History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s1.28

c14.s1.28

The significance of this apparent confusion may perhaps be explained by reference to another story in the Dhammapada Commentary,³ in which the boy Jambuka is handed by his parents to a community of Ājīvikas and initiated into their order; but his asceticism takes a form too loathsome even for the Ājīvikas to tolerate, and he is expelled from the community. After this he obtains a great reputation for sanctity as a “wind-eater” (vāta-bhakkho), until he is ultimately converted by the Buddha. Buddhaghosa states that his career as a wind-eater lasted for fifty-five years, thus giving a further indication of the existence of Ājīvikas before Makkhali Gosāla. But the significance of the story in this context lies in the fact that even fifty-five years after his expulsion from the order of Ājīvikas he is still referred to by the Buddha as “Jambuka the Ājīvika”. We have here a clear indication that the term was used not only for the organized ascetic order of Makkhali, but for free-lance ascetics of a similar type, or for followers of other leaders who later merged with the Ājīvika order.