History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s4.12

c15.s4.12

Ājīvika layfolk seem to have been specially numerous at Sāvatthi, but there is evidence that they also existed elsewhere. Among the Sāvatthi Ājīvika lay-adherents were the faithful potter-women Hālāhalā, Gosāla’s host for sixteen years ⁴; Ayampula, the rich and earnest disciple who visited Gosāla by night during his last delirium ⁵; and the wealthy seṭṭhi Migāra who, when he began to favour the Buddha, was besieged in his home by a body of ascetics who are called indiscriminately naggasamaṇa, acelaka, and ājīvika.⁶ We have also a reference to a family of lay Ājīvikas visiting Sāvatthi from a village at some distance from the capital,⁷ from which we may infer that the sect gained converts in the surrounding countryside.