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ascetic named Kandara-Masuka, who maintained seven life-long vows in order to gain fame and honour. The seven vows are: As long as I live I will be naked, and will not put on a garment (vejjivaṁ acelako asssṁ na vatthaṁ parideheyyam), as long as I live, I will observe the vow of chastity (yavajjivam brahmacari assam na methunam dhammam patiseveyyam ), so long as I live, I will maintain myself by spirituous drink and flesh, eating no rice-broth or gruel ( yāvajjīvaṁ surämäṁseneva yapeyyan na odana-kummāsaṁ bhuñjeyyem), I will never go beyond the Udena shrine in Vesali in the East (puratthimena Vesalin Udenam nāma cetiyaṁ taṁ nätikkameyyaṁ ); I will never go beyond the Gotamaka shrine in Vesali in the South (dakkhinena Vesalim Gotamakan nama cetiya tam nätikkameyyarh); I will never go beyond the Sattamba shrine in Vesali in the West (Pacchimena ); and I will never go beyond the Bahuputta shrine in Vesali in the North ( Uttarena... 25
Here all the vows, except the third (i.e. the one referring to spirits and meat), represent the Jaina vows. It is quite possible that this vow which is inconsistent with the spirit of the other six vows, is either a mistake or an interpolation. The first two are common vows of most ascetics of that time, while the last four are vows of a Jainistic type, and they represent the Digurata. No other sect adhered to these last four vows. As regards the Ajivikas, I would prefer to quote the words of Basham, an accepted authority on Ajivikism. He says: "The ascetic Kandara-masuka is regularly referred to as acela, but nowhere as Ajivika, and we have no evidence that any of his vows, with the exception of the first, were taken by the organized Ajivika community.26" Now, we can say that kandaramasuka must be either an ascetic fallen from the Jaina asceticism, or his vows have been mixed up. For they cannot be accepted campletely, neither by Jainas, nor by Ajivikas, since both religions prohibited meat-eating completely.
(ii-iii) Desavrata and Anarthadaṇḍavrata
Delavrata means one should take a vow for a certain time not to proceed beyond a certain village, market place etc. No
