History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s2.5

c15.s2.5

As has been shown, the passage seems intended to apply to extreme ascetics generally, and not to the Ājīvikas alone. It has already been made clear that Ājīvika practices were not as strict as the *Mahāsaccaka Sutta* suggests. The story of the princely Ājīvika mendicant, who persuaded the Buddha to relax his rule forbidding common meals in the order, and invited him and his *bhikkhus* to a meal provided by his relative King Bimbisāra,¹ suggests a freedom of discipline and an absence of austerity which is not to be disproved by passages of vague application such as that in *Mahāsaccaka Sutta*. The latest available reference to Ājīvikas, that of Vaidyanātha Dīkṣita, the fifteenth century astrologer, confirms their reputation for voracity; the author states that the Ājīvika is devoted to food (*aśana-paro*) and loquacious (*jalpako*).²