History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s4.1

c14.s4.1

The ascetics called Ājīvika in the Pāli texts, whether the pre-Makkhali mendicants and hermits whom we may call proto-Ājīvikas, or members of the organized Ājīvika sect, appear usually to have lived in a state of nakedness. Makkhali Gosāla and Pūraṇa Kassapa are described as completely unclothed,² and it would seem that in the early days of Ājīvikism the lesser members of the community were also habitually naked.³