History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s3: The Final Penance

History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s3

Language: English

The Final Penance

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Whatever corruptions and laxities may have existed in the Ājīvika order, the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* clearly shows that the Ājīvika ascetic sometimes put an end to his own life by austerities of the extremest type.

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It will be remembered that, after the magic duel between Mahāvīra and Gosāla, the former told his followers that the latter was mortally afflicted and was returning to Hālāhalā’s pottery to die, but that before his death he would proclaim the eight finalities (*carimāim*), the four drinks (*pāṇagāim*), and the four substitutes for drink (*apāṇagāim*).³ These Mahāvīra described in cryptic language, which is only partially elucidated by the commentator Abhayadeva.⁴ The eight finalities have already been enumerated⁵ and seem to be portents of very rare occurrence. The four drinks and the four substitutes for drink, on the other hand, are apparently a series of rules regulating the final penance of the Ājīvika ascetic.

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³ V. supra, p. 62.

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⁴ *Bh. Sū.* xv, sū. 554, fol. 679. Comm. fol. 684.

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⁵ V. supra, p. 68.

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Mahāvīra, after describing the eight finalities, declared that Gosāla, to excuse his own unseemly conduct, would also institute the new doctrine of the pāṇagāim and apāṇagāim. The former, which Abhayadeva defines as “kinds of liquid suitable to an ascetic”,¹ are :

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¹ *Jalaviśeṣā vrati-yogyāḥ.*

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1. *Gopuṭṭhaë*, “that which has fallen from a cow’s back.” ²
2. *Hattha-maddiyaë*, “that which is soiled by the hand, such as the water used in a pottery.” ³
3. *Āyavatattaë*, “that heated by the sun,” and
4. *Silāpabbaṭṭhaë*, “that fallen from a rock.”

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² *Go-pṛṣṭhād yat patitam.*

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³ *Hastena mardditam mṛditam malitam ity arthaḥ, (sic) yath’ aitad ev’ ātanyanik’-odakam.*

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The substitutes for drink are :—

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1. *Thāla-pāṇaë*, “taking a metal pot (*sthāla*), as though a drink to soothe fever—by implication holding an earthenware pot (*bhājana*) also.” ⁴
2. *Tayā-pāṇaë*, holding an unripe mango or other fruit in the mouth without drinking the juice.
3. *Simbali-pāṇaë*, holding unripe *simbali*-beans or certain other seeds in the mouth in the same way, and
4. *Suddha-pāṇaë*, the penance of the “pure drink”.

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⁴ *Sthāla-pāṇam... sthāla-pāṇkam, kaṇmam pakareti. Je ṇam te deve ṇi... si sarīragamsi agaṇi-kāë sambhavati, se ṇam saëṇam... Taō pacchā sijjhati... antam kareti. Se ttam suddhapaṇaë. Bh. Su. xv, sū. 554, fol. 680.*

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The last item of the second list is described in the text of the *Sūtra*. For six months the ascetic eats only pure food (*suddha-khāimāim*); for two months he lies on the ground, for two on wood, and for two on *darbha* grass. On the last night of these six months two mighty gods, Punnabhadda and Māṇibhadda will appear, and with their cool hands will soothe his fevered body. “He who submits to (the caresses of) those gods will further the work of serpenthood. If he does not submit, a mass of fire arises in his body, and he burns up his body with his own heat. Then he is saved and makes an end. That is the pure drink.” ⁵

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The six months’ penance here described appears to have something in common with the fatal penance of the Jainas, and shows conclusively that the Ājīvika ascetic of greatest sanctity, like the Jaina, and less regularly the Hindu, cheerfully died a lingering death for the sake of his spiritual welfare.

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Of the eight items in the lists of *pāṇagāim* and *apāṇagāim* the last, the penance of the "pure drink", seems to include the other seven. Despite Abhayadeva's definition,¹ the four drinkables in the first list cannot have been the usual beverages of the Ājīvika, for in his argument with Adda Gosāla maintains that there is no sin for the ascetic in drinking cold water.² By this he must have implied water from any normal source of supply. In most respects Ājīvika dietary practice seems to have been less strict than that of the Jainas, and it cannot have included the insistence on the drinking of dirty or stale water only.

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¹ V. supra, p. 128, n. 1.

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² V. supra, p. 121.

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The *suddhapāṇaë* penance seems to have differed from the fatal penance of the Jainas in that it involved not death from starvation, but from thirst. The ascetic finding his physical powers waning would enter on the six months' course of austerities. At some stage in his penance he would refrain from all drinks but the four *pāṇagāim*. At the final stage he would only allow himself the four *apāṇagāim*. This interpretation is substantially that of Barua,³ but we cannot wholly accept his explanation. "The practices of the four drinkables and four substitutes . . . appertain to three successive stages of religious suicide. . . . In the first stage the dying Ājīvika was permitted to drink something; . . . in the second stage he was permitted not to drink anything but to use some substitutes (*sic*) . . . while in the third he had to forego (*sic*) even that. . . . The Ājīvika had to lie down for six months, lying successively for two months at a time on the bare earth, on wooden planks, and on *darbha* grass. This indicates that the longest period for the penance was six months, each stage having been gone through in two months. . . ." Apparently Dr. Barua implies that the Ājīvika ascetic was capable of surviving for four months in a tropical climate without drinking. If this interpretation be correct it is surprising that a creed capable of imparting such superhuman endurance to its members should have become extinct.

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³ *JDL.* ii, p. 53.

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In the text it is nowhere explicitly stated that the *pāṇagāim* and *apāṇagāim* are in any way connected with the first two stages of the *suddhapāṇaë* penance; in fact they are not said to be connected with it at all, except in so far as all eight were ordained by Gosāla in his last delirium. If, as seems probable, the first seven items of the lists are all linked with the *suddhapāṇaë*, the stage of the *apāṇagāïm* can only have commenced within a few days of the end.

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Dr. Barua further believes that Gosāla himself practised the penance. “Mahāvīra’s prophecy,” he writes, “that Gosāla . . . would die . . . in seven days . . . is in conflict with the statement that eight new practices of the Ājīvikas emerged from Gosāla’s personal acts. Considering that the first seven practices . . . are traceable in his acts in the delirium of fever, a presumption is apt to arise that the eighth practice, called the Pure Drink, also arose from his personal example. . . . If the Ājīvikas observed this practice in blind imitation of their master, as I believe they did, Mahāvīra’s prophecy can be reconciled with his statement about Gosāla’s death only by the supposition that he did not actually die in seven days but survived the attack of fever for a period of six months, during which he practised the penance of Pure Drink in the manner above described.” 1

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Dr. Barua’s contention, on comparison with the text, seems to be based on inadequate premises. Gosāla is not explicitly stated to have practised any of the *pāṇagāïm* and *apāṇagāïm*. Of the four drinks in the former list the first, third, and fourth are not mentioned as having been used in any way by Gosāla. The second “water soiled by the hand, such as that used in a pottery”, he did not drink, according to the letter of the text, but merely used to sprinkle his limbs.² The four substitutes for drink the only one suggested by Gosāla’s delirious conduct is the second, holding an unripe mango in the mouth. The *Sūtra* states only that Gosāla held a mango stone in his hand,³ and although the commentator suggests that he sucked it to allay his fever this is not expressly stated in the text, which makes no mention of Gosāla’s lying on the ground, on wood, or on *darbha* grass. In fact the resemblances between the details of the Ājīvika fatal penance and those of Gosāla’s last delirium are by no means close. Perhaps, as the *Bhagavatī Sūtra* suggests, some features of the former were modelled on the latter. But that Gosāla himself died by this means cannot be demonstrated.

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¹ JDL. ii, pp. 36-7.

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² *Bh. Sū.* xv, sū. 553, fol. 679.

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³ . . . . . .

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Certain elements in the penance are significant. The *gopuṭṭhaë* (which both Hoernle and Barua interpret, perhaps unnecessarily, as "that which is excreted by the cow"¹), occurs first in the list of the legitimate drinks of the dying ascetic; his last bed is the sacred *darbha* grass. These two features strongly indicate that the Ājīvika was by no means unaffected by orthodox ideas. We have already found one faint indication that some Ājīvikas may have been closer to the main current than their Buddhist and Jaina contemporaries,² and the inclusion of the cow and the *darbha* in the account of the Ājīvika fatal penance confirms our views. The strange divinities Punnabhadda and Māṇibhadda raise questions which are more appropriate to the second part of this work.³ The fire which consumes the body of the emancipated ascetic, and the mysterious reference to "serpenthood", suggest a magical or tantric element in Ājīvikism, of which we have found traces elsewhere.⁴

Linked texts (1)

Viyāhapannatti — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit