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History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c10.s1.t1: 4. Pakudha Kaccāyana

History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c10.s1.t1

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4. Pakudha Kaccāyana

c10.s1.t1.1

The seven elementary categories are neither made nor ordered, neither caused nor constructed; they are barren, as firm as mountains, as stable as pillars. They neither move nor develop; they do not injure one another, and one has no effect on the joy, or on the sorrow, or on the joy and sorrow of another. What are the seven? The bodies of earth, of water, of fire, and of air, and joy and sorrow, with life as the seventh . . . . No man slays or causes to slay, hears or causes to hear, knows or causes to know. Even if a man cleave another's head with a sharp sword, he does not take life, for the sword-cut passes between the seven elements.¹

c10.s1.t1.2

¹ *Satt' ime . . . kāyā akaṭā akaṭā-vidhā animmitā animmātā vañjhā kūṭaṭṭhā esika-ṭṭhāyi-ṭṭhitā. Te na iñjanti na vipariṇamanti na aññam-aññam vyābādhenti n' ālam . . . tame satta? . . . . Tattha n' atthi hanu va ghātētā vā sotā vā sāvetā vā viññātā vā viññāpetā vā. Yo pi tiṇhena satthena sīsaṃ chindati na koci kiñci jīvitā voropeti, sattannam yeva kāyānam antareṇa sattha-vivaram anupatati. Dīgha i, p. 56. With this compare Sū. kr. II, i, 10, fol. 280 ff. (SBE. xlv, II, i, 20-4). Here a five-element theory is outlined in very similar terms.*

Cites (2)