The Mauryan Polity c11.s3.t3.8

c11.s3.t3.8

(1) Aśoka showed equal enthusiasm in honouring the Ājīvikas. These were apparently a heterodox sect of monks whose founder was one Gośāla Maṅkhalīputta, contemporaneous with the founders of the other ascetic sects, Mahāvīra and Gautama. According to the Pāli *sūtras* Gośāla was a prominent rival of Mahāvīra and an opponent of the Buddha.³ In order to support that ascetic community 'which would seem to have, at one time, rivalled in numbers and importance the two still existing great communities of the Buddhists and Jainas' the caves of Barābar Hills were dedicated by the Emperor¹ in the same spirit with which his successor Daśaratha bestowed rock-hewn caves on Nāgārjuni Hill on the Ājīvikas.² One is at a loss to know what weight this testimony carries in the argument about Aśoka’s faith in Buddhism. Even Vallee Poussin, the eloquent advocate of the theory that Aśoka was a Buddhist, has to make the following observation in this connection: “On voit mal, en des temps moins anciens, un bouddhiste convaincu favoriser d’aussi mauvais religieux que les Ajīvikas, meme pour raison d’Etat.”³