History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s2.8

c15.s2.8

If the Buddhist insisted on the hypocrisy of the Ājīvika in the matter of diet, the Jaina accused him of sexual laxity. The accusation is explicit in the dialogue between Gosāla and Adda in the *Sūtrakṛtāṅga*, wherein the former is made to declare that, according to his *dhamma*, the ascetic incurs no sin from women.³ The same book also speaks of indifferent ascetics, the slaves of women, who maintain that there is no more sin in intercourse with women than in squeezing a boil.⁴ These, however, are identified by Śīlāṅka not with the Ājīvikas but with the Buddhists or Śaivites. The *Sūtrakṛtāṅga* again levels the same accusation at unnamed ascetics, whom Śīlāṅka identifies with the followers of Gosāla, and who appear to maintain the doctrine of *maṇḍala-mokṣa*, a characteristic feature of the creed of the Dravidian Ājīvikas.⁵ “A wise man,” states the *Sūtrakṛtāṅga*, “should consider that these (heretics) do not live a life of chastity.”⁶ The nature of the relations of Gosāla with his patron Hālāhalā the potter woman are nowhere explicitly stated, but it seems to be implied that they were not honest.