History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.2

c17.s1.2

In the *Arthaśāstra* the Ājīvikas are mentioned once. The householder who feeds *Śākyas*, Ājīvikas, or other base mendicants at sacrificial or commemorative ceremonies is to be fined a hundred (*paṇas*).¹ The Ājīvika is mentioned with the Buddhist as the leading representative of the heretical orders. He is still a significant force in the community, for he, and not the *Nirgrantha*, comes second in the list. The latter is presumably included in the general group of base mendicants of other sects. It will be remembered that Aśoka, in the Seventh Pillar Edict, gave the Ājīvika precedence over the *Nirgrantha*,² and the absence of reference to the latter by name in this passage suggests an early date for at least this regulation of the *Arthaśāstra*. Had it been composed as late as the third century A.D., as Keith supposes,³ surely the *Nirgrantha* would have been mentioned in preference to the Ājīvika as a typical representative of heterodoxy. By this time there is ample archæological evidence to show that Jainism was widespread, while similar evidence of Ājīvikism is non-existent.