History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.21

c17.s1.21

In the first *Vāyu Purāṇa* reference we read of the Ājīvas, apparently prosperous craftsmen and artisans, who devote their ill-earned wealth to the worship of the goblins who haunt the sacred groves, with ceremonies suggestive of later tantrism.³ In the second passage we have a group of false ascetics, naked and otherwise (*nagn’-ādi*), who, like the Ājīvas, are the objects of the scorn and opprobrium of the orthodox. Whatever reading we accept for the crucial second half of the 30th verse of the second passage, it is clear that the group *nagn'-ādi* must include the ascetic leaders of the Ājīvas of the first passage; unless indeed the author of the first passage has confused ascetics and goblins, and the *piśācas* who lurk in the twilight in ruined buildings, in groves, and at crossroads actually represent the Ājīvika ascetics, who, like the Bodhisatta Ājīvika of the *Jātaka*,¹ fled at the sight of men, no doubt in this case owing to rising popular antagonism.