History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c14.s5.57

c14.s5.57

As well as the Ājīvika-sabhā, we read in the Vinaya of an Ājīvika-seyyā, inhabited by Ājīvika ascetics who enticed the Buddhist bhikkhunīs settled near by.⁴ This seems to have been in the nature of a small monastery or vihāra, probably a collection of huts. Further the Bhagavatī Sūtra refers to Gosāla as returning to the pottery of Hālāhalā from the " penance-ground " (āyāvaṇa-bhūmī).⁵ This place, we suggest, was merely an open space on the borders of the city, where ascetics of all types congregated to perform their austerities, and had no specifically Ājīvika connection.