CHARVAKA

Rationalism. Secularism. Freedom

Svabhāvavāda

  • Svabhāvavāda
    Lectures on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata (Part III)

    RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARYA

    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.

  • Materialism in Indian Philosophy

    MN ROY

    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.