History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c18.s1.56

c18.s1.56

Professor Krishnaswami Aiyangar, controverting the earlier view of Sewell, that the tax was levied “on everyone who professed the Jaina religion”,³ remarks that: “There is nothing to warrant that it (i.e. the tax) was taken from them (i.e. the Ājīvikas) as it is included among other general taxes. It is likely that it was intended for feeding and otherwise providing for these mendicants by the community.”⁴ He suggests that the tax was not a special tax on Ājīvikas, but a tax on the village communities for the benefit of the Ājīvika ascetics. The general disfavour in which the Ājīvikas were held makes this theory intrinsically improbable; it is completely disproved by reference to the Āvaṇi inscription,⁵ where the word *Ācuvi-makkaḷ* is obviously in the nominative, and where it is plainly shown that the Ājīvikas were taxed at a higher rate than the rest of the villagers. Several other inscriptions would be very difficult to understand, on Professor Aiyangar’s hypothesis.