Lokāyata and Its Derivatives in the Sad-dharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra

If one sets upon oneself the task of translating the Sad-dharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra
(SDPS), a first-century CE Sanskrit Mahāyānī Buddhist text, into a
modern Indian language, one will face no problem with the word lokāyata.
It is current in all and can be retained in translation without bothering to
explain what lokāyata means.[1]
But translating it into a European language would prove to be difficult, for
the reader would not know the word and so some equivalent would have to be
provided. But what would be the right equivalent in the context of the SDPS?
The word lokāyata and its derivatives occur thrice in this work. Burnouf
and Kern in their French and English translations respectively, somewhat differ
in their understanding. Let us look at the passages one by one.

(Tokyo ed., p. 94; Calcutta ed., p. 72; Darbhanga ed., p.
70; v.l. in line 1: na kadāpi cintā).

Burnouf (1852 : 142): «Il ne faut jamais penser à d’autres
Sūtras, ni à d’autres livres d’une science vulgaire, car ce sont là des
objets bons pour les ignorants, évite de tels livres et explique ce Sūtra».

Kern (1884: 96-97): «Never mind other Sūtras nor the
books in which a profane philosophy is taught; such books are fit for the
foolish, avoid them and preach this Sūtra».

Burnouf (1852: 168): «[…] un Bodhisattva Mahāsattva […] ne
recherché pas les Lokāyatikas qui lisent les Tantras de leur secte. qu’il
ne les honore pas, qu’il n’entratient aucun commerce avec eux […]».

Kern (1884: 262-263): «A Bodhisattva Mahāsattva […] is
firm in his conduct and proper sphere […] when he does not serve, nor court,
nor wait upon […] adepts at worldly spells, and votaries of a worldly philosophy,
nor keep any intercourse with them […]».

(Tokyo ed., p. 389; Calcutta ed., pp. 311-12;
Darbhanga ed., pp. 266-67).

Burnouf (1852: 280): «Ils [scil. les fils ou les
filles de familles qui retiendront le nom du Bodhisattva Mahāsattva
Samantabhadra] n’éprouveront pas de plaisir, dans la doctrine des Lokāyatas;
les hommes livrés à la poesie ne leur plairont pas; les danseurs, les musiciens, les lutteurs le vendeurs de viande […]».

Kern (1884: 437-438): «They [scil. the young men of
good family who shall cherish the name of the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva
Samantabhadra] will have no pleasure in worldly philosophy; no persons
fondly addicted to poetry will please them; no dancers, athletes, vendors of meat
[…]».

As regards 1., Burnouf takes lokāyataiḥ
śāstraiḥ
to mean «books of a vulgar (popular) science»; Kern, «books in which a
profane philosophy is taught». Apparently neither of them attached any
technical sense to the lokāyataśāstra-s (in plural), so the first
occurrence of this word is not noted in their Indexes.

Regarding 2., however, Burnouf (1852: 409) in a note says
that the Lokāyatikas refer to the followers of the «doctrine athéiste des
Tchārvākas», that is, the atheistic doctrine of the Cārvākas. He adds that in
Pali lokāyata signifies «histoire fabuleuse, roman» and cites
Moggalāna’s Abhidhānappadīpikā (as edited by Clough) as his source.

This drew a retort from Rhys Davids (1899.I: 169-170, note
4):

Burnouf (p. 168) reads tantras (instead of mantras),
no doubt wrongly, and has a curious blunder in his note on the passage (p.
409). He says Lokāyata means in Pali «fabulous history, romance»: and quotes as
its authority, the passage […] from the Abhidhāna Padīpikā in which
Lokāyataṃ
is simply explained as vitaṇḍasatthaṃ.
This last expression cannot possibly mean anything of that sort.

Rhys Davids is right. But Rev. Benjamin Clough is to be
blamed for misleading Burnouf. Clough, in his notes on the line in the Abhidhānappadīpikā
112: (vitaṇḍasatthaṃ viññeyaṃ yan
taṃ)
lokāyataṃ
(iti), glosses lokāyataṃ as «Fabulous Story»
(marginal notes on p. 13). Burnouf did not notice that Clough and Tolfrey (who
translated Pali Grammar and Pali Vocabulary in Clough, 1824), had
mistaken «Fabulous Story» and elsewhere «Fabulous History» as English
equivalents for lokāyataṃ (instead of vitaṇḍasatthaṃ,
«science of disputation »), perhaps because ākhyāyika and kathā soon
follow in the dictionary (Abhidhānappadīpikā 113ab). What is more to be
regretted is that Burnouf, misled by Clough and Tolfrey, in his turn misled
Böhtlingk and Roth who in their Sanskrit Wörterbuch gave these two
meanings of lokāyata (in Pali): «eine erfundene Geschichte, Roman» (rendered into German from Burnouf’s
French version).[2]

Burnouf proposed (1852: 409) that «les Lokāyatikas de
notre Lotus» may suggest «les auteurs ou les lecteurs de pareils
ouvrages, dans lequels les passions et les affaires du monde forment le sujet
principal». Apparently he had in his mind the wrong meaning given in Clough.
Kern steered clear of Clough but called the Lokāyatikas «the Sadducees or
Epicureans of India» (1884: 263, note 4; see also 438, note 1), equating them
with the Cārvākas who appeared much later. D.D. Shastri (1981: 19) too glosses lokāyata
as cārvākaśāstra although Moggalāna mentions nothing of this sort.

The fact is that in the Pali commentaries and
dictionaries, lokāyataṃ is always glossed as vitaṇḍasatthaṃ,
the science of disputation. In other Buddhist Sanskrit works (e.g., the Laṅkāvatārasūtra),
it means «points (or issues) of dispute».[3]
The Buddha, as is well-known, did not approve of the sophists. So it is no
wonder that both in 2. and 3., the Lokāyatikas are looked down upon and viewed
on a par with those who followed despicable professions (according to the
Buddha). In all the three instances lokāyataśāstra-s and lokāyatika-s
mean, respectively, books of logical disputation (vitaṇḍā)
and masters of this art, not the Bārhaspatya/Cārvāka/Lokāyata philosophical
system and its adherents. The ways Burnouf and Kern render these words are
beside the mark.

But a crux still remains in case of 2. What could lokāyatamantradhārakān
mean? Burnouf’s rendering (tantra in place of mantra) is not
supported by other manuscripts. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (1969: 110) strongly
objected to Kern’s rendering of lokāyatamantra as «worldly spells» as
also to Rhys Davids’s (1899.I: 169) rendering as «mystic verses». Vaidya (1960:
296) explains lokāyata as «a popular philosophy» which leaves the basic
question unanswered: Is lokāyata to be taken to mean «the science of
disputation» or a materialist philosophical system?

The Abhidhanappadīpikā places lokāyataṃ in
the Girāvaggo, along with vāṇī, vākya, ameṇḍitaṃ,
vedo, vedaṅgas, itihāso, nighaṇḍu,
keṭubhaṃ,
kathā, vuttanto, paṭivākya, etc. Each of these
words refers to a subject of study, not to any philosophical system. The SDPS
creates another problem by placing the word °mantra after lokāyata°
and separately mentioning lokāyatikān immediately after it. The word mantra
is invariably associated with magic and religious practices (sacrificial or
otherwise). On the other hand, lokāyata, whether taken to mean disputatio,
a subject of study, or materialism, is secular and has nothing to do with magic
or religion.

How to solve this problem?

The word lokāyata both in Pali and Buddhist
Sanskrit is generally used as substantive to mean disputatio. It is
attested by the Suttas in the Tipiṭaka as well as the Śārdūlakarṇāvadānasūtra
(in Divyāvadāna). The emendations made by Cowell and Neil,
Mukhopadhyaya, and Vaidya in the latter text clearly show that in all cases of
its occurrence lokāyata is to be taken as a Brahminical subject of study
along with the Vedas, Upaniṣads, vyākaraṇa, kaiṭabha,
padamīmāṃsā,
mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa,
bhāṣyapravacana,
etc.[4]
Such lists of subjects both for Brahmins and princes are often mentioned in the
Upaniṣads
and Pali, Prakrit and Buddhist Sanskrit works.[5] To
cite one example in the Divyāvadāna: chandasi vā vyākaraṇe vā
lokāyate vā padamīmāṃsāyāṃ vā (Darbhanga ed., p. 330.
Cf. also pp. 318, 319, 328).

In view of this, I think the only solution is to emend the
text, not on the basis of further manuscript evidence but by such evidences as
are found in other Pali and Buddhist Sanskrit texts. Since lokāyataṃ in
all available sources stands for the science for disputation, there is no
reason why it should mean something else in this instance. In the Milindapañha
(Trenkner, 1880: 4), the king is described as «fond of wordy disputation
and eager for discussion with casuists, sophists, and gentry of that sort» (so
rājā bhassappavādako lokāyata-vitaṇḍa-janasallāpappavattakotūhalo).
Similarly, Milinda is (Trenkner, 1880: 10) «skilled alike in casuistry and in
the knowledge of the bodily marks that foreshadow the greatness of a man» (lokāyata-mahāpurisalakkhanesu
anavayo ahosi. As Rhys Davids (1890: 17, note 3) has noted: «The above are
the stock phrases for the learning of a scholarly Brahman […]».

What seems to have happened is this: the scribe has
mistakenly written the word lokāyatamantradhārakān in place of lokāyatayajñamantradhārakān
(or °pāragān), and without noticing his own error went on copying.[6]

What is the basis of this emendation? It is as follows: lokayāta,
yajñamantra, and mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa are
found mentioned in Buddhist literature while enumerating the curriculum for a
Brahmin or a prince, as in the Divyāvadāna (Śārdūlakarṇāvadānasūtra):
lokāyate yajñamantre mahāpuruṣalakṣaṇe niṣṇāto niṣkāṅkṣoḥ (Darbhanga
ed., p. 318), lokāyatayajñamantramahāpuruṣalakṣaṇe-ṣu
pāragaḥ
(ibid., p. 319).

In Pali too we have hetu and mantaṇa («causation»
and «spells») side by side in the Milindapañha (Trenkner, 1880: 3) as
well as lokāyata and mahāpurisalakkhaṇa similarly
juxtaposed (Trenkner, 1880: 10). Neither Burnouf, nor Kern, nor Rhys Davids
remembered all this at the time of studying the passage in the SDPS and
readily accepted the association of °mantra with lokāyata°,
apparently forgetting the stock formula, lokāyata-yajñamantramahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa.
Unfortunately the copy that contained this faulty reading (omission of yajña°
before °mantra) was copied and recopied over and over again and thus the
scribal error remained undetected, even unsuspected, and consequently the
reading continued to confuse generations of scholars and readers.

The sentence in the SDPS under discussion would
thus mean: «A Bodhisattva Mahāsattva [is firm in his conduct and proper sphere]
when he does not serve, nor court, nor wait upon […] [adepts at] the
science of disputation (lokāyata) and those who retain in their memory
the sacrificial spells [or incantations] (yajñamantra) as well as
disputants (lokāyatikān) nor keep any intercourse with them». The
Lokāyatikas are mentioned separately, presumably because they had not only
studied the Lokāyataśāstra but used to practise it as well.

Acknowledgement: Amitava Bhattacharyya. The usual
disclaimers apply.

Bibliography

a)     
Primary
sources (texts and translations)

Dīghanikāya:

–       
Rhys Davids, T.W. (tr.), Dialogues of the Buddha,
vol. I, Oxford University
Press, London 1899.

Divyāvadāna:

–       
Cowell, E.B. and R.A. Neil (eds.), The Divyāvadāna.
A Collection of Early Buddhist Legends Now First Edited from the Nepalese
Sanskrit mss. in Cambridge and Paris,
Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge
1886.

–       
 Vaidya, P.L.
(ed.), Divyāvadāna, Mithila Institute, Darbhanga 1959.

Milindapañha:

–       
Rhys Davids, T.W. (tr.), The Questions of King
Milinda, SBE vol. XXXV, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1890.

–       
Trenckner, V. (ed.), The Milindapañho, The Pali
Text Society, London
1880

Moggallāna, Abhidhānappadīpikā:

–       
Śāstrī, D. (ed.), Abhidhānappadīpikā,
Bauddhabhāratī, Vārāṇasī
1981. Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra:

–       
Burnouf, E. (tr.), Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi,
Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1852.

–       
Dutt, N. and N.D. Mironov (eds.), Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra,
The Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta
1953.

–       
Kern, H. (tr.) The Lotus of the True Law, SBE
vol. XXI, Clarendon Press, Oxford
1884.

–       
Vaidya, P.L. (ed.), Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtram,
Mithila Institute, Darbhanga 1960.

–       
Wogihara, U. and C. Tsuchida (eds.), Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtram,
The Seigo-Kenkyūkai, Tokyo
1934.

Śārdūlakarṇāvadānasūtra:

–       
Mukhopādhyāya, S. (ed.), The Śārdūlakarṇāvadānasūtra,
Viśvabhāratī Publishing Department, Śāntiniketan 1954.

b)     
Secondary
sources:

BHATTACHARYA, R.

2009 Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata, Società
Editrice Fiorentina, Firenze.

CHATTOPADHYAYA, D.

1969 Lokāyata Darśana (in Bangla), part I, New Age
Publishers, Kolkata (second ed.).

CLOUGH, B.

1824 Compendious Pali Grammar With a Copious Vocabulary
in the Same Language,

Wesleyan Mission Press, Colombo.

DASGUPTA,
D.C.

1999 Jaina System of Education, Motilal
Banarsidass, Delhi.

DASGUPTA, S.N.

1940 A History of Indian Philosophy, vol. III, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.

DEL TOSO, K.

2010 The Stanzas on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata in the Skhalitapramathanayuktihetusiddhi,
«Journal of Indian Philosophy», 38, pp. 543-552.

JAYATILEKE, K.N.