Ajivika

Topic: Buddhism, Jainism and Heterodox Traditions · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Ājīvikas were a sect of renouncers (people who gave up home and family life) led by Makkhali Gosāla, a teacher of c. the 6th century BCE. Their opponents described them as fatalists: people who believe that a cosmic force called niyati (destiny) has already fixed every event, and that no human effort can change it [3].

Why it matters:

• The Ājīvikas show that Buddhism and Jainism were only two of many new movements of that age.
• Asoka had India's earliest artificial caves, at Barābar in Bihar, cut for them. This tells us that Mauryan royal support went to more than one sect.

Explanation

Background: a crowded field of teachers

• In the sixth century BCE, many teachers travelled through the Ganga valley. The Buddha and Mahāvīra were only two of them.
• All these teachers argued over the same questions:
• Is there a soul?
• Does karma work?

• What happens after death?

• The Sutta Pitaka is one of the three "baskets" of Buddhist texts. In it, king Ajātasattu of Magadha tells the Buddha what other teachers had told him. One of these teachers is Makkhali Gosāla, named there as the teacher of the Ājīvikas.

• In Sanskrit his name is Goshala Maskariputra. He is described as a friend of Mahāvīra, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism. So the Ājīvika and Jaina movements grew up side by side, and their leaders knew each other [3].

Main teachings: niyati and fixed fate

• Karma cannot be changed by effort. This is what Gosāla told Ajātasattu:
• Neither the wise person, through virtue and penance, nor the fool can change how karma works.

• "Pleasure and pain, measured out as it were, cannot be altered in the course of samsāra." Samsāra means the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Your total share of joy and sorrow is already fixed.

• The ball of string. Gosāla used this famous image:

• "Just as a ball of string will when thrown unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike will take their course and make an end of sorrow."

• In other words, everyone unrolls the same fixed length of thread. Then their suffering ends, however they behave.

• Niyati rules everything. Opponents said the Ājīvikas taught complete determinism in the transmigration of souls (the passing of a soul from one body to the next) [3].

• A cosmic force called niyati (Sanskrit for "rule" or "destiny") ordered the whole universe [3].

• It fixed every event, including each person's fate, down to the last detail [3].

• No free will and no sin. Makkhali is recorded as denying sin (adharma). He also denied that humans are free to shape their own destiny. This is why he is called a determinist [3].

How long the sect lasted

• The Ājīvikas were not a short-lived group. The sect survived in India until about the 14th century CE [3].
• No Ājīvika book has survived. Everything we know about them comes from Buddhist and Jaina texts, which were written by their rivals.

Results: royal patronage and a new kind of architecture

• In the third century BCE, Asoka ordered caves to be cut into the rock at Barābar, Bihar. He gave them to renouncers of the Ājīvika sect, not to Buddhists.
• These are the earliest artificial (man-made) caves in India.
• The Lomas Rishi cave doorway copies a wooden building in stone:
• It has an edged barrel-vault roof (a curved roof shaped like a tunnel) [2].

• This roof is carried on raked pillars (pillars that lean inward instead of standing straight) [2].

• This habit of copying timber forms in rock started the long Indian tradition of rock-cut cave architecture. Later Buddhist and Jaina cave sites followed it.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: The sect began in c. the 6th century BCE and lasted until about the 14th century CE [3].
• Region: The Ganga valley, especially Magadha.
• Key people:
• Makkhali Gosāla / Goshala Maskariputra, the founder and teacher, and a friend of Mahāvīra [3].
• Ajātasattu, king of Magadha, who reported Gosāla's views to the Buddha.

• Asoka (reigned c. 265–238 BCE), the patron of the Barābar caves [3].

• Texts:

• The Sutta Pitaka records Gosāla's teaching as Ajātasattu reported it.

• Ājīvika ideas survive only inside Buddhist and Jaina texts. No book written by the Ājīvikas themselves has survived.

• Site: The Barābar Caves lie in the hilly area near Makhdumpur, about 25 km south of Jehanabad district town in Bihar. They are described as the place of origin of the Ājīvika sect [2].

• The caves are spread across two neighbouring hills, Barābar and Nāgārjunī.

• They include the Lomas Rishi and Sudāmā caves [2][3].

• Asoka's records: Asoka had his announcements carved on cliff rock, pillars and caves across India [3].

Don't confuse with

• Lokāyata / Chārvāka (Ajita Kesakambalin): These were the materialists. They believed only matter exists, that a person is made of four elements, and that there is no life after death. The Ājīvikas were fatalists, not materialists [3]. Prelims questions often swap Gosāla and Ajita.
• Jainism (Mahāvīra): Gosāla was Mahāvīra's friend [3], but the two led separate sects. Jainism teaches that right conduct and penance can free the soul from karma. Gosāla said virtue and penance change nothing.
• Buddhist caves (for example, later rock-cut sites): The Barābar caves were cut on Asoka's orders for the Ājīvikas, not for Buddhists, even though Asoka is best known as a Buddhist patron.
• Niyati vs karma: In Ājīvika thought, niyati (destiny) is a fixed cosmic order that no action can change [3]. In Buddhism and Jainism, karma is shaped by a person's own actions.

Prelims Hooks

• Makkhali Gosāla = teacher of the Ājīvikas, who are labelled fatalists. The "ball of string" simile is his.
• The Ājīvika cosmic force of destiny is called niyati [3].
• Goshala Maskariputra, founder of the Ājīvikas, was a friend of Mahāvīra. The sect lasted until about the 14th century CE [3].
• Gosāla's views appear in the Sutta Pitaka, as reported to the Buddha by king Ajātasattu of Magadha.
• Barābar caves, Bihar, third century BCE = the earliest artificial caves in India. They were cut on Asoka's orders for the Ājīvikas. They lie near Makhdumpur, about 25 km south of Jehanabad [2].
• Lomas Rishi and Sudāmā caves are in the Barābar–Nāgārjunī hills. Lomas Rishi has a barrel-vault entrance on raked pillars [2][3].

Mains Points

• Hostile sources and source criticism. NCERT (Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings") asks whether "fatalist" is a fair label at all.
• The word comes entirely from rival Buddhist and Jaina texts. No Ājīvika book survives in which they describe themselves.
• A rival will usually summarise your views in the form that is easiest to attack. Modern scholars agree that it was the sect's opponents who described the Ājīvikas as total determinists [3].

• You can use this example in an answer about reading sources against the grain (asking who wrote a record, and why).

• Asoka supported more than one sect. In the third century BCE, Asoka had the Barābar caves cut for Ājīvika renouncers [2]. This complicates the textbook picture of Asoka as only a Buddhist king. It shows that Mauryan state support was spread across sects.

• A small sect left a big mark on Indian art. The Ājīvika grant produced India's first rock-cut caves. Their wood-copying facades, seen at Lomas Rishi, became the model for later Buddhist and Jaina cave sites [2][3]. This one site connects religion, royal funding and art history. It also shows the freedom of belief in the 6th century BCE, when the Ājīvikas, Chārvākas, Buddhists, Jainas and Vedic ritualists all competed for followers.

Related concepts

• Makkhali Gosala
• Samsara
• Charvaka
• Ajita Kesakambalin

Read more

• Ājīvikas, Lokāyata and the wider spectrum