History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s4.1

c24.s4.1

The *Bhagavatī Sūtra* names two divinities who were worshipped by the simpler folk of North-Eastern India at the time of the great teachers, and who filled a comparatively humble place in the pantheons of the greater communities, but who seem to have been given a special status by the Ājīvikas. These are Punnabhadda and Māṇibhadda, or, in their Sanskrit forms, Pūrṇabhadra and Maṇibhadra. We meet them first as the divinities whose duty it is to test the dying ascetic on the last night of his final penance; if he yields to their caresses he is born again, if he resists he is saved.² The same two appear again as the generals of the fierce Ājīvika king, Mahāpaüma, the reincarnation of Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta.³ The Tamil text *Nīlakēci* mentions two *devas*, Okkali and Ōkali, who, according to the mythology of the Dravidian Ājīvikas, are said to have instructed men in the scriptures, presumably having received them from the divine Markali.⁴