History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c22.s2.29

c22.s2.29

*Maṇimēkalai* and *Civañāṉa-cittiyār* stress the Ājīvikas' atomic doctrines rather than their determinism. Indeed the Ājīvika teacher in *Maṇimēkalai* is scarcely aware of the doctrine of *Niyati*, and merely states in a single line that Fate (*ūḻ*) is responsible for existence.³ *Civañāṉa-cittiyār* understands the doctrine, but here it is referred to in only one of the ten verses in which Ājīvika teaching is propounded, and in the six verses of refutation determinism is not explicitly mentioned. The text states that wealth and poverty, pain and pleasure, living in one country and travelling to another, are ordained beforehand in the womb, and that the world moves subject to a sure Fate.⁴ The reference to the womb in this verse suggests that with the school of Ājīvikas represented by this text, which is almost the latest of our sources, the orthodox Hindu and Jaina view was in process of replacing the traditional Ājīvika doctrine of *Niyati*. By this time the distinction between *Niyati* and *karma* had almost gone. In fact one verse of the *Civañāṉa-cittiyār* states that *kaṉma* is the cause of the incarnation of the soul.⁵ Ājīvika doctrine never wholly excluded *karma*, but insisted that it operated in an automatic and determinate manner.⁶ It seems that the status of karma rose as that of Niyati fell. This is strongly indicated by the commentary of Tattuvappirakācar to Civañāṉa-cittiyār, which interprets ūḻi (Fate, Sanskrit Niyati) as viṉai (action, Sanskrit karma).