History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s1.22

c14.s1.22

In some texts Ājīvikas are clearly distinguished from nigaṇṭhas,³ but the Sandaka Sutta seems to embrace all six of the heretical teachers, including the great leader of the nigaṇṭhas, Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta or Mahāvīra, in the general category of Ājīvikas.⁴ In the Dhammapada Commentary⁵ Buddhaghosa describes the ascetic with unsettled mind (anavaṭṭhita-citto), who may start as an acelaka, then become an Ājīvaka, then a nigaṇṭha, and finally a tāpasa. Yet in the same work he tells the story of Migāra,¹ the banker of Sāvatthi, who is a follower of naked ascetics (nagga-samaṇā), but who falls foul of them when his daughter-in-law becomes a devotee of the Buddha. Here the five hundred ascetics who besiege him in his house are referred to indiscriminately as nagga-samaṇā, acelakā, and ājīvikā. Similarly the Divyāvadāna, in the story of Aśoka, seems to use the terms Ājīvaka and Nirgrantha synonymously.²