The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.90

c21.90

The three Cave Inscriptions at Barābar in the Gayā District, the Goratha-giri of the Mahābhārata,² are merely brief dedications of costly cave dwellings for the use of a monastic sect known as Ājīvika, the members of which went about naked, and were noted for ascetic practices of the most rigorous kind. These records are chiefly of interest as a decisive proof that Asoka was sincere in his solemn declaration that he honoured all sects; for the Ājīvikas were extreme fatalists, having little or nothing in common with the Buddhists.