History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s2.24

c17.s2.24

Even in the fifth century, when Kālakācārya wrote, the Ājīvika must have been much rarer than most other types of staff-bearing mendicant. We believe that Kālaka intended by the term ekadaṇḍin not the Ājīvika, as Hoernle believes, but the whole class of ascetics bearing single staves. For astrological purposes both Vaiṣṇava ekadaṇḍins and Ājīvikas would be classed together on the strength of this common characteristic. In compiling the Bṛhajjātaka Varāhamihira probably used the term Ājīvika in preference to ekadaṇḍin for the simple reason that the latter term would not fit well into the metrical scheme of the Śārdūla-vikrīḍita stanza, with the handling of which he seems to have experienced some difficulty.