History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c22.s2.3

c22.s2.3

We have seen that the atomic doctrines ascribed in the *Sāmañña-phala Sutta* to Pakudha Kaccāyana, which certainly had their effect on Southern Ājīvikism,¹ maintained that the elementary categories were as firm as mountains, neither moving nor developing nor in any way affecting one another.² The author of this passage conceives a static, not a dynamic universe. Similarly, Mahāvīra tried to convince Saddālaputta that his action in punishing a careless or immoral workman would be a real action, and not a mere illusion.³ Hoernle translates the phrase *niyayā savvabhāvā* not, as might be expected, as "all things are determined", but as "all things are unalterably fixed",⁴ which makes better sense of Mahāvīra's argument. Here are the germs of the static view of the universe ascribed to the Ājīvikas in *Nīlakēci*.