History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c25.s4.8

c25.s4.8

Among the three new cults Ājīvikism stands out for its thoroughgoing recognition of order in the universe. The cosmos of Makkhali Gosāla is immense in space and time, and ordered in every detail. The traditional cosmology, on the other hand, is an untidy confusion, wherein, for instance, the immediate cause of the monsoon is the victory of Indra over the cloud-dragon, and its ultimate cause the satisfactory performance of the sacrifices whereby Indra and the other gods are maintained. The earlier conception is only appropriate to a half-civilized tribal society. The efforts of the poets of the philosophical hymns in the *Rg* and *Atharva Vedas*, and of the brāhmaṇic thinkers who attempted to systematize the theory of the sacrificial cult, probably took place at the same time as comparable developments in the sphere of political and economic organization. The great efflorescence of religious thought coincided with the growth of large well-organized kingdoms in Magadha, Kosala, Kosambi, and Avanti.