History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s5: Ājīvika Logic

History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c24.s5

Language: English

Ājīvika Logic

c24.s5.1

The evidence of the Jaina commentators shows that the Ājīvikas had their own epistemology and logic, which had much in common with that of the Jaina sect of Trairāśikas.⁴

The distinctive characteristic of the Ājīvika system of epistemology, like that of the Trairāśika Jainas, was the division of propositions into three categories, in contrast to the orthodox Jaina system, which allowed seven. Some information on this system may be gathered from the commentaries to the *Nandi Sūtra* and to the *Samavāyāṅga*, which do not significantly differ:—

c24.s5.4

“The Ājīvika heretics founded by Gośāla are likewise called Trairāśikas, since they declare everything to be of triple character, viz.: living, not living, and both living and not living; world, not world, and both world and not world; real, unreal, and both real and unreal. In considering standpoints (*naya*) (they postulate that an entity may be) of the nature of substance, of mode, or of both. Thus, since they maintain three heaps (*rāśi*), they are called Trairāśikas.” ⁵

c24.s5.5

¹ JDL. ii, pp. 58-9.

c24.s5.6

⁵ *Tathā ta eva Gośāla-pravarttitā Ājīvikāḥ pāṣaṇḍinas Trairāśikā ucyante, yatas te sarvam vastu tryātmakam icchanti, tad yathā jīvo ’jīvo jīvājīvaś ca, loko*

c24.s5.7

The Ājīvikas thus seem to have accepted the basic principle of Jaina epistemology, without going to the over-refined extreme of *saptabhaṅgi*, as in the orthodox Jaina *syādvāda* and *nayavāda*. The Ājivika postulate of a third possibility, neither being nor not being, must have formed a convenient logical basis for the unusual doctrine that some souls were compelled to return even from *nirvāṇa*.¹ These would be classified in the third category, *sadasat*—emancipated from *saṃsāra* and yet not emancipated.

c24.s5.8

¹ V. supra, p. 259.

Linked texts (2)

Nandī — Devavācaka, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Samavāyaṃga — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit