Consider the following about Ajivika sect : a. Makhali Gosala was its most important leader. b. Central idea of the philosophy was “NIYATI” that is fate. c. The discrimination on the basis of caste and class. d. The Ajivikas had regular sabhas for meetings.
a, b and d are correct
Statements a, b and d are correct and c is wrong, so the answer is option 2.
| Statement | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| a. Makkhali Gosala was its most important leader | Correct | He is named in both Buddhist and Jaina texts as the head of the sect, and was for a time a companion of Mahavira before the two parted |
| b. The central idea was niyati, fate | Correct | The doctrine held that everything is fixed in advance and no effort can alter it |
| c. Discrimination on the basis of caste and class | Wrong | Like the other heterodox sects, the Ajivikas were open to all and rejected such distinctions |
| d. They had regular sabhas for meetings | Correct | The sect was an organised order with assemblies of its own |
The doctrine of niyati. Gosala taught a rigid determinism: every being passes through a fixed series of births and must run the whole course before release, and neither good conduct nor austerity can shorten it. As the Buddhist texts summarise him, there is no cause for the purity or the corruption of beings. This is the opposite of both the Buddhist and the Jaina position, which make deliberate effort and moral action decisive, and it is why the Buddha attacked the Ajivikas with unusual sharpness.
Why c is the statement to reject. The heterodox movements of the sixth century BCE — Buddhism, Jainism and the Ajivikas alike — arose partly as a protest against Brahmanical ritual and the rigidity of varna, and drew followers from every social group. A sect founded in that setting practising caste discrimination would be a contradiction, and no source supports it.
Royal patronage. The Ajivikas were important enough to be favoured by the Mauryas: Ashoka and his grandson Dasharatha dedicated the rock-cut caves of the Barabar and Nagarjuni hills in Bihar to them, and those caves — the earliest surviving rock-cut architecture in India, with their famous mirror-polished interiors — are the sect’s chief monument. The Ajivikas survived in south India until about the fourteenth century.
Hence, the answer is a, b and d are correct.
Important Questions from Religious Movements
Who among the following laid the foundation of Golden Temple?
By what name are the teachings of Shankardeva who was the main propagator of Vaishnavism, addressed in the late fifteenth century?
In Kashmir, which Sufi Silsilah was popular in Medieval period, which draw inspiration from the Saivite Bhakti tradition ?
In the Brahmaputra valley and the Cooch-Bihar, who was the prominent Bhakti Saint during the medieval times ?
The following two were the saints of Krishna Bhakti Branch
1. Tulsidas
2. Surdas
3. Kabir
4. Mira Bai
Select the correct codes :
