History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c17.s5.1

c17.s5.1

Several lexicographers of the tenth to the twelfth centuries mention the Ājīvikas in the company of a motley collection of ascetics. Their citations are significant in that they indicate that the name was not forgotten, but can be accepted as evidence of the continued existence of Ājīvikas only in South India, for which much stronger evidence may be found elsewhere. Halāyudha and Yādava were southerners,¹ and had no doubt come into contact with the Tamil Ājīvikas, whom we consider in the next chapter. For Hemacandra and Ajayapāla, who wrote in Gujarāt,² we cannot suggest personal knowledge of the Ājīvikas; they probably included the word in their lists by borrowing from the Southern dictionaries, or because of its presence in Jaina literature.