tidha
54 THE AJIVIKAS
adopted apparently by the followers of Parsva, e.g.,
by Mahavlra's parents. 1 The underlying motives of
this barbarous practice, as described in the Ayararhga
Sutta, 2 are the following :
1. Riddance from kamma.
2. Endurance (titikkha).
3. Sanctity of animal life.
4. Freedom from attachment.
5. Self-control.
6. Attainment of Nirvana. 3
The grand moral of the doctrine involved is :
" Jlviyam niibhikariikhejja maranam no vi patthae ;
duhato vi na sajjejjil jivite marane taha."
i.e., " He should not long for life, nor wish for death ; he
should yearn after neither, life or death." 4
It appears from Buddha's representation of the Ajivika
religion in his Lomahamsa Discourse 3 that the Ajivikas
followed the same elaborate method for the attainment of
the truth as for the attainment of the Accuta world. The
Ajivika religion is described there as " the higher life in
its four forms" (caturaiigasamannagatam brahmacariyarii) 6
and its fundamental principles are summed up in the
Mahasihanada Sutta 7 by these two expressions : purifica-
tion by food (aharena suddhi) and purification by trans-
migration (saihsarena suddhi). The four-fold brahma-
cariya consisted of —
1 . Tapassita — asceticism , 8
2. Lukhacariya — austerity ;
' Ibid, II, 15.1G.
s Ibid, II, 7.8; II. 15.16.
3 Lit. parama titikkha, ibid, I. 7.8.25. Cf. Dhammapada, verse 184 : titikkha
Nibbilnam paramam.
* Jacobi's Jaina Sutras, part I. p. 75.
3 The Lomahamsa Discourse in the Jataka (Jataka No. 94).
8 Majjhima, I. p. 77 ; Jataka, I. p. 391.
7 Ibid, I. pp. 80-82.
8 Ibid, I. p. 77 ; Jataka, I. p. 390.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 55
3. Jegucchita — comfort-loathing,
and 4>. Pavivittata — solitude.
Of these, the first point, i.e., Tapassita, exhausts the
description of the rules of the Ajlvika order as met with
in the Mahasaccaka ! and a number of other suttas. 2 It
seems to me that the fourfold brahmacariya was tacitly
implied in Tapassita, and was indeed the outcome of a
farther analysis of the older body of rules. According
to the teaching of the caturanga brahmacaryya, the
Ajlvika had to be an ascetic, the chief of ascetics; ugly
in his habits beyond all others ; comfort-loathing sur-
passing all others ; and lonely with unsurpassed passion
for solitude. As an ascetic (tapassitaya), he had to
go naked, to be of loose habits, etc. ; as ugly in his
habits (lukhasmirh) he had to allow his body to be
covered with a coating of dust accumulating for many
years without thinking yet of rubbing it off by his
own hand, or having it rubbed off by the hand of
others ; as comfort-loathing (jegucchismim), he had to
move about being mindful so as to bestow his love on
a drop of water, and careful not to hurt small crea-
tures ; and as solitary recluse (pavivittasmim), he had to
flee like a deer from the face of men. The great moral
involved in this mode of holy life is : —
" So tatto, 3 so sito, 4 eko bhirhsanake vane,
naggo na caggim iisino, esanapasntomuniti" 5
i.e., " Bescorched, befrozen, lone in the fearsome woods,
Naked, no fire beside, all afire within,
The hermit is bent on seeking the truth." 6
As regards his food, the Ajlvika had to live on
jujube fruits, and on muggas, tilas and tandulas, whole
1 Majjhima, I. p. 238 ; cf. p. 77.
2 Anguttara, Part I,p. 295.
3 Cf. variant Sutatto, Majjhima, p. 536.
4 Cf. variant so sino, ibid, I, p. 536.
5 Majjhima, I,p. 79 ; Jataka, I, p. 390.
6 Cf. Jataka translation, I,p. 230; Dial. B. II. p. 208.
56 THE AJTVIKAS
or powdered. On this point the account of the Loma-
hariisa Jataka differs from that of the Mahaslhanada
Sutta just described. The former describes the Ajlvika
as the ascetic " unclothed and covered with dust, solitary
and lonely, fleeing like a deer from the face of
men, whose food was small fish, cowdun'g, and other
refuse." 1
It has been shown that Rayagiha, Uddandapura,
Cam pa, Vanarasi Alabhiya, Vesali and Savatthi were the
successive and principal centres of xljivika activity up
till the Jinahood of Gosala. These names indicate that
Ajivikism which was at first a local movement of Rayagiha
spread within a century or more over the Middle Country,
and that the progress of this movement proceeded along
two paths, one leading to Campa as the most easterly
point, and the other to Savatthi as the extreme western
limit. At this various centres the Ajlvikas had to
encounter two formidable enemies, the Jaina and the
Buddhist, besides the Brahman and the Kumaraputta, 2
their common enemies. It appears from Gosala's division
of time that the Ajlvika movement was confined even
under his leadership, within the land of the seven rivers
(satta sara), or more accurately, to the Gangetic valley. 11
The scenes of the early years of Gosala's career as a
mendicant are laid round Rayagiha and Paniyabhumi.
The latter was probably the farthest point in the South-
east which lay outside the territorial division of the
1 Jataka, I, p. 390; Ajivikapabbajjam pabbajitva acclako aliosi rajojalliko,
pavivitto ahosi ekavihari, manusse disva migo viya palavi, mahavikatabhojano aliosi
macchagomayadini paribhunji.
' Parsva's followers were called Kumarasamanas. (Uttaradhyayana, lecture 23)
or Niggantba sania'nas, Kumaraputtaa (Suyagadamga II. 7. G).
3 Satta sara are, according to Buddhaghosa's commentary, seven great lakes, viz.,
Kannamunda, Ratbakara, Anotatta, SihappapSta, Tiyaggala, Mucalinda, Knnaladaha
(Sumangalavilasini I. p. 164). This does not seem to be correct. In the Bhagavati
Sutra we meet with the names of seven rivers viz., Ganga, Sadinaganga, JladugangS
Lohiyagaftga, AvatTganga, and ParamavatTgangS (Rockhill's Life of the Bnrldha
p. 253).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 57
Middle Country. Puniyabhumi seems ' to have been a
river-port in Western Bengal. 1 Indeed, so far as the
easterly point is concerned, it can be shown that Western
Bengal became a scene of the Ajlvikas and the older
Nigganthas (Parsva's followers) even before the Jinahood
of Gosala. According to the Bhagavati account Gosala
and Mahavira met each other in Nalamda and thence-
forward they lived together for six years in Paniyabhlimi,
which was a place according to the Jaina commentaries
in Vajjabhumi, elsewhere, described as one of the two
divisions of Ladha. 2 The Ayaramga Sutta contains a fine
Prakrit ballad, 3 where it is related that Mahavira wandered
for some time as a naked mendicant in Ladha of which
Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi were apparently two divi-
sions. Ladha is described as a pathless country (duccara).
The rude natives of the place generally maltreated
the ascetics. When they saw the ascetics, they called up
their dogs by the cry of " Chucchu " 4 and set them
upon the samanas. It was difficult to travel in Ladha.
It is said that many recluses lived in Vajjabhumi where
they were bitten by the dogs and cruelly treated in a
hundred other ways. Some of the recluses carried
bamboo staves in order to keep off the dogs (latthim gahaya
naliyam). 5 We have seen that Upaka, the Ajivika, des-
cribed himself, while he has living in a frontier district
of Bengal, as a mendicant carrying a staff, his expression
" latthihattho pure asirii " implying that the Ajlvikas
habitually went about with a staff in hand, which was a
matter of necessity with them. These Jaina and Buddhist
references can well explain why Panini described the
1 According to the commentary of the Kalpasutra, it is a place in Vajrabhumi.
" Silanka's tika on the Ayaramgasutta I. 8, 3, 2.
* Ohanasuya, the discourse which is to be listened to. Ayfiramga, 1. 8.
* Ayaramga I. 8. 3. 4.
5 Ibid, I. 8. 3. 5.
8
58 THE AJTVIKAS
Maskarina as a class of wanderers provided with bamboo
staves (maskara-maskarino-venuparivrajakayoh). So far
as the westerly point is concerned, we have seen that
towards the close of Gosala's life the Ajlviyas were being
driven even out of Savatthi. The Buddhist literature
alse preserves a few episodes where the Ajivikas came
into conflict with the Buddhists in Savatthi.* It is
mentioned in the BhagavatI Sutra that the Ajlvika
centre was shifted not long after Gosala's death to Punda,
a country at the foot of the Virijha mountains, of
which the capital was a city provided with a hundred
gates (Sayaduviira). A kino; Mahapauma (Mahapadma),
otherwise known as Devasena and Vimalavahana, is said
to have persecuted the Jainas at the instigation of
the Ajlviyas, whose royal patron he was. The wicked
king was destroyed by the magical powers of a Jaina
saint named Sumaiigala, the disciple of Arahat Vimala. 2
It is also recorded in the BhagavatI that Ambada Dadha-
painna, a wealthy citizen of the great Videha country,
sought to bring about a reconciliation between the
hostile sects by conferring with the Jainas. 3 The fifteenth
chapter of the BhagavatI MItra seems to have been the
record of an age when the Ajlvika and Jaina religions were
spread over Aiiga, Vaiiga, Magaha, Malaya, Malava,
Accha, Vaccha, Koccha, Padha, Ladha, Bajji, Moli, Kasi,
Kosala, Avaha and Sambhuttara, of which some are
countries which were situated outside the territorial
division of the Middle country, e.g., Vaiiga, Malaya,
Malava, Accha, Koccha, Padha, Ladha, Avaha and
Sambhuttara. 4 The same chapter also points to an age
when many Vedic and non- Aryan deities were affiliated to
1 ViiSkhayatthu, Dhammapada Commentary, IV. No. 8.
s Hoernle's Appendix, I, pp. 11-12.
■ Hid, p. 14.
4 Ibid, pp. 6-7.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 59
the Ajiviya pantheon, e.g., Punnabhadda, and Manibhadda,
Sohamma, Sanakkumara, Bambha, Mahiisukka, Anaya and
Arana. 1 The iijlvikas believed that to those who prac-
tised the penance of Fure Drink, two gods Punnabhadda
and Manibhadda appeared on the last night of six months,
and held their limbs with their cool and wet hands;
if they submitted then to their caresses, they furthered
the work of serpents, and if they did not, then a mys-
terious fire arose in their bodies to consume them. 2
Punnabhadda and Manibhadda are represented as if
they were the local deities of Punda, where the twin
gods were looked upon as generals of King Devasena
Mahapauma. 3 We say that some of the non-Aryan and
Vedic deities were affiliated into the Ajlvika pantheon,
because in the Buddhist Niddesas the worshippers of
Punnabhadda and Manibhadda are described as repre-
senting two distinct groups of worshippers, distinct from
the Ajlvikas, the Niganthas and the rest. The Niddesa
list includes the following, apparently under two cate-
gories of disciples (schools) and devotees (sects) —
(1) Disciples : the Ajlvikas, the Niganthas, the
Jatilas, the Paribbajakas, and the Aviruddhakas.
(2) Devotees: Worshippers of elephant, of horse,
cow, dog, crow, Vasudeva, Baladeva, Punna-
bhaddadeva, Manibhaddadeva, Aggi, Naga,
Suvanna, Yakkha, Asura, Gandhabba, Maharaja
Canda, Suriya, Inda, Brahma, Deva, and Disa.
Further, the Niddesa list points to a time when the
religious sects started deifying, more or less, their heroes.
The Ariguttara Nikaya contains an older list of ten
1 Hoernle's Appendix, I, p. 1-1.
1 Ibid, p. 11.
8 Cullaniddesa, pp. 173-174 : — Ajlvika-savakanaiii Ajivikadevatft, Nigantha-
•avakanara Niganthadevata etc., cf. Mahaniddesa, pp. 89-92.
60 THE AJ1VIKAS
religious orders of which five only aro noticed in the
Niddesa under the first category, while under the second
category are included the various groups of devotees
which are not to be found in the former. 1 The ano-
maly thus involved can perhaps be explained away by
the supposition that some of the orders had died out
when the Niddesa list was closed, e.g., the Mundasavakas ; ;
or that the older list was considered as redundant, e.g.,
in the case of the Paribbajakas and the Tedandikas ;, or
that the Niddesa groups of devotees were promiscuously
comprised under one name, e.g., Devadhammika, the
worshipper of deities in general. In support of the third
hypothesis I may refer the reader to the commentarial
fragment on precepts in the Brahmajalasutta, where there
is reference to the worship of the sun, the worship of the
mother earth, and the invocation of Siri, the goddess
of Luck 2 . But the reader can at once judge for himself
that the deities and forms of worship mentioned in the
Brahmajalasutta were not all foreign to the Vedic, and
further that the worshippers of these deities did not form
distinct groups or corporations 3 . Moreover, some of the
deities and forms of worship mentioned in the Niddesas
are referred to in Panini's Astadhyayi 4 and the Jaina
Upariga the Aupapatika Sutra. The former speaks
of devotion to Maharaja, Vasudeva, Arjuna, clan and
country, while the latter makes mention of Vasudeva,
Baladeva, and Cakkavattl in whose existence the Jainas
1 Anguttara, pt. Ill, Ajivika, Nigantha, Mundasavaka, Jatilaka, Paribbajaka,
Magandika, Tedandika, Aviniddhaka, Gotamaka, Devadhammika. Dial. B.
II. pp. 220-222.
2 DIghanikaya, I, pp.
3 The following are mentioned in the Milinda, p. 191, as ganas : Mails, Atona,
Pabbata, Dhammagiriya, Brahmagiriya, Nataka, Naccaka, Langhaka, PisacS,
Manibhadda, Punnabhadda, Candima-Suriya, Siridevata, Kali or Kali-devata, SivS,
Vasudeva, Glianika, Asipasa, Bhaddiputta.
* Paniui, IV. 3. 95-100.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 61
were called upon to believe. The very fact that Vasudeva,
Baladeva and Emperor were recognised by the Jainas
among prominent personalities (Salakapurusas) is an
evidence that some sort of synthesis took place among
the different religious communities, living in the same
country and perhaps under the same rule. Thus three
different records of the E rah mans, the Jainas and the
Buddhists concur in pointing to a time when the rival
religious sects had to make a compromise among them
by accepting the deities of one another, especially to an
epoch when the Emperor had to be worshipped. as a god.
The Mahabodhijataka also bears testimony to the fact
that politics (Khattavijja) teaching that one should
seek one's material advantage even bv killing; one's
parents passed into a . religious dogma. 1 All these
seem to bring out one fact viz. that such changes
in Indian religion were coeval with the foundation of an
empire and consequent on the growth of the idea of
personality in religion and state. Seeing that the
beginnings of these developments were as old as the
the Buddha's life-time,'- it seems probable that the process
of deification in religion and state ran side by side with
the making of the Magadha Empire.
There can be no gainsaying that the Ajivikas
retained an important position during the Maurya rule.
The Kautilya Arthasastra, which may be regarded in
a sense as a faithful record of Candragupta's administra-
tion, prohibits by penal legislation entertainment of the
Sakyas (Buddhists) and the Ajivikas at the time of sraddha
* Jataka, Vol. V, p. 228 : Khattavijjavadi " Matapitaropi maretva atfcano va
attho kametabbo " ti ganhapesi. It is especially to be noted that the doctrine
referred to is to be found in the verse-quotation from the canonical Jataka Book,
which is as old as the 4th century B.C., if not older, cf. p. 2-40.
2 Anguttara, I. pp. 77 : Tathagato ca araham samma sambuddho raja ca
cakkavatti acchariyamanussa (yesam) kalakiriya bahuno janassa anutappa
<lve thuparaha. Cf ; Qigha II. p. 142.
62 THE A.JIVIKAS
and sacrifice. 1 This is not surely to be eited as an in-
contestable proof of religious persecution in the face of
other evidences proving that the ascetics in general
were avoided by Indian peoples on such occassions. 2 The
very sight of the samnyasins, particulary of naked
mendicants like the Ajlvikas, was repulsive to persons
of good taste, especially to the womenfolk who were
the custodians of good manners then as now. It is
said of the Buddhist lady Visakha that she remarked
at the sight of the Ajlvikas : " Such shameless
persons, completely devoid of the sense of decency,
cannot be Arahants." 3 The same feeling is expressed
more emphatically with regard to the naked Jaina
ascetic in the Divyavadana through the mouth of a
courtezan in the following verses : 4
"Kathaih sa buddhiman bhavati puruso vyafijatiavitah
lokasya pasvato yo' ayam grame earti nagnakah
Yasvavam idriso dharmah puvastal lambate dasa
tasva vai sravanan raja ksuraprenavakrintatu."
The real attitude of a Brahman teacher of polity and
minister of state like Visnugupta or Canakya towards the
Ajlvikas and naked ascetics in general is clearly brought
out in a story of the Paiicatantra. 5 The substance of
the story is that Manibhadra, an unfortunate banker of
Pataliputra, 8 was directed by the angel Padmanidhi in
dream to strike him with a lakuta when he would appear
1 Shamasastry's Arthasastra, 251 : Those who entertained the Buddhists and
the Ajlvikas at the time of iraddha and sacrifice were punishable by a lino of
100 panas.
'- The Paramatthajotika, III. Vol 1. p. 175 records the following Brahmanio
belief: " mangalakicoesu samanadassanani amangalam."
* Dhannnapada Commentary, p. 400 : "evurupa hirottappavirahita arahauta
uaina uahonti."
* Divyavadana, p. 165.
Ibid, p. 370.
s Paiicatantra, ed. Kielhoru, V. 1.
Pataliputra is placed in the Deccan (Daksinatye).
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 03
next morning before him in the guise of a Ksapanaka,
and strangely enough, carrying out the angel's suggestion
the hanker was much surprised to find the body of the
Ksapanaka transmuted into gold. A covetous barber
who happened to witness this wonderful feat of miracle
conceived a plan of obtaining gold by striking the Ksapa-
nakas with a , lakuta. With this end in view, he lost
no time to go to a Ksapanaka monastery where after
showing due honour to the Jinendra, he recited three
couplets expressive of the religious sentiments of three
sects — the Ajlvika, the Jaina and the Buddhist. The
second couplet which strikes the keynote of the Ajlvika
and Jaina faiths is :
" 5>a jihva ya jinam stauti, taccittam yat jine ratah
Taveva ea karau slaghyau yau tat puja karau. "
" That is the tongue which praises the Lord ;
that the heart which is devoted to the Lord,
and those hands are verily praiseworthy which honour Him."
Thus the cunning barber managed to induce the
Ksapanakas to accept invitation to dinner in his house,
and when they came in a body next morning, he struck
them with a strong lakuta as they stepped into his house
one after another. The news of the murder and panic of
the Ksapanakas soon spread through the city. The
barber was arrested, tried, found guilty and severely
punished. The Ksapanaka of the story is evidently a
mixed character combining the Jaina with the Ajlvika.
In the story itself the Ksapanaka is described as a naked
mendicant (nagnaka), a Digambara worshipper of the Jinas,
replete with supreme knowledge (kevala-jnana-s'alinam).
It goes to show that both the Jaina and the Ajlvika,
in common with other naked ascetics, had pretension to
supernaturalism and miracles, and that with them
Jinahood constituted the highest ideal of human perfec-
tion. The name of the banker Manibhadra is itself
fi4 THE A.7TVTKAS
of great importance as confirming the Bhagavatl account
representing the disciples of Gosala as votaries of the
twin angels Punnabhadda and Manibhadda. Visnugupta's
teaching in the story is that the proper treatment by
a householder of the shameless naked ascetics professing
to possess supernormal faculties was to strike them with
the very staff which some of them carried about them,
to apply, in other words, his own Dandanitito the Dandins.
But this course was not meant to lie adopted literally,
since a principle which was valid in theory might lead to
disastrous consequences when blindly adhered to in
practice. The disastrous consequences here contemplated
are typified in the story by the tragic fate of the Ksapa-
nakas and the barber.
Visakhadatta's Mudraraksasa which is one of the most
important historical dramas in Sanskrit, dated between
the 5th and the 6th century A.D., 1 paints the character
of a Ksapanaka who, like the Ksapanaka of the Panca-
tantra story, is relegated to the same period, and is a
mixed character' 2 representing the Ajivikaand the Digam-
bara Jaina under one name. Mr. Telang points out that
Canakra introduced the Ksapanaka to Raksasa, and that
a Brahman minister became so close a friend of his as to
speak of his heart itself having been taken possession of
by the enemy when he saw him. 3 The chief motive of
the play is not far to seek ; Visakhadatta in eulogising
the shrewd political principles of the Indian Machiavelli
sought to show how even a naked mendicant, houseless,
dispassionate, meditating on the reality of the living
principle (jivasiddhi ksapanaka) could be made a friend
1 Mr. Telang. places the dateof the play between the 7th and the 8th century
A.D. Mr. Vincent Smith between the 5th and the 6th century A.D., and Prof.
Hillebrandt in 400 A.D.
2 Cf. Telang's introduction to his edition of the Mudraraksasa, p. 17. Prof.
Wilson thinks that ksapanaka denotes hi the play a Jaina, not a Buddhist-
a Ibid, p. 19.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 65
of ferocious Mammon (Mudraraksasa) to serve as a tool
of Canakya (Canakya-pranidhi). 1
The Ksapanaka is introduced in the play as a mendi-
cant with shaved head (mundia munda), 2 speaking Prakrit
instead of Sanskrit, an exponent of the reality of the
living principle (jivasiddhi), 3 respecting the teaching
of the Arahants, 4 irascihle or hot-tempered, greedy of
lucre, adept in palmistry, fortune-teller, consulted for
fixing lucky days, an hypocrite always crying out, "There
is no iniquity for the followers, " 5 wishing success to
laymen in their business concerns, 6 and proclaiming
victory of the cause of righteousness. 7 But the Ksapa-
naka in question serving as a spy or 'Canakya's tool'
as it is called, cannot be reasonably taken as a true repre-
sentative of his order except under the supposition that
his pretensions were characteristic of the naked medi-
cants Avhom he was called upon to imitate in his outward
demeanour. The picture drawn of the Ksapanaka seems
to have a touch of reality receiving confirmation from
two older Sanskrit treatises, the Kautilya Arthasastra and
the Vatsyayana Kamasutra, which in their general form,
style and purpose can be said to belong to the same
materialistic age.
Vatsyayana Kamasutra speaks of the houses and estab-
lishments of the female attendants, bhiksunis, ksapanikas
and tapasis as the fittest places for love-intrigues, 8 as in
the much later treatises on poetics we find that the rule
1 Mudraraksasa, Telang's edition, p. 258. JTvasiddhirapi Canakja-pranidlii.
s Ibid, p. 222.
5 Ibid, p. 252. Note that jiva is the first of the Jaina navatattvua.
* Ibid, p. 212 : Sasanam alihantanaih.
'- " N'atthi pavarr, n'atthi pavarh savaganam. "
e " Kajjasiddhi hodn savaganam. "
7 " Dhammasiddhi liodu savaganam."
8 Kamasutra, V. 4. 42 : Sakhl-bhiksnkl-ksapanika-tapasi-bhavanesu sukhopaj*ah
cf. Ibid, IV. 1.9 : Bhiksuki-sraniana-ksapana-miilakilrikabhir na samsrijyeta. I am
indebted to Pandit Bidhu Shekhar Bhattaoharyya for these references.
9
66 THE AJIVIKAS
is laid down to select female attendants, dancing girls
and female ascetics to play the part of messengers in
love intrigues, 1 which is illustrated in the MalatI
Madhava by the character of the Buddhist sister
Kamandaki, busy with her disciple Avalokita and friend
Buddharakkhita arranging for secret marriages. 2 One
may find parallels in the stories of Devasmita in the
Kathasarit Sagara 3 and of Nitambavati in the Das'a-
kumaracarita, 4 where the Buddhist female ascetics are
represented as taking an active part in such indefensible
affairs. 5 How far these references represent a real state
of things this is not the place to discuss. But the Artha-
sastra also bears evidence to the fact that the religious
orders in the 4th century B.C. were not free from such
moral corruptions, although the cases of moral trans-
gression were confined to a few individuals. It also goes
to prove that with the rapid growth of a centralised
form of government it was possible for Canakya to
organise a most elaborate system of espionage under
which the services of all, whether recluses or house-
holders, cultivators or traders, wise or idiot, male or
female, could be utilised for the promotion of material
advantages, and under which even a Ksapanaka medi-
tating on the reality of the living principle could easily
be induced to serve the purpose of a state, as a tool in the
hands of Canakya. The Arthasastra devotes two chapters,
XI and XII, to the subjects of training persons in
espionage (gudhapurus6tpatti) and of employing spies
in different branches of secret service (guclhapurusa-
pranidhi). It appears from the rules laid down therein
that spies were recruited, if possible, from among the
1 Sfthitya-darpana, TTT.157: Dutyah sakhl-nati pravrajita."
• JStaka, L p. 257.
,*, Divy&vadana, p. 427.
* Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 90.
6 JStaka, I, p. 493.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 67
recluses of different orders, mundas and jatilas, hermits
and wanderers, males and females, who were seekers of
livelihood (vrittikama) by such clandestine means. The
spies in the guise of female ascetics were employed to
watch movements of persons in the harems (antahpure),
the siddha hermits outside a fort, and the Sramans, if
necessary, in a forest. The spies disguised as mundas,
jatilas or hermits had to live together with a large follow-
ing in the suburbs of a city, pretending to subsist on
pot-herbs and wheat, eating once at the interval of a
month or two. Thus we have sufficient reasons to accept
the Ksapanaka of the Mudraraksasa as true to life, but
the state of moral corruptions in which the Ajlvikas and
the Jainas were implicated along with various other orders
of ascetics was in no way peculiar to the age of Canakya
and Candragupta Maurya, for, as I expect to show in part
II, these were among the natural adjuncts to the growth
of the centralised forms of government and to the erection
of monastic cloisters. Visakhadatta's account of the inti-
macy of the Ksapanaka with Malayaketu upholding the
banner of Malaya country which, according to the Bhaga-
vati account, became a common stronghold of the Jainas
and the Ajlvikas, and the use of a Ksapanaka by Canakya
as a weapon against King Mahapadma Nanda is of some
historical importance. King Devasena Mahapauma of
Punda is described in the BhagavatI, as we have seen,
as a patron of the Ajlvikas, and it is not improbable
that the Jaina Sutra has confounded the emperor of
Magadha with a petty chief of a country at the foot of
the Yinjha mountains. The very name of King
Mahapauma's capital Sayaduvara, a city with a hundred
gates reminds one of a magnificient metropolis like
Pataliputra.
The Divyavadana mentions Pingalavatsa as an
Ajivika who was employed in the service of king
08 THE AJIVIKAS
Vindusara as a court-astrologer, 1 while a .Tataka story
preserves an old tradition to the effect that astrology
was almost a professien with the Ajivikas even in the
Buddha's life-time.' 2 The Divyavadana testifies to the
fact that Pundavardhana was a stronghold of the Ajivikas
in the time of king Asoka. 3 Prince Vltasoka was a
patron of the Ajivikas who are confounded, as noticed by
Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar, with the JNirgranthas or Jainas. 4
He was a strong believer in physical torture which the
Buddhist considered useless (micchatapa). 5 The conflict
of claims involved between the two standpoints is clearly
brought out in the following verses :
1. Buddhist thesis —
Na nagnacarya na jata na panko nanasanarh sthandilasayika va
na rajomalam notkutukaprahanam visodhayen moham
avisirnakankham.
Alaihkritam capi eareta dharamam dantendriyah santah
sarhyato brahmacarl
sarvesu bhutesu nidhaya dan Jam sa bramanah sa sramanah
sa bhiksuh.
2. Ajlvika antithesis —
Kaste'smin vijane vane nivasataih vayavambu-mulasinam
rago naiva jito yadiha rising kalaprakarsena hi
Bhuktvannam saghritam prabhutapisitam dadhyuttamalamkritam
Sakyesvindriyanigraho yadi bhaved Vindhyah plavet sagare. 7
The Divyavadana also relates that 18,000 Ajivikas
at Pundavardhana had to pay a heavy toll of death in
1 Malati Madhava, Bombay Sanskrit Series, Act I, p. 9.
- Kathasarit Sagara, Taranga XIII, No. 68.
3 Dasakumaracarita, ("al. edition, p. J 21.
♦ Cf. Telang's introduction to the Mudraraksasa, p. 19.
5 Divyavadana, p. 339. Cf. Dhammapada, verse 141-142; Mahabharata, III,
verse 13455 ; Sattanipata. verse 249.
e Divyavadana, p. 420. Cf. Bhafcfcriaari's oft-qnoted sloka ; —
Visvamitra-Parasara-prabliritayo vatanibu-pnrnasanah; te' pi strinanVsrimukha-
paftkajam dristvapi mohamgatah
Sakannam saghritam payodadhiyutam ye bhufijate manavastesam
indriyanigraho yadi bhavet pangtistaret sagarani.
' The Ajivikas are wrongly described as Nirgrantha upasakas.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 69
cine day in the hands of King Asoka for the fault of one
Nirgrantha upasaka 1 who had dishonoured the Buddha-
image. Deeply grieved at similar sacrilege committed
by another Nirgrantha upasaka at Pataliputra, the king
burned him alive together with his kinsmen, and
announced by a royal proclamation that the reward of a
XHnara would be given to a person avIio could produce the
head of a Nirgrantha, with the result that his own brother
prince Vltasoka was found among the victims.' 2 It is in-
conceivable that king As'oka was ever implicated in such
an atrocious crime as the Divyavadana would have us
believe. The tradition just referred to must be regarded
as spurious and baseless for the simple reason that the
Buddha is nowhere represented by an image in any
sculpture which can be dated in Asokan age. We are
aware, moreover, that King As'oka in his seventh Pillar
Edict, where he sums up the various measures adopted
by him towards the propagation of dhanmia, expressly
states that he had employed his Dharmamahamatras for
dispensing the royal favour to, and exercising supervision
over, the Brahmans, the Ajlvikas and the Jainas, as among
all other sects.* Furthermore, the king elsewhere 3
declares that he granted two cave-dwellings to the
Ajlvikas when he had been consecrated twelve years.
That the Ajlvikas continued 1o enjoy certain amount
of respect from the people of Magadha and retained a hold
1 Divyavadana, p. -427 ; Paudavardhane ekadivase astadasasah-
asrauyajivikauam praghatitani.
3 Devanam piye Piyadasi hevath aha : Dhamma Mahamatapi me te bahuvidhesu
athesu anugahikcsu viyapata se saihghatasi pi me kate ime viyapafca hohamtiti ;
hemeva babhanesu ajlvikesu pi me kate ime viyapata hohamtiti ; nigamthesu
pi me kate ime viyapata liohamti ; nanapasathdesu pi me kate ime viyapata
hohamtiti. Pativisitham pativisitharii tesu tesu te te mahamatS dhammamahamatS
cu me etesa ceva viyapata savesu ca amnesu pasamdesu.
3 i.e., in his Cave Inscriptions : (1) Lajina Piyadasina davadasavasabhi (sitena)
iyam nigohaknbha dina ajivikehi: (2) LSjina Piyadasina duvadasavasabhisitena
iyam kubha khalatikapavatasi dina ajivikehi.
70 THK AJIV1KAS
on the liberality of the Mauryas even after the reign of
Asoka is proved by the three cave dedications in the
Nagarjuni Hills, made by King Das'aratha, who perhaps
succeeded his grandfather Asoka in the throne of
Magadha. No inscription has been found as yet record-
ing gifts to any other sect, particularly to Buddhists
which one might well expect from him, seeing that
he was the grandson and successor of the greatest
Buddhist Emperor of India. The presumption is that
whatever his faith may have been, his mind was
obsessed with the Ajivika creed. The Ajivika influence
continued in Northern India to the end of the Maurya
rule, to the time of Pataiijali who is placed by modern
scholars in circa 150 B.C. For we have noticed that
Pataiijali in his comment on Panini's Sutra, VI. 1. 154,
was not content with calling the Maskarina a Maskarina
simply because he carried a bamboo staff about him, but
went a step further in suggesting that the name Maskari
also signified that he taught "ma kritakarmani, ma krita-
karmani," i.e., "don't perform actions, don't perform
actions, &c," which he could not have done in departure
from the original sutra of Panini, if he had no personal
acquaintance with the views of the Maskarinas.
The Milindapaiiho (circa 1st century A.D.) takes some
notice of the fatalistic creed of Makkhali Gosala, who is
wrongly represented as a contemporary of Mil in da
(Menander B.C. 155), the Indo-Bactrian king of Sagala. 1
The Milinda account is in essence the same as that which
is to be found in the Samaniiaphala Sutta, with this im-
portant difference that it interprets Gosala's doctrine of fate
as being completely adapted to the rigid caste-system of the
Brahmans.- Such an interpretation of his doctrine of fate
1 Milinda, pp. 4-5.
2 Ibid, p. 5 : N'attlii Kusalakusalani kammaui, n'atthi sukatadukkatanam
kammanatft phahuh vipako, ye te idhaloke khattiya te paralokath gantva ip puna
khatti\'a va bhuvissauti, etc.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 71
as this would seem incompatible with his general theory
of evolution, teaching- that even a dew-drop is destined
to attain perfection through transmigration. It would be
interesting, nevertheless, if the historian could prove that
the Ajivika creed found its adherents in the cosmopolitan
city of Sagala, situated not far from Alasanda dlpa (the
island of Alexandria), enumerated in the Mahaniddesa
as an important port. 1 Here I would just call attention
to two controversies in the Milinda which have reference
to the common views and practices of the Ajlvikas and
the Jainas :
(1) the controversy as to whether water is a living
substance — " kirn udakam jivati ?" 2
(2) the controversy as to whether suicide is a crime
— " Na attanarii patetabbam ?" s
The BhagavatI Sutra also refers to an Ajlviya com-
mitting religious suicide at Vicleha some centuries after
Gosala's death. 4 When the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hien
visited India in the 5th Century A.D., he saw 96 different
sects of Northern India in Savatthi, among whom he
mentions only the followers of Devadatta by name. From
this it is not clear that the Ajlvikas retained a hold at
that time on Savatthi proper. Indeed the subsequent
history of the Ajlvikas shows that the Ajlvikas found
a stronghold outside the Middle Country.
Referring to Varahamihira's list of religious orders
laying down rules of ordination under different constella-
tions and planets, 3 his commentator Utpala says that his
enumeration was based on the authority of the Jaina
Mahaniddesa, p. 155, Rhys Davids is of opinion that it was an island in the
Indus.
4 Milinda p. 25S.
• Ibid, p. 195.
Hoernle's .Appendix I, p. 14.
8 Vrihajjataka, XV. 1.
9 See extract from Utpala' s commentary, quoted in Ind. Ant., 1912. p. 287.
72 THE AJIVIKAS
teacher Kalakacarya, and substantiates his position by
citation of actual words of the latter. 1 Varahamihira's
list includes :
(1) Sakya, the wearer of scarlet robe.
(2) Ajivika, the one-staff man.
(3) Bhiksu, or Samnyasin.
(4) Vriddhas'ravaka, the skull bearer.
(5) Caraka, the wheel-bearer.
(6) Nirgrantha, the naked one.
(7) Vanyasana, or hermit. 2
There are two lists' 5 of Kalakacarya. The first list as
explained by the commentator comprises : —
(1) Tavasia=Tapasika, hermit.
(2) Kavalia = Kapalika, skull bearer.
(3) Rattavada = Ilaktapata, one of scarlet robe.
(4) Eadandi = Ekadandl, one- staff-man.
(5) Jai=Yati.
(6) Caraa = Caraka.
(7) Khavanai = Ksapanaka.
The second list consists of
(1) Jalana=jvalana, sagnika.
(2) Hara=Tsvarabhakta, God- worshipper, i.e., Bhat-
taraka.
(3) Sugaya = Sugata, i.e., Buddhist.
(4) Kesava=Kesavabhakta, worshipper of Kesava,
i.e., Bhagavata.
(5) Sui = Srutimargarata, one adhering to the rule
of sruti, i.e., Mlmfuhsaka.
1 Sakyo raktapatah Ajivikas eaikadandi bhiksu r bbavati snifinyasi jneynh
Vriddbasravakab kiipali carako cakradbarab Xirgrnntbo nagnab ksapana-
kah vanyaSanah tapasvT.
i See extract from Utpala's Commentary in Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 287.
• Buhler's " Barabar and NSgSrjuni hitl-cave inscriptions of Asoka and Dasa-
ratba," J.B.A.S., Vol. XX, p. 362. Cf. J. R. A. S., 1911, p. 960.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 73
(6) Brahma = Brahmabhakta, worshipper of Brahma
i.e., Vanaprastha.
(7) Nagga = Nagna, naked, i.e., Ksapanaka.
Professor D. R. Bhandarkar has rendered a great
service by rectifying a fatal error in the interpretation of
Utpala's commentary, which led such veteran Sanskritists
as Professors Kern and Biihler to suppose that the Ajlvi-
kas were the worshippers of Narayana, i.e., Bhagavatas. 1
But now thanks to Prof. Bhandarkar no one doubts that
Utpala's meaning was just the contrary. The Ajlvikas
and the Bhagavatas furnished him with a typical instance
whereby he could illustrate upalaksana, a figure of
Rhetoric used in characterising what a word does not
denote.
" Ajivikagrahanam ca Narayanasritanam,"
i.e., to accept one as an Ajivika is not to denote a wor-
shipper of Narayana. 1
Thus we see that the Ajivika or Ekadandin formed a
distinct element among the religious sects known to
Varahamihira (circa A.D. 525), the celebrated astronomer
who is said to have been one of the nine gems adorning
the court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, the capital
of eastern Malwa and formerly that of Avanti in the
Deccan. The Harsacarita goes to prove that King Harsa,
whose reign in the 7th century A.D. was characterised
by eclecticism in popular religion, 2 brought together the
different religious sects and adherents of different schools
in his dominion, where he listened to their respective
views (svan svan siddhantani), 3 and the Kumbha-mela
taking place at the interval of twelve years is a modern
institution which serves the same purpose of bringing
together the different sects from the various parts of the
1 Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 288. Early History of the Vaishnava Sect, p. 116.
» Smith's Early History of India, 3rd edition, p. 345.
3 Harsacarita, Nirnaya Sagara Press edition, VIII, p. 265
10
74 THE AJIVIKAS
country. These sects and schools in the Harsacarita in-
cluded among others :
(1) Maskaris=parivrajakas as the commentary calls
them ;
(2) £vetapatas=a sect of the Jainas, distinguished as
naked, i.e., Digambaras ;
(3) Pandus=Bhiksus ;
(4) Bhagavatas=the worshippers of Visnu, i.e., Vais-
vavas ;
(5) Varnis = Brahmacaris ;
(6) Kesaluncanas (?)
(7) Kapils = Samkhyas ;
(8) Jainas = Buddhists ;
(9) Lokayatikas = Carvakas ;
(10) Kanadas=Vaisesikas;
(11 ) Aupanisadas = Vedantins ;
(12) Aisvarakaranikas = Naiyayikas ;
(13) Karandhas = Hetuvadins ;
(14) Dharmas'astris=^Smritijnas ;
(15) Sabdas = Vaiyakaranas, grammarians;
(16) Pancaratras=a division of the Vaisnavas.
There are three points about this list which are of the
greatest historical importance :
(a) that the name maskarl is used to denote the
wanderers in general, a significant fact showing that the
Ajivikas did not give up their nomadic habits up till
the 7th century A.D., and that in this respect they were
not a solitary instance ;
(6) that the commentator uses the term Buddhist as a
synonym of the Jaina (Jainair bauddhaih) ; and
(c) that the list includes, among others, the schools
of Hindu philosophy, Kapila, Kanada, etc., whose names
can be traced neither in the texts that are pre-Asokan
in date, nor in the Brahmanical works that can be dated
as pre-Paninian.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 75
As regards the first point, it is important to note that
the Amarakosa counts the Maskarl among the five classes
of samnyasins, 1 while in Vlranandi's Acarasara (Saka
1076) the Ajlvaka is distinguished from a Parivrat or
wandering mendicant practising very severe austerities, 2
and in two later Jaina and Buddhist works the ckadandin
and the tridandin are enumerated as two divisions of
Parivrajakas 3 or Paramahamsas who aspired to develop
in them the divine faculties through renunciation of all
worldly concerns. 4
With regard to the second point, it may be noticed
that it is not a solitary instance where the Jaina 5 has
been confounded with the Buddhist, for there are
other cases, where the Ajivika has been confounded with
the Jaina, 6 and the Buddhist with the Ajivika. 7 Indeed,
such confusions of sects as these have no meaning in
history except as showing that the sects thus confounded
the one with the other appeared to have a close kinship
between them to the eye of an outsider. Accordingly
the meaning of the passage of the Divyavadana con-
founding the Ajivika with the Jaina is that the two
sects living side by side at Pundavardhana differed so
slightly from each other, whether in their views or in
their outward appearances, that it was difficult for a
1 Amarakosa, VII. 5. 42.
9 Acarasara, XI. 127 : Parivrad...ugraearavanapi Sjivakah. See Pathak's
♦ Ajivikas,' Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 89.
3 MSdhavacandra's Commentary on the Triloka-sara, verse 545 : ekadandi-
tridandi-laksanah parivrajakah, [bid, p. 91.
4 Sarojavajra's Dohakosa : Eka(va) dandi tridandi bhava vesen viruia hosa
hafisa uvesafi. Advayavajra in his comments on the above says : ekadandi-
tridandi bhagavavesam bhavati varan na paramahamsa-vesam bhavati tavajj-
fiSnam na labhyate sarvasannyasatvat. See Shastry's Banddha Gan-o-Doha
pp. 82-84.
5 Divyavadana, p. 42.
Commentary on the Acarasara, XI. 127 : " ajTvikah bauddhabhedam ", i.e.
" the Ajivika, a division of the Buddhists."
' Kautilya, Arthasastra, p. 3.
76 THE AJIVIKAS
Buddhist observer to draw any sharp distinction between
them. Similarly with reference to the passage where the
commentator of the Harsacarita identifies the Jaina other
than the Svetambara with the Buddhist, the historian is
to understand either that his suggestion was based
upon hearsay or that he had kept in view some parti-
cular sect of the Buddhist faith who closely resembled
the Jaina, e.g., the sect of Devadatta that existed in
Savatthi, as appears from Fa-Hien's account, to the end
of the 4th century A.D., and a remnant of whose practices
the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang found to be in use at
Karnasuvarna in Eastern Bengal ! in the time of King
Harsavardhana. The followers of Devadatta were not
Buddhists in the sense that they did not pay homage to
Gotama Buddha, but they must be said to have been
Buddhists in the sense that they showed reverence to
three previous Buddhas.
As to the third point relating to the schools of Hindu
philosophy, the orthodox Hiudu who is taught to believe
that everything was done for him in a finished form by
the Risis of old, long before the appearance of two power-
ful heresies, known as Jainism and Buddhism, will be
sorry to be told that the Kautilya Arthasastra is the oldest
known Sanskrit text of which the date can be definitely
placed cither in the 4th or in the 2nd century B.C., and
which mentions the Samkhya, the Yoga and the Lokayata
among the typical instances of speculative philosophy
(anviksaki). 1 So far as the Buddhist literature is con-
cerned, the Milinda-Panho is the oldest text which
includes the Samkhya, the Yoga, the Nlti and the
Visesika in the list of the various sciences and arts
studied by King Menander in the 2nd century B.C.
1 Milinda-Paflho, p. 3.
a Beat's Records of the Western World, II. p. 201 ; Smith's Early History of
India, 8rd edition, p. 32.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 77
The subsequent history of the Ajlvikas has to be built
up from a few stray references to them in literature
and epigraphic records, all indicating a process of rapid
decay of their religious order, which lingered with varied
fortune in different parts of India, particularly in
the Deccan proper. Prof. Pathak in his paper on the
Ajlvikas has collected some important references from
the Digambara Jaina works extant in the Canarese
country. 1 In the oldest of them, dated Saka 1076, the
Ajlvikas are represented as a Buddhist denomination, and
are said to have been entitled to existence in the heaven
called Sahasrara-kalpa, in contradistinction to the Hindu
Parivrcit, whose aspiration did not reach beyond the
Brahma- world. 2 In another work belonging to the same
age, the Ajlvikas entitled to the immutable state are dis-
tinguished similarly from the Carayas and the Parirhbajas?
In a third work, the Carakas are characterised as naked,
while the Ekadandin and the Tridandin are enumerated as
two main divisions of the Parivrajakas.* In the fourth, the
Ajlvikas are represented as a Buddhist denomination sub-
sisting on Kamji, 5 while in the fifth|belonging to the 13th
century they are distinguished from the Buddhists who
were meat-eaters. 8 Prom these references Prof. Pathak
is led to conclude that " the Ajlvikas were well-known to
the Jaina authors of the later Chalukya and Yadava
periods as a sect of Buddhist Bhikshus who lived solely
or chiefly on Kamji. 7 "
1 Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 88 f.
a Vlranandi's Acarasara, XI. 127: Parivrad brahmakalpamtamyatyugracaravanapi
Ajlvikah sahasrarakalpamtam darsanojjhitah.
3 ' * Trilokasara, verse 545 : Caraya ya paririibaja bahmoti, ariicuda-padom'ti Sjlva.
6 Commentary on the Acarasara, XI. 127: Ajivakah bauddhabhedam appakamji
hhiksu. Cf. Padmaprabha's Traividya (Circa., 1400 A.D.) : Ajfva ambila-kSlan umbaru.
Buddhist argument in favour of meat-eating is said to be : —
Patre patitam pavitram suktroktani idemdu bauddhar adagam timbarn. See
Mftghanandi's Sravakacara.
' Ind. Ant., 1912, p. 90.
78 THE AJIVIKAS
A few inscriptions have been found in Madras Presi-
dency belonging to the first half of the 13th century,
which record that a kind of poll-tax was imposed on the
Ajlvikas. 1 The reasons for imposition of this tax are
nowhere stated, but the reactionary measure thus adopted
by the Hindu rulers of South India was certainly not
without its effect on the career of the Ajlvikas ; probably
it served to check the further progress of the Ajlvika
movement or to compel the Ajlvikas by external pressure
to merge their identity in the Shivaite and other orders
of Hindu ascetics.
Thus the post-Makkhali history of the Ajlvikas rang-
ing over twenty centuries is to be conceived as a
long and intricate process of religious development in
the country which led ultimately to the extinction of
the sect. The foregoing investigation has shown that
the Ajlvika movement which commenced in the 7th or
the 8th century B. C, somewhere near the Gangetic
valley, and was confined at first to the tract of land bet-
ween Campa and Benares, gradually extended to
Savatthi. Within a few centuries of Gosala's death this
movement crossed at many points the territorial limits
of the Middle country. Gaya and Pundavardhana were
two important centres of the Ajlvika activity in the time
of King Asoka. At the time when the Jaina Bhagavati
Sutra was compiled their influence was diffused over the
whole of Northern India from the Bay of Bengal to the
Gulf of Cutch. Towards the close of the Maurya rule
the Bactrian city of Sagala in the Punjab became a
centre of liberal movements, while the kingdom of Avanti
in the Deccan in its earlier territorial extension long
remained an important scene of the Ajlvika propa-
ganda. The centre of gravity shifted after Harsa to
1 Hultzsh'a South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. I, pp. 88, 89, 92 and 108. Cf. I«d.
Ant., 1912, p. 288.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 79
the Deccan proper, where, especially in the Canarese
country, they encountered many reverses of fortune till
they finally disappeared in the fourteenth century of the
Christian era. The pathetic story of maltreatment
of the Ajlvikas and other ascetics in Eadha hy its rude
inhabitants need not be recounted. Similar experiences
of the hermits of the Vanaprastha order in other non-
Aryan tracts are recorded in the Aranyakanda
of the Ramayana and several stories of the Jataka.
This naturally suggests a most fruitful enquiry
as to the part they played in the annals of Aryan
colonisation and propagation of Aryan culture, followed
everywhere by non- Aryan reaction, and modified by the
race-cult and national characteristics which it absorbed.
Moreover, in carrying on the study of the pos^JMakkhali
history of the Ajlvikas, the historian cannot but set him-
self to analyse the causes of the decline of the Ajlvika
faith, and it is certain that such an enquiry cannot be
undertaken apart from the development of various reli-
gious movements and schools of philosophy which went to
rob the Ajlvika movement of its especiality. The simul-
taneous processes of absorption and assimilation which
seem so largely accountable for the disappearance of the
Ajivikas involve two questions of far-reaching importance,
which are :
(1) Where are the iVjivikas who maintained their
existence among the rival sects up till the fourteenth
century A. D., if not later ?
(2) Is it that the Ajlvika system dwindled into insigni-
ficance without enriching the systems which supplanted
and supplemented it ?
Finally, if it be admitted that truth never dies and
that the Ajivikas had a distinct message for Indian peoples,
the history of the Ajivikas cannot be concluded without a
general reflection on the course of Indian history, nor
80 THE AJIVIKAS
can the historian discharge his true function as historian
without determining the place of the Ajivikas in the
general scheme of Indian history as a whole.
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