History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c25.s4.9

c25.s4.9

Of the various new doctrines propounded in the sixth century B.C., that of Ājīvikism, with its rigidly controlled cosmos, seems the most appropriate to a closely knit autocracy, and it is significant that it appears to have reached its period of greatest influence in the time of the Mauryas, when Indian government attained a higher degree of centralization over a larger area than at any other period before the nineteenth century. With the decline of centralized control, and the growth of smaller loosely knit kingdoms, to which lesser states were linked in quasi-feudal relationship, the sect waned in power, and ultimately vanished. The more orthodox concept of *karma*, which allows some scope for human initiative, seems more appropriate to such conditions than does the rigid determinism of *Niyati*. After the Maurya period central governments were by no means all-powerful; often indeed they were unable to maintain control in their outlying provinces; and the political unity of Bhāratavarṣa had vanished. The rapid decline of popular support for Ājīvikism, which seems to have taken place after the Maurya period, may perhaps be attributed to the unconscious conviction that Ājīvika cosmology did not fit the facts as they appeared on earth. It will be remembered that the sect survived longest in districts ruled by the Cola kingdom, where the political machine seems to have functioned more smoothly and efficiently than in most other parts of India.