History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s2.13

c16.s2.13

The loose use of the terms *nirgrantha* and *ājīvika* in this story makes it uncertain whether they were intended to apply to the order of Mahāvīra or to that of Makkhali; it may indeed have been intended to refer to both sects indiscriminately. As it stands, the story is quite incredible, in that it makes the apostle of toleration a monster of quite un-Buddhist fanaticism. If it has any significance it is to indicate a tradition of hostility to Ājīvikas and Jainas, which may have occasionally flared up under other monarchs into open persecution. The story suggests that Ājīvikism was specially prevalent at the time in Puṇḍra, a suggestion also conveyed by the Jaina story of Mahāpaüma.¹ The trampling on the image, with its indication of iconoclasm on the part of the anti-Buddhist *nirgrantha-ājīvikas*, is a theme which recurs at a much later date in Kashmīr, in connection with the mysterious naked ascetics employed by King Harṣa.²