History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s5: Relations between Ājīvikas and Buddhists

History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c15.s5

Language: English

Relations between Ājīvikas and Buddhists

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The Pāli texts contain many strictures upon Ājīvika ascetics, and they are generally described as being foolish, repulsive, and hypocritical. In the *Majjhima* the Buddha is said to have told the wanderer Vacchagotta that no Ājīvika had ever "made an end of sorrow" on his death, and that in the ninety-one *kalpas* of his previous births he remembered but one Ājīvika who had been reborn in heaven.¹ The latter was a believer in *karma* and in the efficiency of works, and therefore was not an orthodox follower of Makkhali Gosāla.

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¹ *Ito kho so Vaccha ekanavuto kappo yam aham anussarāmi, n’ ābhijānāmi kañci Ājīvakam saggūpagam aññatra ekena, so p’ āsi kamma-vādī kiriya-vādī.* Majjh. i, p. 483.

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In the *Aṅguttara* the Buddha accuses the Ājīvikas, together with numerous other classes of ascetics, of committing all the five sins, and declares that they are all destined for the infernal regions.²

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² *Aṅg.* iii, p. 276. [The text mentions the Ājīvikas in connection with the five sins and the infernal regions, and contrasts them with the believer in the efficacy of works who is reborn in the heaven of Anantamānasa, and thus seems to imply that this heaven is attainable by Ājīvikas of the highest sanctity (*Papañca Sūdanī* to Majjh. 11, vol. ii, pp. 9–10. V. infra, p. 261).]

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Ājīvika laymen are depicted as cruel and deceitful. The lay Ājīvikas from a distant village who bought the daughter of a Sāvatthi prostitute as a wife for their son, through the intervention of the *bhikkhu* Udāyi, are said to have treated her like a slave, and would allow neither her mother nor the matchmaker to see her.³

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³ *Vin.* iii, pp. 135 ff.

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Two references in the *Vinaya* indicate the shame and annoyance felt by Buddhist monks at being mistaken for Ājīvikas. The first incident is said to have taken place when a group of *bhikkhus* was robbed of their robes on the road from Sāketa to Sāvatthi. Not being permitted to beg fresh robes of householders, they entered the city of Sāvatthi naked, and the citizens wondered at the handsome naked Ājīvikas whom they saw talking with the clothed *bhikkhus*.⁴ The second incident also took place at Sāvatthi, at the Jetavana, when the Buddha allowed his monks to remove their robes and expose their bodies to a cooling shower of rain. At the time the pious laywoman Visākhā sent her maid to invite them to a meal, but when she saw the naked *bhikkhus* the girl returned to her mistress and declared that the *ārāma* was no longer occupied by Buddhist monks but by Ājīvikas.⁵ As a result of both these incidents the Buddha amended the rules of the order, to avoid any danger of similar misapprehensions in future.

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⁴ Ibid. iii, pp. 212 ff.

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⁵ Ibid. i, pp. 290 ff.

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Yet the attitude of dislike and distrust indicated by these stories is only one side of the picture. There is evidence to show that, like Aśoka 250 years later, many laymen of the Buddha’s time, while bestowing special favour on one sect, were the friends and patrons of all. We have seen that King Bimbisāra fed the Buddhist saṅgha and other religious communities, at the behest of one of his kinsmen who had become an Ājīvika ascetic.¹ A further Vinaya passage tells of a mahāmatta who was an Ājīvika disciple, and who also gave a meal to the Buddhist order, which was graced by the Buddha himself. On this occasion the Master is said to have reprimanded the bhikkhu Upananda for his impoliteness in coming late to the feast.² The Vinaya also mentions a Buddhist layman who visited a park in the company of a number of Ājīvikas³; and we have seen that the bhikkhu Udāyi was not too proud to act as matchmaker on behalf of Ājīvika laymen.⁴

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¹ Ibid. iv, p. 74. V. supra, pp. 120, 131-32.

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² Ibid. ii, p. 165.

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³ Ibid. ii, p. 130. V. infra, p. 137.

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⁴ V. supra, p. 135.

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A very significant indication of friendly relations between the two sects is the story of the announcement of the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa to the elder Mahākassapa. At the head of a band of 500 bhikkhus he was resting by the roadside on the way from Pāvā to Kusinārā, when there passed by a certain Ājīvika, who came from Kusinārā holding a mandārava flower in his hand; this indicated that some great and auspicious event had taken place, for the mandārava grows in the worlds of the gods, and only rains upon earth on such occasions. The monks asked the Ājīvika if he knew their leader, and it was he who told them that Gotama had passed to nirvāṇa seven days previously.⁵ In the Vinaya story the Ājīvika’s words are very respectfully spoken. He addresses Mahākassapa by the title āvuso, and implicitly admits the greatness of the Buddha by referring to him as parinibbuta instead of mata.⁶ He, too, is addressed by the courteous title āvuso.

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⁵ Vin. ii, p. 284.

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⁶ Am, āvuso, jānāmi. Ajja satt’-āha-parinibbuto samaṇo Gotamo. Tato me idam mandārava-puppham gahitam.

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Not only did Ājīvikas feed Buddhists, but on occasions Buddhists fed Ājīvikas. While at Vesāli the Buddha’s followers [Figure: THE BUDDHA'S PARINIRVĀṆA. (From Foucher, L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique.) On the right an Ājīvika informs Mahākassapa of the Master's death.]

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found themselves with more food than they required, and gave their surplus to those ascetics who accepted leavings (vighās’-āda). An Ājīvika who had been thus fed by the bhikkhus was later overheard by one of them telling a fellow Ājīvika of the food which he had obtained from the “shaven-headed householder” (muṇḍa-gahapatika), Gotama. The bhikkhus reported the matter to their master, who forbade the distribution of surplus food to mendicants of other orders in future.¹

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¹ Vin. iv, p. 91.

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This story may be the traditional explanation of a hardening and worsening of relations between the two sects, which perhaps took place in the Buddha’s lifetime. Its implication is that the breach arose from the discourteous conduct of the Ājīvikas. Perhaps the latter, with their sterner discipline, began to ridicule the easy-going Buddhists, and the growth of mutual recriminations and of sarcastic attacks on both sides, led to the ostracism of the Ājīvikas by the Buddhist order. The incident of the Ājīvika who declared the Buddha to be a “shaven householder” is not the only such case recorded in Buddhist literature. The Vinaya also mentions a company of Ājīvika laymen who mocked a group of bhikkhus in an unnamed park, because the latter were carrying sunshades. The Ājīvikas are said to have derided the bhikkhus before the Buddhist laymen to whom they were talking, saying that they looked like officials of the treasury (gaṇaka-mahāmattā), and were “bhikkhus who were not bhikkhus” (bhikkhū na bhikkhū).²

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² Ibid. ii, pp. 130-1.

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It is clear from these examples that the Buddhists were very sensitive to these accusations of laxity in discipline. No doubt many of the simpler lay folk of the time were inclined to estimate the sanctity of a religious order by the severity of its discipline, and to bestow their alms accordingly. It may be inferred that the Ājīvikas were equally sensitive to the Buddhist accusations of hypocrisy. They are said to have expelled the repulsive Jambuka from their community for fear of the scandal that the Buddhist saṅgha would make of his conduct if it became known.³

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³ V. supra, p. 97.

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With each sect attempting to win members from the others animosity must inevitably have arisen. The violence of the competition for supporters is evident from the story of Migāra, the rich banker of Sāvatthi of whom we have heard before in more than one context.¹ Migāra first appears on the scene as an earnest devotee of the naked ascetics, but his loss of faith begins when his newly married daughter-in-law, the Buddhist laywoman Visākhā, refuses to pay reverence to the 500 mendicants whom he entertains, declaring that they are devoid of modesty and shame, and unworthy of respect. When Migāra agrees to entertain the Buddhist *saṅgha* the Ājīvikas besiege his home, in a frantic attempt to prevent their rivals from obtaining so wealthy and influential a convert.

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¹ *Dham. Comm.*, pp. 299 ff. V. supra, pp. 97, 132.

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That of Migāra is not the only example of conversions from Ājīvikism to Buddhism. The ascetics Upaka and Jambuka and the unnamed Ājīvika layman of Kosambi have already been mentioned.² The *kulūpaga brāhmaṇa* Ājīvika of the Mauryan court, Janasāna, is also said to have been converted to Buddhism.³ The wanderer Sandaka, who seems to have owed loose allegiance to Makkhali Gosāla, is another case in point.⁴ That strong animosity, aroused by rivalry in conversion, continued among the less tolerant members of both communities may be inferred from Aśoka’s pleas for mutual forbearance and respect among the sects of his time.⁵

Linked texts (6)

Mahāvibhaṅga — Pāli
Cullavagga — Pāli
Mahāvagga — Pāli
Māgaṇḍiyasutta — Pāli
Tevijjavacchasutta — Pāli
Bhikkhusutta — Pāli