History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c25.s1: Summary
History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c25.s1
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Summary
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In the preceding pages we have traced as far as we can the history and doctrines of the Ājīvikas. Great lacunae and serious uncertainties remain, but the main outlines of the story are clear.
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Out of the philosophical ferment of the sixth century B.C. at least three unorthodox sects developed in the same region, all seeking more satisfying explanations of the cosmic mystery than those of sacrificial brāhmaṇism and the Upaniṣadic gnosis. These sects were built around the doctrines of Buddha, Mahāvīra, and Gosāla, about each of whom a great body of legend accumulated. From this unreliable material, it would seem that Gosāla was at one time closely associated with Mahāvīra, the Jaina tīrthaṅkara, but that later their partnership was broken. Closely allied to Gosāla were Pūraṇa Kassapa the antinomian, and probably Pakudha Kaccāyana the atomist, whose doctrines were adopted by the later Ājīvikas. Gosāla’s fatalism inspired the new sect, which developed around groups of naked wanderers, devoted to asceticism, but accused by their opponents of secret licentiousness. A vigorous lay community supported the Ājīvika sect, which held its own until the Mauryan period, when it appears to have reached its zenith and to have received the patronage of Aśoka and of his successor Daśaratha. After this, however, the Ājīvika community in Northern India dwindled rapidly, and soon became insignificant.
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In South India it survived longer. Ājīvika ascetics reached the Tamil country probably in the Mauryan period, and the communities which they founded survived at least until the fourteenth century, though often heavily taxed by orthodox kings and village communities. The one fifteenth century reference of Vaidyanātha Dīkṣita is the last we hear of them.¹ We may infer that by this time or soon after they had ceased to exist.
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¹ V. supra, p. 184. ² *JDL.* ii, pp. 79-80. ³ V. supra, pp. 262 ff.