History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s5.20

c14.s5.20

The Ājīvikas' reputation for asceticism apparently reached the Far East. Chinese and Japanese Buddhist Literature classes the *Ashibikas* (i.e. Ājīvikas) with the *Nikendabtras* or Nirgranthas as practising severe penance. "They both hold that the penalty for a sinful life must sooner or later be paid and since it is impossible to escape from it it is better that it be paid as soon as possible so that the life to come may be free for enjoyment. Thus their practices were ascetic—fasting silence immovability and the burying of themselves up to the neck were their expressions of penance."³