History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c19.40

c19.40

On his gold and silver currency, probably minted after the looting of the temples, Harṣa did not use traditional Kashmīr coin device of the seated goddess. The disappearance of the goddess is itself significant, and may be connected with the iconoclasm of the *nagn’-aṭas*. It is just possible that the elephant which replaced the goddess was an Ājīvika religious symbol. The elephant is, of course, the attendant of Lakṣmī, and has some symbolic significance in Buddhism; but it may well also have been an Ājīvika emblem. We recall the elephants of the façade of the Lomas Ṛṣi Cave,³ and the "Last Sprinkling Scent Elephant", one of the eight *carimāṃ* of the Ājīvikas.⁴