J Muir’s Essay on Carvaka/Lokayata

J. Muir

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1. Published in the Bibliotheca Indica, nos. 63 and 142.
2. See Professor Wilson’s Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, above referred to; and for the words tridatJ4a.and tridatJ4in, consult Boehtlingk and Roth’s Lexicon, with the passages there cited from Manu, ix. 296, and xii. 10, II, and other writers.
3. This refers to the notion expressed by Manu, V.42: ‘The twice-born man who, knowing the meaning and principles of the Veda, slays cattle on the occasions mentioned, conveys both himself and those cattle to the summit of beatitude. ‘ (Sir W.Jones). In the second act of the drama called Prabodhncandrodaya (which has been translated into English by Dr. Taylor and into German by Professor Goldstucker), Mayamoha (or Delusion) and a Carvaka are introduced among the dramatis personae and give utterance to the tenets of the Indian materialists, The second and the third of the verses quoted in the text from the Sarva-darsana-sangraha are adduced there also. Verse 4 of the text is varied as follows: ‘If a sraddha satiates even defunct creatures, then oil must nourish the flame of an extinguished lamp.’ The following stanzas are of a similar purport with verse I of the text: ‘The idea that the soul exists with an essence distinct from that of the body, and that it enjoys rewards after it has gone to another world, is (as vain as) the expectation of luscious fruit from trees growing in the sky.’ ‘If heaven is obtained by worshippers after the performer, the ceremonial, and the materials of the sacrifice have all passed away, then abundant fruit will be produced from trees which have been consumed in the conflagration of a forest.’ In another verse, the gratifications of the voluptuary are contrasted with the mortifications of the ascetic in a sense favourable to the former.

4. See Manu. chap. iii., verses 122 to the end.

5. Dum vivimus, vivamus, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’, Cor. XV.32

6. Compare Original Sanskrit Texts, ii. 183, and iii. 45. The words jarbhari, turphari, occur in Rg Veda, x. 106.6, See Boehtlingk and Hoth’s Lexicon, under these words, and Nirukta, xiii. 5.

7. I give the literal meaning of this line in Latin: ‘Fama notum est equi membrum genitale a regina capiendum esse’ See Wilson’s translation of the Rg Veda., vol. ii., Introd., p. xiii; Ramayana, i. 13,36 (Schlegel’s edit.); i., 13.34 (Gorresio’s edit.); Mahabh., xiv., 2645; Vajasaneyi Samhita, xxiii, 20 ff. and commentary; Satapatha Brahmana, pp. 990 ff; Katyayana’s Sutras, p. 973.

8. I do not perceive the exact allusion here, unless it be to the Brahmins’ grasping character. Possibly there may be a reference in the next line to the practice of the Saktas. Goblins are represented by the Hindus as being fond of flesh.

9. The satirical purport of this half-verse has not been correctly understood by Professor Wilson, who renders it thus: ‘It must be unnecessary for one who resides at a distance to bring food for presentation in person.’

10. Schlegel reads here dharmapetam, and Gorresio dharmopetam. The former is the best reading.

11. The same reflection, with a different moral annexed, occurs in the very striking verses of Manu, viii., 17 and iv., 23Y ff; which I have attempted to put into verse as follows

12. Compare Mahabhiirata, Udyoga Parva, verse 4205.
13. These are the principles ofthe Carvakas. ‘Perception is the only proof’ says the Mayamoha, in the Prabodha-candrodaya, Act. ii.
14. Verses 4-11 in Gorresio’s edition, urging that Rama had sufficiently fulfilled his duty to his father and exhorting him to take possession of the kingdom, have nothing parallel to them in Schlegel’s recension.
15. The section of the Ramayana, and those which follow it, as given in the three different editions of the Ramayana, well illustrate the peculiarities of their different texts. In Schlegel’s edition, section 108 concludes with the 18th verse, which is immediately succeeded by the reply of Rama to Javali’s suggestions, in the 29 anustubh verses, which stand at the commencement of section 109. To these are added nine more verses in a longer metre, the Upajati, which Schlegel regards as spurious. As regards some of the verses his opinion is no doubt just; for Rama is represented in the first of these additional stanzas as a second time commencing  his answer to Javali,and the tone in which he then repudiates the sentiments of the latter is much harsher than in the earlier (anustubh) verses of the section. In the 36th and following verses of the addition, Javali is introduced as apologizing for, and half recanting, the opinions he had expressed: ‘The Brahmin then addressed to Rama these true, wholesome, and believing (astika) words: “I do not utter the doctrines of the nihilists (nastika): I am not a nihilist; nor does nought exist. Having regard to opportuneness of time, I have again become a believer (astika) and on an opportune occasion, I may again become a nihilist”.’ In one of these Upajati verses, the Buddhists are expressly mentioned. Gorresio’s edition, however, contains much more extensive interpolations than Schlegel’s. As we have seen, stanzas 4-11 and 28-39 of section 116 of the former are all in excess of the verses contained in the corresponding section of the latter. But section 116 of Gorresio’s edition does not stop even there. It contains, in verses 40 ff., a short repudiation by Rama of Javali’s doctrines. Another discourse of Bharata’s follows in section 117, and it is not’ until section 11 8 that Rama is represented as beginning (a second time) the answer to Javali, which corresponds to that in section l09 of Schlegel’s edition.

16. The word which I have translated as expiation is apacita (apaciti?). The word apaciti occurs in the 7th or Drona Parva, 7, 811.
17. Although reasoning is looked upon by Manu (ii. 11) and other orthodox writings (e.g., Mahabharata, iii. 13,463, suska tarka) with great jealousy as likely to be employed against the Vedas, its aid is also invoked as necessary for their defence and exposition (Manu, xii. 105); and professors of different systems of logic or speculation (haituka and tarkin) arc referred to (xii. Ill) as essential component members of a Brahminical conclave of ten (dasavara parisad)
18. See Professor Banerjea’s Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy, where Sankara’s refutation of this doctrine, the Vijnana-vada, is quoted from his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, ii., 2, 28.
19. See also ‘Original Sanskrit Texts’, Part iii., p. 216.
20. He there says, ‘For Mimams has generally been turned into a school of materialism (or atheism, lokayatikrta), but I have made this attempt to bring it into the paths of theism (cf. the recognition of a future existence, asthikapathe).’ See Orig. Sansk Texts, iii. p. 209. Compo Professor Banarjea’s Dialogues, pp.78 ff., 477 ff.