History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s1.8

c23.s1.8

*Kamma*. The classification of the *kammas* is very obscure, and the significance of the term in this context is not absolutely certain. We have seen that the place of *karma* in early Ājīvikism was taken by *Niyati*.² Yet on the lower level of truth the transmigratory chain of cause and effect does not seem to have been categorically denied. Possibly the numerous *karmas* are the ways in which an individual's behaviour can, on the *vyāvahārika* plane only, affect his future condition. On the *pāramārthika* level of truth, of course, the only effective agent is *Niyati*.