History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c9.s1.33

c9.s1.33

Here then we have two possible sources of the Ājīvika creed, which must have provided gloomy and despairing comfort both to the warrior fighting a losing battle and to the peasant impoverished by the failure of his crops or herds. Probably both elements, as well as the personal genius of Makkhali Gosāla and of others, contributed to the finished Ājīvika doctrine, which for two millennia filled a small place in the religious life of India, and attempted to provide, however inadequately, for the spiritual needs of a small fraction of her people.