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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1891.
the Ajiviyas of the Jaina scriptures, with the Ajivakas of the Buddhist canon, and with the Ajivikas or Ajivins of Varahamihira's Jậtakas, and he declares them to be an ancient ascetic order, worshipping Narayana, or, in other words, a subdivision of the Vaishṇavas. As Professor Kern's work will not be accessible to the majority of Indian readers, I shall try to give a brief exposition of his arguments, regarding which he has kindly furnished me some fuller information. Assuming, as must be done, that the Ajivikas of our inscriptions are the same as those named in Ashka's seventh Pillar-edict, he translates the words: 1. 4-5: hém-éva bábhanésu Ajivilé su-pi-mê kaļé imê viyapatd hóhanhti-ti by "Likewise I have arranged it that these (Dharmamahámátras) will be occupied also with the Brahmaņical Âjivikas." With the information thus elicited from the Pillar-edict, he combines the statements of Utpala regarding the Âjivi. kas, who are mentioned in Varahamihira's Brihat-Játaka, xv. 1, together with the Vriddhaśrâvakas, the Nirgranthas or Jainas, and other ascetics. Utpala says in his commentary: djivika. gruhanain cha Náráyan-ásritánám, "and the use of the term) Âjivika refers to those who have taken refuge with Narayana," and in support of this explanation, brings forward two Praksit passages, introducing them with the words: tatha cha vam[read tathả ch=aiva]Kalakúcháryah, "and thus (says) also Kalakâchârya." In the first of these passages the term éadandia, i.e. ékadandin, 6 "(an ascetic) carrying one staff" (instead of the usual triple staff) is used for ajirika and in the secondo a longer explanation is given, which Utpala renders by Késava-márgadikshitah Kesavabhaktah Bhagavata ity=arthah. Accepting as correct this explanation of the term, which agrees remarkably well with his translation of the passage from the seventh Pillar-edict, Professor Kern further identifies Asôka's and Varâhimihira's Ajivikas, with the Ajivakas of the Buddhist canon7 and with the Ajiviyas of the Jaina Ágamas, who in the time of Sakyamuni Gautama and Vardhamâna were a numerous and influential order of naked monks, acknowledging as their teachers Nanda Vachchha (Nanda Vatsya), Kisa Samkichcha (Krisa(?) Sárksitya) and above all Makkhali Gôsålı (maskarin Gósála) or Gosala Mamkhaliputta. The accounts given by the Jainas and the Bauddhas of the transcendental doctrines of the last named show him to have been a fatalist.
Though it is of course possible to interpret the sentence from the seventh Pillar-ediet differently and to take the words h&m=éva bábhanésu as an appendix to the preceding sentence, and though no proof is furnished that the Ajivakas or Âjiviyas of the Buddhist and Jaina scriptures were worshippers of Narayaņa, it must be conceded that Professor Kern's views are greatly preferable to those of other translators of Asoka's edicts who take djivika to mean religious mendicant' in general and to refer in the cave-inscription to the Buddhists. The latter renderings and interpretations are antenable. For wherever the word Ajivika or Ajivaka occurs, it always denotes & member of a particular order of ascetics, and it is in no case applied to Buddhist monks. Irrespective of the fact that
* Se Dar Baddhisman, Vol. II. p. 55.
Seu ante, Vol. XIII p. 350 and the facsimile opposite. • See Der Buddhismus, Vol. II. p. 386.
* The same explanation is also given by Utpala on the parallel pasange, Laghu-Jitaki, IX. 12, (Soe Prof. A. Weber's Indische Studien, Vol. II. p. 287 note) in explanation of the term agivin.
& Prof. Kern reads this passage as follows: Julana-Hara-Sugaa Kinara-Sui-Bamhanaggamagg&su, dikkhanan ndavud sariig cha kavennuthagal. The passage refers, like Varahamihira's, to the influence of the planets on the production of various ascetics. Compare also Prof. Leumann's version of the same passage in the Actes du Sixième Congrès int. des Or. III. 2, p. 554, and his remarks thereon.
1 Regarding the Ajivakas of the Buddhists nee the indices, Vol. II, p. 350 and Vol. V. p. 254, in Professor Oldenberg's odition of the Vinayapitaka, Dr. Wenzel's index of names in the Journal of the PAli Text Society of 1889, p. 63 sub roce Makkhaligoslla, and Dr. Hoornle's second Appendix to his edition of the Uvdeagadasdo. Iu addition to the passages collected in the works quoted, I may point out that, according to the commentator, it curious custom of the Ajivakas is mentioned in the last line of verse 113 of the Tittira-Jitaka (Fausböll, Jatakan Vol. II, p. 541). It appears that, on entering the order, the novices were burnt in the hand with a heated ball (of inetal P). It looks as if the Ajivakas, like some modern Vaishnava secta, had used the taptamvudri.
• Regarding the Ajiviyas of the Jainas, see especially Dr. Hoernle's translation of the Uvisigadasdo, note 253.
. See o. g. M. Senart's translations of the Pillar-edicta, ante, Vol. XVIII. p. 307, and of the Cave inscriptions in his Inscriptions de Piyadasi, Vol. II. p. 210, 11. and ante, Vol xx. p. 169. M. Senart follows Burnouf and others.
