Fragments from the Ājīvikas* Piotr Balcerowicz
DRAFT, to be published in: Hiroshi Marui; Ernst Prets (eds.): Transmission and Tradition. Proceedings of the Matsumoto Conference on the Meaning and the Role of ‘Fragments’ in Indian Philosophy. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 201? (forthcoming) Fragments from the Âjîvikas* Piotr Balcerowicz 1. The doctrine of Âjîvikas, an ancient Indian religion and philosophical system which predates—albeit by perhaps a slight margin—the emergence of Jainism and Buddhism, is hardly known. In the period between the fourth and second centuries BCE, it was perhaps one of the most influential non-Brahmanical religions in India, second to Buddhism,1 and despite some attempts taken by a number of scholars— such as Hermann JACOBI (1880), Bunyiu NANJIO (1884), Ernst LEUMANN (1884), D.R. BHANDARKAR (1912), K.B. PATHAK (1912), Jarl CHARPENTIER (1913), B.M. BARUA (1920), A.F. Rudolf HOERNLE (1926), A. BANERJI SASTRI (1926), B.M. BARUA (1926–1927), N. AIYASVAMI SASTRI (1941), Arthur Llewellyn BASHAM (1951), Arthur Llewellyn BASHAM (1971), Haripada CHAKRABORTI (1973), S.N. GHOSAL (1979) and (1980), Pranabananda JASH (1982a) and (1982b), Gustav ROTH (1993), Johannes BRONKHORST (2000), (2003) and (2007)—we still have an * Work on this paper has been generously supported by the National Science Centre of Poland (Research Project: History of Classical Indian Philosophy: non-Brahmanic Schools, National Science Centre, 2011/01/B/HS1/04014). 1 Its followers are mentioned three times in two Aœokan edicts, i.e. in two inscriptions from Barâbâr Hill in Bihar (BLOCH (1950: 159): 1. lâjinâ piyadassinâ duvâ-ðasa-vassâbhisittenâ iyaô niggoha- kubhâ dinnâ âjîvikehi.—‘This Banyan Cave was donated to the Âjîvikas by [the king Aœoka] Favourably Disposed, who was consecrated twelve years [ago].’; 2.
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