Ramkrishna Bhattacharya [This is Part II of “Facets of Materialism in India: A Historical Outline”. Part I is here] The Carvakas against Caste Discrimination Let us now see what these two arch-opponents of materialism say regarding the materialists’ (or, to be more specific, of the new materialists,’ i.e., the Cārvākas’) views on caste and women. …
Ram Puniyani Many a social and political processes related to projection of some icons and undermining of the others have intensified during last few years. Even during the last regime of NDA led BJP rule from 1998, Savakar’s portrait was unveiled in the Parliament. At one level the game of undermining some icons and projecting…
Th. Stcherbatsky Amidst the diverse philosophical systems which we find in India, ancient as well as modern, it is quite natural that there must have been some materialistic system too. Their main approach lies in reducing all the psychic processses to physical ones, negating the independent existence of soul, and affirming that the so-called soul…
G. Ramakrishna While laying the foundation-stone for a planetarium in Bangalore recentlyi the President of India explained how the Vedic lore is replete with astronomical knowledge. He almost felt that the Vedic people seemed to know more astronomy than we do. Shortly after the president’s revelation about Vedic astronomy came Maj. Ahluwalia’s analysis about the…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Jayantabhaṭṭa, a luminary of the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika school (ninth century C.E.) was a domicile in Kashmir although he was a Gauḍa brāhamaṇa by origin. His exegetical work Nyāyamañjarī (NM) contains stringent attacks against the Cārvākas. Speaking of the instruments of cognition, Jayanta at one place says: “the Cārvākas say that there is only one…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya “Why do you study ancient philosophy?” I have faced this question so often that it is high time to give a reply in print. The question may be answered rather tartly, following a famous mountaineer: ‘Because it’s there.’ 800×600 Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-NONE ML MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable…