History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.29

c17.s1.29

More significant is a reference in Kumāradāsa’s *Jānakīharaṇa*. Here Rāvaṇa, planning the rape of Sītā, approaches Rāma’s hermitage in the guise of "a *maskarin*, a false Ājīvika, his head adorned with piled and matted locks".⁴ Here the word *maskarin* is employed with *Ājīvika*, but in other references it would seem to refer to ascetics of a different type⁵; we have already suggested that the term included any mendicant bearing a staff.⁶ The matted locks of this false Ājīvika are not altogether consistent with the description of Ājīvikas in earlier sources, where they are said to have pulled out their hair by the roots.⁷ We cannot decide whether the author was using the term loosely, whether he was ill-informed as to the habits of Ājīvikas, or whether he had in mind a sub-sect of the Ājīvika order which had abandoned the custom of tonsure.