History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s5.5

c14.s5.5

A picture of Ājīvika penances which seems more probably to apply to the regular order is contained in the prologue to *Naṅguṭṭha Jātaka*.² Here it is stated that a company of Ājīvikas was stationed behind the Jetavana at Sāvatthi, and performed false penances (*micchā-tapam*) of various types. These penances included "exerting themselves in a squatting posture" (*ukkuṭika-ppadhāna*), the bat-penance (*vagguli-vata*),³ lying on beds of thorns (*kaṇṭaka-ppasaya*), and the penance of the five fires (*pañca-tapana*). The acts of self-mortification here named seem to be those practised by Indian ascetics of all periods, but we have no reason to believe that they were not also practised by the Ājivika saṅgha. At Sāvatthi Gosāla seems to have made use of a "penance-ground", as well as the pottery in which he regularly resided.¹ It is possible that this adjoined the Jetavana, and that the Ājīvikas described in the Jataka were the train of followers with which Gosāla was usually surrounded.