No Ajivika scriptures are known to survive, and this absence shapes everything that can be said about the tradition. Ajivika teachers clearly possessed their own teachings and, quite possibly, written collections, yet none of these have come down to later generations. What is known of their deterministic worldview and ascetic life is filtered through the lenses of others, especially early Buddhist and Jain communities that regarded them as rivals. These sources, while invaluable, are polemical and must be approached with careful discernment, since they may distort as much as they reveal.

The most tangible traces of the Ajivikas are epigraphic and archaeological rather than literary. Several inscriptions from the Mauryan period, particularly those in the Barabar and Nagarjuni caves in Bihar, record royal donations of caves for the use of Ajivika ascetics. These dedicatory records, associated with the reign of Ashoka and his successor Dasharatha, attest to a time when Ajivika renunciants enjoyed significant patronage and institutional presence. Although these inscriptions do not preserve doctrinal statements, they stand as direct, physical witnesses to the community’s existence and status.

Beyond these stone records, knowledge of Ajivika doctrine and history is reconstructed from indirect textual references. Buddhist Pali texts, such as portions of the Digha Nikaya and Majjhima Nikaya, describe figures like Makkhali Gosala and outline Ajivika determinism, often in the context of debate and critique. Jain scriptures similarly portray Gosala as a one-time associate and later opponent of Mahavira, embedding Ajivika ideas within narratives of conflict. Later Hindu works, including political and philosophical literature such as the Arthashastra, also allude to Ajivika ascetics, though always from an external standpoint.

Taken together, these scattered references and inscriptions suggest a once-vigorous movement whose own voice has fallen silent. The Ajivikas are thus encountered as a kind of echo: heard through Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu texts, and seen in the enduring stone of Mauryan cave dedications. For a spiritual seeker, this silence can itself be contemplative, inviting reflection on how much of any tradition is preserved, and how much is refracted through the perceptions of others.