Which one of the following statements about the Ajivikas is not correct?

Correct — D, They formed an alliance with Jainas against Buddhists. This is the statement that fails. The Ajivikas were rivals of the Jainas, not their allies. Makkhali Gosala, the sect's best-known teacher, is remembered in the Jain tradition as a former companion of Mahavira who broke with him and became his bitter opponent; the Bhagavati Sutra gives a hostile account of the quarrel and of Gosala's death. Buddhist texts are no kinder — the Ajivikas appear in the Pali canon among the rival teachers whose views the Buddha rejects, Gosala's fatalism being singled out as the most dangerous doctrine of all. So the picture is of three heterodox movements competing for the same patrons and the same recruits, not of two combining against the third. The other three statements hold. The Ajivikas took followers without regard to caste or class, they were organised as a body with their own canonical literature, and their asceticism was severe to the point of extreme fasting — Gosala's own death is described as the end of a fast.

• (a)They did not practise discrimination on the basis of caste or class. — True, and typical of the heterodox sects of the period, which drew followers across social ranks and were open to those the Vedic order placed low.
• (b)They had a corporate organisation and canonical texts. — True. The Ajivikas were an organised order with their own canon. Very little of that literature survives, which is why they are known largely through what their opponents wrote.
• (c)They practised severe asceticism, often eating very little food. — True, and it is one of the few things Buddhist and Jain sources agree on about them. Their austerities, including extreme fasting, were as harsh as any of the period.

The Ajivikas were one of the heterodox sects that appeared in the Gangetic plain in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, alongside Buddhism and Jainism. Their defining doctrine was niyati — destiny. Everything that happens is fixed, and no effort, no action, no austerity can alter the course a soul must run before release. This is a strict determinism, and it is what both Buddhists and Jains attacked hardest, since it makes moral striving pointless. Their most famous teacher was Makkhali Gosala. Despite the doctrine, the Ajivikas practised extreme asceticism.

The item is a 'not correct' question, so three statements must be true and one false, and the reliable method is to look for the one that asserts a relationship rather than a property. Statements (a), (b) and (c) describe what the Ajivikas were like; (d) describes what they did with somebody else, and that is where the error is planted. The historical point is worth holding: the three heterodox movements were competitors. Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha dedicated the Barabar and Nagarjuni caves to the Ajivikas — the earliest surviving rock-cut caves in India — which shows the sect had real standing under the Mauryas. It survived in the south, in the Tamil country and Karnataka, into the medieval period, but its literature was lost, and almost everything we know comes filtered through Buddhist and Jain writers who were arguing against it.

• The Ajivikas' central doctrine was niyati — that everything is predetermined and no effort can change a soul's course.
• Makkhali Gosala, their best-known teacher, was for a time associated with Mahavira and later became his opponent; the Jain Bhagavati Sutra records the break.
• The Buddha rejected Gosala's fatalism in the Pali canon as the most harmful of the rival doctrines.
• Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha dedicated the Barabar and Nagarjuni hill caves in Bihar to the Ajivikas — the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India.
• The sect was open across caste and class, was organised as an order with its own canon, and practised extreme asceticism including severe fasting.
• Almost no Ajivika literature survives; the sect is known chiefly through hostile Buddhist and Jain sources.

• Assuming the heterodox sects made common cause against Vedic orthodoxy — they competed with each other at least as fiercely.
• Expecting fatalists to be lax about practice; Ajivika asceticism was severe precisely because austerity was destiny, not a means to it.
• Attributing the Barabar caves to Chandragupta Maurya rather than to Ashoka and Dasharatha.

As a 'not correct' statements item like this one, or as a doctrine-to-sect match where niyati has to be attached to the Ajivikas. The Barabar caves connection is asked in its own right.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The doctrine of niyati, that all events are predetermined, is associated with which one of the following sects?

  • (a)Ajivika
  • (b)Charvaka
  • (c)Sthanakvasi Jain
  • (d)Theravada Buddhist

  Answer(a) Ajivika — niyati, or destiny, is the sect's defining doctrine, taught by Makkhali Gosala and rejected by both the Buddha and Mahavira.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Barabar hill caves in Bihar were dedicated to the Ajivikas by

  • (a)Chandragupta Maurya
  • (b)Bindusara
  • (c)Ashoka and Dasharatha
  • (d)Pushyamitra Shunga

  Answer(c) Ashoka and Dasharatha — Ashoka dedicated caves in the Barabar hills and his grandson Dasharatha those in the neighbouring Nagarjuni hills.