T. W. Rhys Davids analyzes the shifting historical meaning of Lokāyata from early Pāli Suttas to medieval Vedānta. Originally denoting respected Vedic nature-lore around 500 BCE, the term gradually degraded into “useless disputation” (vitaṇḍāvāda). Eventually, orthodox polemicists used it as a pejorative epithet for atheistic materialism, fictitiously fathering it upon Cārvāka.