The ‘Ajivikas’ was a
(A) sect contemporary to the Buddha
(B) breakaway branch of the Buddhists
(C) sect founded by Charvaka
(D) sect founded by Shankaracharya
Answer: (A) Ajivika (“living” in Sanskrit) was a system of ancient Indian philosophy and an ascetic movement of the Mahajanapada period in the Indian Subcontinent. Ajivika was primarily a heterodox Hindu (Nastika) or atheistic system. The Ajivikas may simply have been a more loosely organized group of wandering ascetics (shamans or sannyasins). One of their prominent leaders was Makkhali Gosal. Ajivikas are thought to be contemporaneous to other early Hindu nastika philosophical schools of thought, such as Charvaka, Jainism, and Buddhism, and may have preceded the latter two systems.
