Ajivika
Ājīvika was an ancient nāstika (heterodox) school of Indian philosophy that flourished in India from about the 5th century BCE. The Ājīvikas are best known for their doctrine of absolute determinism (Niyati), which held that all events past, present, and future are entirely predetermined and not influenced by human effort or karma.[1][2]
The school is traditionally associated with Makkhali Gosala, a contemporary of Gautama Buddha and Mahavira. Ājīvika monks lived as wandering ascetics and formed organized communities, competing with Buddhist and Jain orders in early historic India.[3]
Beliefs
[edit | edit source]The central doctrine of the Ājīvikas was niyati (fate), according to which the course of life, rebirth, suffering, and liberation is fixed by cosmic law. The Ājīvikas rejected the karma theory and denied the existence of free will. Moral action and ascetic practice were believed to have no influence on one's destiny, though asceticism itself was considered part of the predetermined order of existence.[2][4]
Ājīvikas were generally described as atheistic but believed in the existence of an ātman (soul) that passes through a fixed cycle of rebirths until final liberation occurs naturally.[1]
History
[edit | edit source]Ājīvikism reached the height of its influence during the Maurya Empire, particularly under Emperor Bindusara. Several rock-cut caves at Barabar in Bihar were donated to the Ājīvikas by Ashoka, as recorded in inscriptions.[5]
After the decline of Mauryan power, the school gradually lost prominence but survived in parts of southern India, especially in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, until at least the 13th–14th centuries CE, as indicated by inscriptions.[1][6]
Sources
[edit | edit source]No original Ājīvika scriptures survive. Knowledge of the school comes mainly from Buddhist and Jain texts, which were written by rival traditions. Modern scholars therefore caution that these accounts may contain bias or polemical distortion.[7]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Basham, A. L. (1951). History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas. Luzac & Company. pp. 1–10.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Balcerowicz, Piotr (2016). "Determinism, Ājīvikas, and Jainism". Early Asceticism in India: Ājīvikism and Jainism. Routledge. pp. 136–174.
- ↑ Johnson, W. J. (2009). "Ājīvika". A Dictionary of Hinduism. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Leaman, Oliver, ed. (1999). Key Concepts in Eastern Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 80–81.
- ↑ Thapar, Romila (2012). Aśoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Oxford University Press. pp. 25–27.
- ↑ Zysk, Kenneth (1991). "4". The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Dundas, Paul (2002). The Jains. Routledge. pp. 28–30.