History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s3.19

c15.s3.19

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.