Ajivika

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ajivikas (German: Adschivika; Sanskrit : Ājīvika; Pali : Ājīvaka) were followers of an Indian philosophical direction that represented radical determinism . This direction is first attested at the time of Buddha Gautama Siddharta and continued at least until the 14th century. The etymology and meaning of the word Ajivika is unclear and controversial; one possible interpretation is that the term referred to a lifelong (Sanskrit: ā-jīva ) practice (as opposed to temporary vows).

swell

Nothing has survived from the Ajivikas' writings. Therefore, their teachings and way of life can only be partially reconstructed from some statements by their philosophical and religious opponents. However, the opposing sources from which this information comes are only credible to a limited extent.

Makkhali Gosala

Makkhali Gosala ( Prakrit : Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta; Tamil : Maṟkali) is considered the founder of the Ajivika movement . He was a contemporary of the Buddha and the Jain leader ( Tirthankara ) Mahavira and is said to have died first of the three. According to traditional chronology, it would have been in the 6th century BC. Lived; According to the dating approaches predominant in research today, which postpone the death of the Buddha in the late 5th or early 4th century, Gosala's lifetime also shifted to the 5th century.

Apparently Gosala was not the first Ajivika, but only the most prominent representative of this direction at the time. Because of its outstanding importance, it is regarded as the originator, although there were apparently earlier philosophers who were called Ajivikas.

Nothing reliable is known about the origin of Gosala. According to Buddhist and Jain sources, he came from a very poor background; he is said to have been born in a cowshed (an allusion to his name; gosala [Sanskrit: goshala ] means "cowshed"). Perhaps it was a legend intended to make him contemptible; in any case, this created a contrast to the leaders of the opposing movements, for both the Buddha and Mahavira were of noble descent.

According to the traditions of the Jains, Gosala joined the Tirthankara Mahavira and remained his companion for six years, but was in a latent rivalry with Mahavira, which ultimately led to the separation. Like Mahavira, Gosala was a very strict ascetic and mendicant monk and lived in complete nakedness, in accordance with the Jain ideal. He spent his life in the same region in eastern India where the Buddha and Mahavira roamed. The center of his influence is said to have been in the city of Sāvatthi (Sanskrit: Shrāvasti) in what is now the state of Uttar Pradesh . He was an energetic organizer who started a school. Apparently, the admission to the school was connected with an initiation which put the ascetic steadfastness of the candidate to the test.

Teaching and way of life

Like the Buddhists and the Jains , the Ajivikas stood outside the Vedic religion from which Hinduism developed. Their teaching also differs fundamentally from Jainism, despite some similarities in practice. Their contrast to Buddhism is even greater. The Ajivikas, like the Hindus and the Jains, assumed that the soul ( Jiva ) is in a painful cycle of rebirths ( samsara ); however, they rejected the common moral doctrine of karma , which says that the fate of man in this cycle depends on the ethical and wise or unethical and foolish quality of his actions. According to the Ajivikas, fate is strictly determined. There is no free will , everything follows a natural law necessity ( niyati ), like the growth of a plant. Gosala compared human life to a ball of string that, when rolled away on the ground, unwinds in the predetermined path until this movement reaches its end according to the length of the string. Man cannot influence his fate, but is helplessly at the mercy of necessity. A moral world order or divine world control does not exist. Since necessity neither rewards good deeds nor punishes badly, the merits of an individual are as irrelevant to his future as his misdeeds. The gods are also subject to necessity.

According to the Ajivika doctrine, the soul is material; it consists of atoms that differ from those of the elements. Necessity leads the soul out of the cycle of rebirths at the end of a predetermined, unchangeable period of time (8,400,000 "Great Ages"). At least some of the Ajivikas, however, assumed that the redeemed would later return to the cycle and that this would continue indefinitely, since the world is eternal; there is therefore no prospect of permanent redemption.

The Buddha, who rejected extreme asceticism and made karma the basis of his ethics, stood in sharp contrast to the Ajivika philosophy. He described Gosala's teaching as the worst of all teachings, "just as a hairy garment is the worst of all garments, because it is cold in the cold, hot in the heat, and ugly, foul-smelling and unpleasant to the touch," and remarked: "Me I don't know anyone who works so many people to disaster, harm and misfortune as Makkhali, the madman. " In Buddhist literature, Gosala is listed as one of six representatives of false teachings.

The pessimistic character of the Ajivika philosophy can explain the fact that it was less popular than the Buddhist, Jainist and Hindu teachings of salvation and that it eventually perished. Although in deterministic fatalism the human will is insignificant and fate cannot be willingly influenced, Gosala practiced and taught asceticism. From a non-deterministic point of view, the contrast between Gosala's ascetic willpower and his denial of free will and responsibility seems puzzling; therefore his teaching was subject to various misinterpretations.

Apparently most of the Ajivikas lived together, but some also lived as forest hermits. Their customs included ritual singing and dancing. At the time of the ruler Ashoka (3rd century BC) they belonged to the important, state-sponsored religious-philosophical communities. They also spread in southern India and as far as Sri Lanka ; they were able to last longer in the south than in the north. According to a South Indian tradition, there was a Tamil script called Oṉpatu-katir or Navakadir ("The Nine Rays"), which explained the cosmology of the Ajivikas.

Late South Indian sources (7th / 9th - 13th / 14th centuries) show that the doctrine underwent considerable changes, with at least a part of the Ajivikas approaching the worldview of Mahayana Buddhism. Some late Ajivikas viewed time as an illusion and the universe as static.

The Barabar Caves in Bihar , which were donated for ascetics of this religion in the Ashoka period, give an impression of the life of the Ajivikas .

literature

  • Arthur L. Basham: History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas. New Delhi 2002, ISBN 81-208-1204-2 (reprint of London 1951 edition)
  • N. Aiyaswami Sastri: Shramana or Non-Brahmanical Sects. In: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Ed.): The Cultural Heritage of India. Volume 1: The Early Phases. Calcutta 1970, pp. 389-399.
  • Heinrich Zimmer : Philosophy and Religion of India. 8th edition. Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-27626-3 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Basham pp. 101-104.
  2. ↑ The Dating of the Historical Buddha - The Dating of the Historical Buddha , ed. Heinz Bechert, part 1–3, Göttingen 1991–1997, especially part 1, pp. 13–15, part 3, pp. 1–13.
  3. ↑ Basham pp. 27-34.
  4. ↑ Basham pp. 35-38.
  5. ↑ Basham, pp. 39–53, on nudity, pp. 107–109; Augustus F. Rudolf Hoernle: Ajivikas. In: Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics , Vol. 1, Edinburgh 1955, pp. 259-266.
  6. ↑ Basham pp. 104-106.
  7. ↑ Dighanikaya 2.20; see Hans Wolfgang Schumann: The historical Buddha , Kreuzlingen 2004, p. 250.
  8. ↑ Basham pp. 262-267.
  9. ^ Helmuth von Glasenapp : The philosophy of the Indians. 4th edition. Stuttgart 1985, p. 134; Basham pp. 257-261.
  10. ↑ Aṅguttara Nikāya I 286, quoted in the translation of v. Glasenapp, The Philosophy of Indians p. 134.
  11. ↑ Aṅguttara Nikāya I 30, quoted in the translation by Schumann, The historical Buddha p. 249.
  12. ↑ Schumann pp. 245-251 (with a summary of the Buddhist and Jain source reports).
  13. ↑ Zimmer, pp. 244f.
  14. ↑ Basham pp. 113-117.
  15. ↑ Basham pp. 146-157.
  16. ↑ Sastri pp. 394, 397; Basham pp. 215f., 222.
  17. ↑ Basham pp. 236-238, 280.