History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.40

c17.s1.40

Professor D. R. Bhandarkar, however, is of the opinion that the authors of both poems were describing Ājīvikas. “Rāvaṇa . . . approaches Sītā in a disguised form (and) is called both Ājīvika and Maskarin, which must therefore be taken to be synonymous terms. In the Bhattikāvya also Rāvaṇa is represented . . . in the garb of a maskarin. Among . . . various characteristics . . . that of his being a *śikhin* is specified. From this the commentator Mallinātha argues that he was a Tridaṇḍin, and not an Ekadaṇḍin as the latter have no matted hair. But this does not agree with what Utpala says, for . . . he gives Ekadaṇḍin as a synonym of Ājīvika. The word *śikhin* of the Bhaṭṭikāvya . . . agrees with the *uṭṭuṅga-jaṭā* of the Jānakī-haraṇa, and as the latter calls an Ājīvika a Maskarin it appears that an Ājīvika was really a Tridaṇḍin and not an Ekadaṇḍin as Utpala supposes.”¹