Ancient Indian Materialism
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Materialist Philosophy in Chāndogya Upaniṣad
As one of the principal Upaniṣads, the text (Chāndogya Upaniṣad) is usually viewed as pre-Buddha, and hence, might have belonged to c. seventh century BC. Since in the extract quoted here we have the earliest reference to a view identifying the body with the self, which is reminiscent of one of the typical tenets of…
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Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya’s Assessment and Reassessment of the Sāmañña-phala-sutta :
A CritiqueRamkrishna Bhattacharya analyzes Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya’s evolving perspective on early Buddhism and the five contemporary heretical sects in the Sāmañña-phala-sutta. Moving from a rigid, doctrinal framework in Lokāyata to a concrete historical-materialist method in later works, Chattopadhyaya re-examined ancient Indian materialism and radical social critique within its specific historical epoch.
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Cārvāka Miscellany – I
The notes propose to throw light on certain aspects of materialism in ancient India and point out some longstanding errors that have gone unnoticed. Some links are also sought to be established between the pre-Cārvāka materialism and the Cārvāka/Lokāyata system that emerged in or around the sixth/seventh century CE.
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Ancient Indian Materialism
In Marxism Today (January 1962), Dipak Nandy reviews D. P. Chattopadhyaya’s landmark book Lokayata. He explores how ancient Indian materialism, Tantrism, and Sāṃkhya philosophy emerged from early agricultural tribal communities, dismantling the anti-Marxist myth that materialist thought is fundamentally alien to Indian tradition.