Ajivika- The life of the Lifeless: Introduction

 



Ajivika is one of the nāstika or "heterodox" schools of Indian philosophy. Purportedly founded in the 5th century BCE by Makkhali Gosala, it was a Sramana movement and a major rival of the Vedic religion, early Buddhism, and Jainism.

Ajivikas were organized renunciates who formed discrete communities. The precise identity of the Ajivikas is not well known, and it is even unclear if they were a divergent sect of the Buddhists or the Jains. Ajivika is derived from Ajiva which literally means "livelihood, lifelong, mode of life”.

The term Ajivika means "those following special rules about Livelihood", sometimes connoting "religious mendicants" in ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts. The Ajivikas, 'Followers of the way of Life,' are an ascetic order that started at the time of Buddha and Mahavira and lasted until the fourteenth century. The exact nature of the Ajivika doctrine is unclear because the sect's texts have not survived.

 It is believed the original Ajivika texts were written in an eastern Prakrit, perhaps similar to the Jain Prakrit Ardhamagadhi. Quotations and adaptations from these texts appear to have been inserted into Jain and Buddhist accounts of the Ajivikas. Makkhali Gosala is regarded as the founder leader of the Ajivikas and one source of his teachings is the Buddhist Digha Nikaya.

The modern study of Ājīvikism began in the 19th century and continued into the 20th century. The most important studies were published by A.F.R. Hoernle (1908), B.M. Barua (1920), and A.L. Basham (1951). The most detailed knowledge of the beliefs and practices of the early Ajivikas has to be derived from the Buddhist and Jaina (i.e. Svetambara) canons. Both of these criticize the Ajivikas, and, for this reason, neither of these is a priori particularly reliable.



Location: Jalandhar, Punjab, India

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