History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s1.21

c15.s1.21

Both in this passage and in the dialogue of Adda and Gosāla in the same book,⁴ the Ājīvika is accused of being willing to eat what is specially prepared, and thus the lie is given to another item of the Pāli list.⁵ In fact, if the Buddhist thought that the fantastic dietary rules of the *acelakas* useless, or even ridiculous, to the Jaina the conduct of the Ājīvika was little better than that of a householder, lax in the extreme. Gosāla is also said to have disagreed with the pious Adda on the question of the propriety of the ascetic’s drinking cold water, eating seeds, and having intercourse with women. The earlier *Sūrakṛtāṅga* passage, which Śīlāṅka applies to the Ājīvikas, records yet another practice in which the heterodox ascetic did not come up to Jaina standards of behaviour. The unnamed victim of Jaina condemnation was accused of begging food on behalf of sick members of the community and of taking it to them,⁶ whereas the Jaina mendicant was not allowed to take more than he required for his own use. The Ājīvikas are accused of “wavering between two ways of life” (*duppakkham c’eva sevaha*), a taunt similar to that levelled by an unnamed Ājīvika at the Buddha, whom he called a " shaven householder " (*muṇḍa-gahapatika*).¹