History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.1

c17.s1.1

After the Mauryas the Ājīvikas, although occasionally mentioned in Sanskrit literature, never again appear in Northern India as serious rivals to the greater sects. The passages from the early Buddhist and Jaina scriptures may indeed have taken final shape at a comparatively late period, but the flourishing Ājīvika community referred to therein seems to be a recollection of Maurya and pre-Maurya times, rather than a picture of conditions in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.