Ajivika

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | 700+ words | Copyright

Ajivika , religious sect of medieval India, once of major importance. The Ajivikas were an ascetic, atheistic, anti-Brahmanical community whose pessimistic doctrines are related to those of Jainism . Its founder, Gosala (d. c.484 BC), was, it is said, a friend of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism. Gosala denied that a man's actions could influence the process of transmigration, which proceeded according to a rigid pattern, controlled in the smallest detail by an impersonal cosmic principle, Niyati, or destiny. After a period of prosperity under Asoka, the sect rapidly declined and only retained local importance in SE India, where it survived until the 14th cent.

Bibliography: See A. L. Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas (1951).

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