Sāṃkhya
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Svabhāvavāda
Lectures on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata (Part III)This lecture examines the conceptual evolution of svabhāva (own being) and yadṛcchā (chance) in Indian philosophy. Originally framed as cosmic first causes in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, svabhāva gradually shifted from signifying causality to chance. Between the sixth and eighth centuries CE, svabhāva-as-causality became assimilated into the atheistic Cārvāka/Lokāyata materialist tradition.
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Materialism in Indian Philosophy
M. N. Roy traces ancient Indian materialism from Vedic rebellions to its culmination in Cārvāka thought. Challenging priestly orthodoxy, early naturalists developed Kaṇāda’s atomist Vaiśeṣika and Kapila’s empirical Sāṃkhya systems. By grounding reality in matter, perception, and mechanistic natural laws, these rationalist currents dismantled Vedic theology, paving the way for Buddhist Enlightenment.
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The Materialism of the Samkhya Philosophy
Attributed to Kapila, Sāṃkhya presents an uncreated, materialist universe governed by eternal matter (prakṛti). Rejecting divine creation, it explains development through the causal evolution and equilibrium of three natural forces (guṇas): mass, energy, and potential consciousness. Sāṃkhya demonstrates an early systematic understanding of material transformation and the conservation of physical substance.