History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s2.3

c16.s2.3

A passage in the *Petavatthu* tells of King Piṅgala of Suraṭṭha, who, two hundred years after the Buddha’s *nibbāna*, left his kingdom in the service of the Mauryas (*Moriyānaṃ upaṭṭhānaṃ*).² As he was returning to his capital he was met by a *peta*, who told him that he was the disembodied soul of one who had formerly been a heretic of Suraṭṭha, who had held Ājīvika views. The passage indicates that Ājīvikism may have spread to Gujarāt by this period.