AJIVIKA
SECT - ART & CULTURE
News:
The naked philosophers:
the reason some Indian ascetics renounced their robes
What's
in the news?
●
While Ajivika believed that circumstances
cannot be changed and life has to be endured, Mahavir was clear that our
response to circumstances can be controlled.
Key
takeaways:
●
Around the 6th century BC, at the time of
the Buddha, there was an explosion all across India of different schools of
thought and philosophy.
Ajivikas
Sect:
●
Ajivika School is one of the Nastika or heterodox schools of Indian
Philosophy.
●
It was a shramana movement and a major rival of Vedic religion, early
Buddhism and Jainism.
Backdrop:
●
Ajiviks were quite influential, and had
many powerful followers. The sect reached its peak during the Mauryan Emperor
Ashoka’s father’s (Bindusara’s)
time.
Important
Leader:
●
Though it had been around for ages, its
most important leader Makkhali Goshala
was a contemporary of both the Buddha and Mahavira.
Followers:
●
There were no caste discrimination and people from all walks of life joined
them.
●
The Ājīvika philosophy, along with the
Cārvāka philosophy, appealed most to the warrior, industrial and mercantile
classes of ancient Indian society.
Belief:
●
The Ajivikas’ central belief was that
absolutely everything is predetermined by fate,
or niyati, and hence human action has no consequence one way or the other.
●
According to them, each soul’s course was
like a ball of thread unraveling.
Doctrine:
●
Ajivika school is known for its Niyati (Fate) doctrine of absolute
determinism, the premise that there is no free will, that everything that
has happened, is happening and will happen is entirely preordained and a
function of cosmic principles.
Principles
Followed:
●
Ajiviks wore no clothes and lived as ascetic monks in organised groups.
●
They were known to practice extremely severe austerities, such as lying on nails,
going through fire, exposing themselves to extreme weather and even spending
time in large earthen pots for penance.
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Ājīvikas considered the karma doctrine as a fallacy.
●
Ajivika metaphysics included a theory of atoms which was later
adapted in Vaisheshika school, where everything was composed of atoms,
qualities emerged from aggregates of atoms, but the aggregation and nature of
these atoms was predetermined by cosmic forces.
Go
back to basics:
●
The oldest
rock-cut caves in India, the Barabar Caves in Bihar dating from the Mauryan
Empire, were made for Ajiviks and Jains to retreat and meditate.