History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s1.16

c23.s1.16

The *Bhagavatī Sūtra* gives different figures for the totals of *kammas*, but it confirms the Pāli source in showing that the Ājīvikas believed in a large number of these, which were divided into groups. In the *Bhagavatī* there are 500,000 *kammas*, 60,000 and 600, together with three parts of *kamma*,³ which must be worked out in order before the process of salvation is completed. Here the figures 60,000 and 600 suggest the totals of the *yoni-pamukha* in the Pāli text, and the *kamm’-amse*, or parts of a *kamma*, perhaps correspond to the act, speech, and thought of Buddhaghosa. Although our translation of *tinni ya kamm’-amse* is based on the commentator Abhayadeva,⁴ it seems possible that a second *ya* is to be understood at the end of the phrase, in which case it should be translated as three (*kammas*) and a part of a *kamma*. Thus the *kamm’-amse* of the *Bhagavatī* would represent the *addha-kamma* of the *Sāmañña-phala Sutta*.