Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 139

On the Ajīvikas
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various sources and who were possibly the followers of the Ajīvika sect. Mahāpadma Nanda was a patron of Ajīvikism and "the Ājivika community certainly existed in some strength in Magadha at the time, and received some patronage from the Mauryas, who were the successors of the Nandas .... The reference in the Bhagavati-sūtra suggests that he may have given his special support to the Ajivika Samglia.”73
The continuity of its spread outside the regions of its origin in the subsequent period is known from different sources. 74 The Divyāyadāna75 and the Mahāvarsa commentaryo speak to an Ajivika mendicant (a Parivrājaka) attached to the Maurya king Bindusara. His learning towards the religious system is strikingly attested by a classical reference too.77 It is thus a fact to note that the Ajivikas were patronized by the court of Magadha even before the introduction of Asoka's policy of toleratjon.
The influence of the Ajivikas on the contemporary religious history is also recorded in the inscriptions of the great Maurya king, Aśoka. The Seventh Pillar Edict78 which was issued in the twenty-seventh year of Asoka's consecration, i.e. 237 BC describes the duties of the Dharma-mahimālru. These officers of public morals “were ordered ... to busy themselves with the affairs of the Samgha; likewise others were ordered ... to busy themselves also with the Brāhmanas (and) Ajivikas; others were ordered ... to busy themselves also with the Nigranthas; others were ordered ... to busy themselves also with various (other) sects; (thus) different Mahāmātras (are busying themselves) specially with different (congregations).”70 Various scholars like Bühler, 80 Hoernle 81 D.R. Bhandarkar82 have interpreted 'bāblianosu ā{ i)ivikesu' diffe
might have been the interpretations of the term, one thing is very clear from the above mentioned Pillar Edict as pointed out by A.L. Basham-“The Seventh Pillar Edict also gives some indication of the influence of the Ajivikas at the time. The Ajivika Samgha appears as a fully developed religious community, on an equal footing with the two other non-Brāhmanic systems, and is not relegated to the last category of the various heretics'. It may be suggested that, since Aśoka mentions the Ajivikas before the Nirgranthas, or Jainas, the former sect seemed to the king to be either more influential or more worthy of support than the latter."83
In fact, the heyday of the Ajivikas during the time of preMaurya and the Maurya periods in Magadha and its neighbouring