Ajivika

Author(s): Jarl Charpentier

Source: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, urnal of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Jul., 1913), pp. 669-674
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25189032
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AJIVIKA

669

on the corresponding
Kushan
the
substitute
coins, which
or
The Kushan
title f>AO
JM0.1
f>AONANO
lettering
me
to
cut
less
and
barbaric
than
better
the
appears
in Elam

population
But the close
with

that

vertible.
Elamites
Aramaic

is not

fact which

Elamite?a

of the Kanishka

connexion

in use

since
strange,
was at all times

and Persis
in Ely mais

the Greek
very small.

Greek

alphabet
is incontro

and Characene

is the preference
of these
noteworthy
Equally
for
Greek
instead of the popular
and Kushans
I have been asked why Kanishka
and Prakrit.

put Greek
legends, and Greek
legends only, on his copper
on
as
as
his
I can only answer that his
well
coins,
gold.
did the same.
Elamite
contemporaries
J.

Kennedy.

Ajivika
In his admirable

treatise

in Hastings'
upon the Ajivikas
and Ethics,
i, p. 259 seq.,
Encyclopaedia
of Religion
"
: On the exact
Dr. Hoernle
writes as follows
signification
'
we have no information."
of the name Ajivika'
However,
it probable
that the name was not originally
the
followers of the heresiarch
Gosala
them
up by
a nickname
to
selves, but was from the beginning
given
and meant
them by their opponents
to denote
them as

he

thinks

taken

only

as a means

So ajivika
(djiva).
or something
like that.
be denied
that
It cannot

mean

practising
livelihood

ascetic

rules

of

this

probable
explanation
do I pretend
to be in a position

would
this

seems

rather

a
"

of gaining
"
professional
to be

obscure

the most

word.

to offer a better

one.

Nor
But

1 I
have

some of the coins

with Mr. Allan's
of
assistance,
compared,
in the British
Museum
the Kushan.
with
The only distinctive
to both were
I could find common
letters
the alpha
and epsilon.
The
Kushan
letters
to me
more
and
; more
appeared
sharper
angular
as our writing
masters
would
said.
have
in
The
italianated,
epsilon
a cuneiform
sometimes
a form which
resembled
is
particular
wedge,
in Egyptian
found
graffiti.
occasionally
Phraates

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670

AJIVIKA

I think it is at least highty probable that the term in

a more remote
than that
antiquity
question goes back to
as
is well known,
the contemporary
of Gosala, who was,
the Jina and Gotama
the Buddha.
of Mahavira
verb d-jiv- we meet with at first in the Mahabharata,
"
"
mode of life," occurs
the noun djiva-,
livelihood,"
older than the great epic poem.1
much
in texts certainly
The

but

So we

find

in the Sveta^vatara

i, 6, and
Up.,
is well
to
known
"
noble
the
eightfold

sarvdjiva-

(cf. sammd-djlva-)
saonyag-djivaone of the stations
of
designate
"
in
lore
of
the
In Buddhist
the
sacred
Buddhists.
path
as
name
of
ascetics
heterodox
the
too, djlvika
scriptures,
=
8
met with, e.g. Vinaya
is frequently
Pitaka,
i,
Majjh.
Nik.
i, 170; Vin. Pit. ii, 130, 284, etc.; but the name of
is not mentioned

Gosala
from
the

Jain
head

canonical
of

epigraphical
date
which

in connexion
that we

books

mentioned
the djlviyas
mentions
of the word
from

the

time

with
it. It is only
learn that Gosala was
As for the
there.

djlvika,
of Asoka
and

the
his

first

of

successor

at
been dealt with
have
by
they
length
266
in his treatise,
seq.
p.
Now
the founder of the sect of the Ajivikas
is, as is
Jains
Gosala Maooikhafyiutta,
well known,
called by the

Dasaratha,
Dr. Hoernle

Gosala
Makkhali
and by the Buddhists
(Skt. Maskarioi
was
or Gosdlikdputra).
his real
That
Gosala
GoSdla
= onaskaonoi denotes
aud
makkhali
name,
(:manikhali)2
a certain
sect of mendicant
him as belonging
by birth to
friars, has been shown at length by Dr. Hoernle.
means
an ascetic
on to state
onaskarin
that
a

and
(inaskara),
single bamboo-staff
to the sect of mendicants
fore belonged

eka-dandins,

who

were,

as

we

know,

He

goes

carrying
there
that Gosala
usually
orthodox

called
Saivas.

1 Of
to the St. Petersburg
indications
I owe
tho following
course,
mentioned.
and to the article
already
by Dr. Hoernlo
Dictionary
*
of course,
of r into I, must,
of the change
because
belong
Makkhali,
the Magadhi.
to an Eastern
dialect,
probably

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AJIVIKA 671
monks
of such mascara-carrying
is,
early existence
as Dr. Hoernle
not
the
ascertained
out,
only by
points
name
Panini
but
also
vi, 1, 154
by
Mamkhalipntta,
where
he
(maskaramaskarindu
vennparivrdjakayoh),
of
word
maskarin.1
And
the
formation
the
explains

The

of course, be
may,
as
kind
Nigganthaputta
of Mahavira,
followers

Mamkhalipntta
of the same

as a noun

regarded
or

Sdkiyaputta,
the Niggantha,
and
house
the
ascetic
of
the
of
Gotama,
royal
great
Sakyas.
But this statement,
being quite clear to us, seems not to
have been so to the author of the Bhagavatisutra
(p. 1204 ;
names

of the

v. Dr. Hoernle's
was

for he states

i, p. 1);
as

Uvasagadasao,
App.
called Mamkhalipntta,

being the son

a mamkha
or wandering
of Mamkhali,
mendicant.
"a
as
mendicant
mariikha
being
Abhayadeva
explains
who tries to get alms from the people by showing
them
that Gosala

of (malignant)
pictures
him ".2 Now?to
with
there

deities

he

which

go further
is no real word mamkha
that

carried
Dr.

with

about

Hoernle?

could make

good this
real
the
of
that
moreover,
explanation;
meaning
presumably
invented
word was not very clear to Abhayadeva
and
we
must
Hemacandra.
So
put this explanation
surely
aside

and hold

a maskarin,

eka-dandin.

to the view

a mendicant

But

only a blunder
the carrying
cerning
really

carrying

I think

father was

that Gosala's
that

one

staff

if the word

of Abhayadeva,
of a picture
be quite right,

his
of

of

rather
an

bamboo,

mamkha

was

statement

con

certain

ugly
as I hope to show
looking deity might
in the following.
From
and the
v, 3, 99 (jivikdrthc
Panini,
cdpamje),
of Patanjali and others, we learn thata
explanations
picture
of Siva or some other deity3
that wras fabricated
for sale
1 As

for Patanjali's
of this sQtra
(M.Bh.
iii, p.
explanation
Ind. Stud,
Weber,
ii, 174 f., quoted
by Dr. Hoernle.
2
in the commentary
Hemacandra
upon Abhidhanaciutamani,
was = magadha,
"a bard."
says that mamkha
3
mentions
Skanda
and Visakha
too.
Pataiijali

90)

see

v, 795,

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AJIVIKA

672

be called Sivaka, while another picture of the same

carried about by a devalakal
and shown to the people

should

god
was called
for earning money
I do not
&iva.
simply
to enter into an investigation
wish
of these grammatical
and their various explanations,
subtleties
which
have been
discussed
the
in a paper
late Professor
fully
by
Ludwig
an R. von Roth, p. 57 seq.
inserted in the Festgruss
But
I wish

to lay stress
Panini
must

sutra

profession
earning
rather

upon
have

of carrying
And
money.
traditional
at
been able

the

fact

about
his

for

that

to

the

of
purpose
have been

as the grammarians
had
as to the
nice distinctions

time,
such

when
I

the

think

words

it rather

the

to the

points
seems

the

of life must

already
uses of e.g. Siva
various
and Sivaka,
were
used to denote
these pictures.
clear

to this

according
accustomed

idols

such a mode

to make

that

well

been

highly

grammarian
we
hitherto

of Abhayadeva
explanation
quoted above
same fact as is told by Panini.
And if, as
we
must fix the date of the famous
probable,
at an earlier
than has been done
period
that
statement
be
his
may
suppose
might

with
the life of Gosala.
nearly contemporary
of
it
is
Now,
interest, too, that just Siva should be used
here for exemplifying
and that the
the rule of Panini,
are Skanda
other examples
who are both
and ViSdkha,
connected
very
closely
we
indications
might
"
deity which
malignant"
was carrying about, must
whom
and
ugly-looking
been known

have

relation

to this

on

fact

the
1Deralaka

about
M.Bh.).
called

idols

since

djlvika

or demla

showing
Cf. Amarakoua,
a ddivalaka
(Har.

was

a man
them

seems

father*

been just

terrible

from

conclude

perhaps
Gosala's
have

For

Siva.

very old
I might
conjecture

that

and

with

that

these
the

the Mauikhali,
the same Siva of

after all,
pictures may,
in India.
And in
times
also
perhaps
to be sometimes

who

gained

to the

people

ii, 10, 11, devdjlvl

150) or bhdula
(SKDr.).

lay stress
used as

his

livelihood
by carrying
v, 3, 99 ;
(schol. ad Pan.
tu devalah.
He was also

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AJIVIKA 673
a Saiva ascetic,
and that the
154
of Panini, vi, 1,
(and Patafijali
upon that
can
a Saiva
have
been
but
such
sutra)
scarcely
anything
one staff.
ascetic carrying

a synonym
maskarin

of

elca-dandin,

in the Vienna

vol. xxiii, p. 151 seq.,

Journal,
and vol. xxv, p. 355 seq., several facts, that seemed to me
to prove
Siva -worship
to have
been
of considerable
in
in
Eastern
India
already
pre-Buddhistic
importance
I adduced

And

times.

perhaps
to the same

another

instance

venture
I may
to think, perhaps,
that
it
time
before
and
Buddha,
designated
an ascetic
of the same kind as Gosala's
father,

but
ajivika,
dates
from

There

see here

that I made there.

Of
suggestions
certain can be ascertained
from these few.
the original meaning
and use of the word

pointing
course, nothing
lines concerning

originally
a mendicant

we might

the

friar belonging
is another
small

to some Saiva
observation

sect.
too

that might
to
my hypothesis,
perhaps
weight
though
I confess most willingly
one.
it is a rather uncertain
The
on his way from
Vin. Pit. i, 8 tells us that Gotama,
Gaya
a certain
after his enlightenment,
met with
immediately
a mendicant
friar, whom the text calls an ajivika.
Upaka,
If now it is almost
certain
that Buddha
died at the age
lend some more

480 B.C., and was

born about
accordingly
must
have
this
525
about
B.C.,
B.C., for we
passed
know
in
from the canonical
that
texts
his 36th year
he became a Buddha.
Now Dr. Hoernle
has with much
of 80

about

560

calculated
probability
I should
rather think
states

that he founded

sixteen

before

years

could

be proved,
an djivalca,

that Gosala
a

little

his order
his

death.

died

about

B.C. 500?

later?aud

the Bhagavati
of mendicants
at Savatthi
If

these

calculations

whom
this Upaka,
the Vinaya
Pitaka
was
a
calls
not
of
Gosala,
certainly
disciple
to a sect previous
but belonged
I readily confess
to his.
can
that not much
be ascribed
to these
importance
uncertain
I
but
think
the
calculations;
chronological

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IMPRECATIONS IN INDIAN LAND GRANTS

674
statement
nexion

in con
Pitaka
the Vinaya
may be viewed
never denote the
fact that the Buddhists

of

with
as

djlvikas

the

real

obtain

followers

some

of

Gosala.

Thus

it might

little more

probability.
few remarks
with
these
all, I have only wished
to
had
to try to prove that djlvaka
originally
nothing
name
a much
was
but
older
do with Gosala
especially,
a sect to which
and
he originally
belonged
designating
to his disciples.
transferred
afterwards

perhaps
After

Jarl

Imprecations

in Indian

Land

Charpentier.

Grants

has
for 1912 Mr. Pargiter
On pp. 248 ff. of this Journal
a useful
collection
afterwards
(increased
by
published
from the
Professor Hultzsch,
p. 476) of those passages
some of the
to which
Malulbhdoxita
and from the Puranas
verses
and benedictory
imprecatory
of
land
Sanskrit
may ultimately
grants
either
themselves
of the earliest
grants

well-known
ancient
Most

a general

that

these

verses

were

quoted in
be traced.
in
state,
or sung

way,
composed
or
the
Veda-Vyasa,
reputed compiler of both the
by Vyasa
or declare more distinctly
Malulbhdo'ata
and the Puranas,
in the Mahdbhdrata.
that they wTcre proclaimed
by Vyasa
be
it may
this
with
In connexion
subject,
perhaps
is regarded as the author
mentioned
that the fabulous Vyasa
as well, and that it
or
law-book
Smrti
of a much
quoted
of
that the authorship
legal writer named Vyasa
in
attributed
been
has
in
the
grants
imprecations
Ioidiaoi
Elements
Burnell's
Palaeography,
of South

is to this
the
Dr.

"The last clause in most

he says:
grants
p. 114, where
resume or violate
on those who
consists of imprecations
the
consist of the words froon
them; and these generally
considerable
often with
above, though
given
Vydsasonrti
variations."
Dr. Burnell's

The

reference

Palaeography,

in
is to a previous
passage
whole
the
chapter
containing

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