History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c23.s5.23

c23.s5.23

Thus the Ājīvikas seem to have developed from the doctrine of *maṇḍala-mokṣa* the tenet that the great teachers of the faith performed from time to time an *avatāra* in order to restore the true scriptures and the pure doctrine. The Ājīvika *nirvāṇa* seems to have been far less rarefied than that of the other sects. Here too *Niyati* held sway, and would from time to time drive souls back to the universe in order to restore the prescribed total of souls in *saṃsāra*. But according to *Civañāṇa-cittiyār* some of the liberated souls had somehow become free of the liability to return. They were the *sambodhaka*, beings completely outside the universe, whose status in this respect resembles that of the Jaina *tīrthaṅkaras*. The *maṇḍalar*, on the other hand, remind us of the Vaiṣṇavite *avatāras*, and the Mahāyāna Buddhist *bodhisattvas*.