History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s1.41

c24.s1.41

The two later texts, Nīlakēci and Civañāṉa-cittiyār, put forward arguments to refute the atomic theories of the Ājīvikas. Nīlakēci attacks Ājīvika atomism, as she does the theory of Niyati, with appeals to experience and common sense. The arguments of Civañāṉa-cittiyār are somewhat subtler. If atoms have tendencies to move in different directions ² they must be mutually repulsive, and cannot hold together. If they do not join or interpenetrate, interstices must exist between them, and therefore they should fall apart.³ The Ājīvika apparently had his answers to these two objections; the elements, including the atom of life, are held together by wind or air (vaḷi), whose atoms move horizontally, and thus tend to counteract the upward tendency of fire and the downward tendencies of earth and water; the elements are united by "eternal action" (nīta-viṉai), which seems to be a synonym of Niyati.⁴ This term viṉai (Skt. karma) is used in the commentary to refer to what is called ūḻi (Skt. Niyati) in the statement of doctrine,⁵ thus giving yet another indication of the gradual merging of the Ājīvika Niyati theory with the orthodox doctrine of karma.