Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Reverting to the other commentators on the Cārvākasūtra, it may be said that Aviddhakarna, like Udbhata, attempted to interpret the Cārvāka aphorisms from the Nyāya-Vaiśesika point of view, perhaps without being converted to the Cārvāka. Since it is not possible at the present state of our knowledge to determine whether they were Cārvākas…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya A recent essay by Karin Preisendanz (2008) set me thinking about the commentary tradition of the Cārvākasūtra. In spite of the fact that the mūla-text is lost, we have a number of fragments of the commentaries written by no fewer than four commentators, namely, Kambalāşvatara, Purandara, Aviddhakarņa, and Udbhata (Bhattacharya 2009, 65–68). The…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya What are the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata? They may be stated as follows: The whole of the material world, including the human body, is made of four basic elements, namely, earth, air, fire and water; there can be no consciousness without the living body; the spirit has no extracorporeal existence…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Abstract: This essay proposes to review the problems of reconstructing and interpreting ancient texts, particularly philosophical commentaries, in the context of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata system of India. Following an overview of the Indian philosophical text tradition and the ontological and epistemological positions of the Cārvākas, three cases are discussed: (1) when there is no invariance…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The publication of Lokayata: A study in Ancient Indian Materialism (People’s Publishing House, New Delhi, 1959) by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1918-1993) ushered in a new era in the cultivation of Indian philosophy. Although some academics in India were taken aback by the range of topics covered in this 678-page work (excluding bibliography and index),…
S.K.Belvalkar R.D.Ranade The Lokayata is a school with a very venerable ancestry, Brihaspati the preceptor of the gods being regarded as its first Founder. The doctrine is sometimes styled the Bhutavada, as well as the Lokayata, and from the numerous references to it in orthodox as well as non-orthodox works, it would seem that the…
S.K.Belvalkar R.D.Ranade “Materialism” metaphysically denotes that system of thought which refuses to recognize, as the source of the created manifold, a First Cause other and higher than the mere working out of the forces and tendencies inherent in the non-sentient matter qua matter, unsupervised by any nonmaterial power or principle like the Atman or the…
S.K.Belvalkar R.D.Ranade In the Samannaphala Sutta and elsewhere the following doctrine is ascribed to the philosopher Ajita, nicknamed[1] “of the Hair-garment,” very probably because he and his followers affected that mode of dress – “There is no such thing as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil…
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya The Cārvāka/Lokāyata school of philosophy flourished in India in or around the eighth century CE and was a living system till the twelfth or thirteenth century. Thereafter it seems to have vanished into the blue, without leaving any trace whatsoever. It was the most uncompromising philosophical system that ever appeared in India. It refused to accept the notions…
Walter Ruben The problem of when and how philosophy in India began is of great importance. In 1954, I started the theory that the first Indian philosopher was Uddalaka Aruni in Ch. Up. vi.1 According to my interpretation, he was a hylozoist, which means a primitive materialist. Such an interpretation must provoke criticism, because it…