History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c19.18

c19.18

As minor characters in this tragic story there appear strange naked ascetics, employed by Harṣa to remove the images from the temples. They are described as “naked wanderers with wasted noses, feet, and hands”,⁷ and as “broken (i.e. crippled) naked wanderers”.⁸ They were not satisfied with the mere removal of the images, but, acting on Harṣa’s instructions, they deliberately defiled them. “On their faces he had ordure and urine, etc., thrown by naked wanderers . . . in order to ruin the images of the gods. The forms of the gods, made of gold, silver, and other (metals), rolled like bundles of firewood in the dung-covered roads. Crippled and naked ascetics and others dragged the images of the gods, covered with spittle, by ropes tied to their ankles.”¹