History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s2.28

c15.s2.28

The Ājīvika seems frequently to have been an astrologer or fortune-teller. *Nakkhatta Jātaka*¹ tells the story of an Ājīvika regularly dependent on a certain family for support (*kulūpaka*), who was consulted about the most propitious date for a wedding after the preliminary preparations had already been made, and who caused it to be postponed in his annoyance. A similar *kulūpaga* Ājīvika was attached to the court of King Bindusāra, and correctly prophesied Aśoka’s greatness.² The ascetics of both sexes who appear so frequently in later literature from the *Arthaśāstra* onwards as spies, confidential agents, matchmakers, and fortune-tellers, may have included Ājīvikas among their number.