History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s1.53

c17.s1.53

Another doubtful case is to be found in the Harṣacarita. Prince Harṣa, following his brother Rājyavardhana against the Hūṇas, hears of the illness of his father, Prabhākaravardhana, while somewhere to the north of the capital Sthānvīśvara. On his way back to his dying father he meets an evil omen in the form of a naked ascetic (*nagn'-āṭaka*), his body covered with many days' accumulation of dirt, and "marked with a peacock's plume".² This dirty and repulsive character suggests a Digambara Jaina monk, with his peacock-feather brush. On the other hand mysterious naked ascetics, also called *nagn'-āṭakas*, appear in Kashmīr in the eleventh century.³ These seem not to have been Jainas, and may have been Ājīvikas. In South India we find Digambaras and Ājīvikas living in the same districts, and the same may have happened in North-Western India, where Jainism seems to have found a home at an early date. The ascetic met by Harṣa may therefore have been an Ājīvika, although it is perhaps more probable that he was a Digambara, whose sect still survives in the same region.⁴