History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c18.s1.69

c18.s1.69

At this time it is unlikely that Brāhmaṇical Hinduism had made any important impression on the indigenous population, whose religious practices seem to have centred round wild nature deities, propitiated by village witch-doctors with ceremonies which involved religious hysteria and the shedding of blood.¹ Dancing, probably ecstatic,² and bloody magical ceremonies ³ seem to have been practised by the early Ājīvikas. Thus the unkempt Ājīvika ascetic might make a greater immediate impression upon the early Dravidians than did the grave Buddhist *bhikkhu*. Although Ājīvikism never gained so strong a hold as did its rivals, we may suggest that it survived longer in the Dravidian South than in the North because it was more in keeping with Dravidian character and tradition.