Hemacandra
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The Cārvākas and The Jains: An Overview
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya explores the complex historical relationship between Cārvāka materialists and Jain philosophers. Although both rejected Vedic authority and ritual sacrifice, Jain writers branded Cārvākas as nāstika for denying rebirth. Crucially, Jain canonical texts, commentaries, and compendia preserved vital fragments, aphorisms, and lost commentators of the Cārvākasūtra, safeguarding Indian materialist history.
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Hemacandra and the Misunderstanding of Cārvāka Inference
This analysis reveals how Jain scholar Hemacandra and commentator Malliṣeṇa misrepresented Cārvāka epistemology by ignoring commentarial literature. Contrary to their claim that Cārvākas rejected all inference, commentators like Purandara, Aviddhakarṇa, and Udbhaṭa affirmed empirical inference for daily life while rejecting its use for unobservable, supernatural entities like heaven or karma.
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The Base Text and Its Commentaries
Problems of Representing and Understanding the Cārvāka/LokāyataAncient Indian philosophical sūtras are terse aphorisms requiring balanced reading alongside commentaries. Relying solely on either literal texts or commentaries leads to misunderstandings. Opponents of Cārvāka/Lokāyata like Jayanta Bhaṭṭa and Hemacandra failed to maintain this crucial balance, resulting in misrepresentations of materialist doctrines in their polemical works.
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Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya’s Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata meticulously analyzes a vast array of textual sources with critical rigor. By reconstructing the true historical, philosophical, and cultural dimensions of Indian materialism, Bhattacharya successfully restores a once-obscured tradition. This definitive work stands as an indispensable milestone for all future scholarship on Cārvāka/Lokāyata philosophy.