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Carvaka
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is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. It is also known as . It is named after its founder, , author of the .
In overviews of Indian philosophy, Carvaka is classified as a "heterodox" (nastika) system, the same classification as is given to Buddhism and Jainism. It is characterized as a materialistic and atheistic school of thought. While this branch of Indian philosophy is not considered to be part of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, it is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism.
name can be traced to Kautilya's Arthashastra, which refers to three s (logical philosophies), Yoga, Samkhya and Lokayata.
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is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. It is also known as . It is named after its founder, , author of the .
In overviews of Indian philosophy, Carvaka is classified as a "heterodox" (nastika) system, the same classification as is given to Buddhism and Jainism. It is characterized as a materialistic and atheistic school of thought. While this branch of Indian philosophy is not considered to be part of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, it is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism.
Name and origins
The name can be traced to Kautilya's Arthashastra, which refers to three s (logical philosophies), Yoga, Samkhya and Lokayata. Lokayata here still refers to logical debate (disputatio, "criticism") in general and not to a materialist doctrine in particular. Similarly, Saddaniti and Buddhaghosa in the 5th century connect the "Lokayatas" with the Vitandas (sophists).
Only from about the 6th century is the term restricted to the school of the s. The name is first used in the 7th century by the philosopher Purandara, who refers to his fellow materialists as "the Carvakas", and it is used by the 8th century philosophers and Haribhadra. Shankara, on the other hand, always uses , not .
E. W. Hopkins, in his The Ethics of India (1924) assumes that Carvaka philosophy is co-eval with Buddhism, mentioning "the old Carvaka or materialist of the 6th century BC"; Rhys Davids assumes that lokayata in ca. 500 BC came to mean "scepticism" in general without yet being organized as a philosophical school, and that the name of a villain of the Mahabharata, Carvaka, was attached to the position in order to disparage it. The earliest positive statement of skepticism is preserved from the epic period, in the Ramayana.
- regard only that which is an object of perception, and cast behind your back whatever is beyond the reach of your senses (2.108)
The Carvaka school thus appears to have gradually grown out of generic skepticism in the Mauryan period, but its existence as an organized body cannot be ascertained for times predating the 6th century. The Barhaspatya sutras were likely also composed in Mauryan times, predating 150 BC, based on a reference in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali (7.3.45).
Loss of original works
Chatterjee and Datta explain that our understanding of Carvaka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools, and that it is not a living tradition:
"Though materialism in some form or other has always been present in India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on materialism, nor any organised school of followers as the other philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these."
Available evidence suggests that Carvaka philosophy was set out in the Barhaspatya sutras, probably in Mauryan times.
Neither this text nor any other original text of the Carvaka school of philosophy has been preserved. Its principal works are known only from fragments cited by its Hindu and Buddhist opponents. Carvaka philosophy appears to have died out some time in the 15th century.
Countering the argument that the Carvakas opposed all that was good in the Vedic tradition, Dale Riepe says, "It may be said from the available material that Carvakas hold truth, integrity, consistency, and freedom of thought in the highest esteem."
Madhavacharya and Carvaka
Madhavacharya, the 13th & 14th-century Vedantic philosopher from South India starts his famous work The Sarva-darsana-sangraha with a chapter on the Carvaka system with the intention of refuting it. After invoking, in the Prologue of the book, the Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu, ("by whom the earth and rest were produced"), Madhavacharya asks, in the first chapter:
- ...but how can we attribute to the Divine Being the giving of supreme felicity, when such a notion has been utterly abolished by Charvaka, the crest-gem of the atheistic school, the follower of the doctrine of Brihaspati? The efforts of Charvaka are indeed hard to be eradicated, for the majority of living beings hold by the current refrain:
While life is yours, live joyously;
None can escape Death's searching eye:
When once this frame of ours they burn,
How shall it e'er again return?
Quotations attributed to Carvaka from Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha
- The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic's three staves, and smearing oneself with ashes —
- Brihaspati says, these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness nor sense.
- In this school there are four elements, earth, water, fire and air;
- and from these four elements alone is intelligence produced —
- just like the intoxicating power from kinwa &c, mixed together;
- since in "I am fat", "I am lean", these attributes abide in the same subject,
- and since fatness, &c, reside only in the body, it alone is the soul and no other,
- and such phrases as "my body" are only significant metaphorically.
- If a beast slain in the Jyothishtoma rite will itself go to heaven,
- why then does not the sacrificer forthwith offer his own father?
- If the Sraddha produces gratification to beings who are dead,
- then why not give food down below to those who are standing on the house-top?
- If he who departs from the body goes to another world,
- how is it that he come not back again, restless for love of his kindred?
- Hence it is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmans have established here
- all these ceremonies for the dead, — there is no other fruit anywhere.
- The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons.
- All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc.
- and all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha,
- these were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents to the priests,
- while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-prowling demons.
Those parts which survive indicate a strong anti-clerical bias, accusing Brahmins of fostering religious beliefs only so they could obtain a livelihood. The proper aim of a Charvakan or Charvaka, according to these sources, was to live a prosperous, happy, and productive life in this world.
Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayaraasi Bhatta
The Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayarashi Bhatta (ca. 8th century) is often cited as the only extant authentic Carvaka text, but which also shows Madhyamaka influence. It is, in any case, among the most important documents for the study of the Carvaka school.
Astika schools, Buddhism, and Jainism versus Carvaka
Carvakas cultivated a philosophy wherein theology and what they called "speculative metaphysics" were to be avoided. The Carvakas accepted direct perception as the surest method to prove the truth of anything. Though their opponents tried to caricature the Lokayatikas' arguments, the latter did not completely reject the method of inference. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya quotes S. N. Dasgupta:
- "Purandara (a Lokayata philosopher) [...] admits the usefulness of inference in determining the nature of all worldly things where perceptual experience is available; but inference cannot be employed for establishing any dogma regarding the transcendental world, or life after death or the law of karma which cannot be available to ordinary perceptual experience."
While a Carvaka's thought is characterized by an insistence on joyful living on one hand and Jainism is known to emphasize penance on the other, Buddhism is said to stand for a "middle way", avoiding indulgence in sensual pleasures and penance alike. Temperance - the enjoyment of life's pleasures in a moderate manner, rather than total abstinence - was the Carvakas' primary modus operandi. In this respect, they much resemble the Epicureans of Greece .
The Carvakas did not deny the difference between the dead and the living and recognized both as realities. A person lives, the same person dies: that is a perceived, and hence the only provable, fact. In this regard, the Carvakas found themselves at odds with all the other religions of the time. Of the five fundamental elements, the Panchamahaabhutas, Prithvi (earth or solidity), jal (water or liquidity), agni (fire or fieriness or brightness), vaayu (wind or movement), and aakaasha (lit.space - aether or emptiness), the Carvakas recognised the validity of only the first four and thought that a combination of these four elements produced a certain vitality called life.
Rejection of the soul as separate from the body led the Carvakas to confine their thinking to this world only. This does not mean that they denied the cause-effect relationship. They accepted the "like causes like result" (Karmavipaaka) rule, restricted it to this life and this world and admitted exceptions to that rule.
Whereas most systems of Astika philosophy advocated a caste system, the Carvakas denounced the caste system, calling it artificial, unreal and hence unacceptable. "What is this senseless humbug about the castes and the high and low among them when the organs like the mouth, etc in the human body are the same?"
Abul Fazl on Lokayata
Ain-i-Akbari, written by Abul Fazl, the famous historian of Akbar's court, mentions a symposium of philosophers of all faiths held in 1578 at Akbar's insistence. Some Carvaka thinkers are said to have participated in this symposium.
Under the heading "Nastika," Abul Fazl has referred to the good work, judicious administration, and welfare schemes that were emphasized by the Carvaka lawmakers. Somadeva has also mentioned the Carvaka method of defeating the enemies of the nation.
Contrary to popular opinion, these so-called "peasant religions(or opinions)" - the direct translation of the word "Lokayata" - never demanded that the practitioner give up happiness; all they said was that that the means of happiness is giving up that which contradicts carvaka, who claimed that (material) pleasures suffice to give happiness to the (material) body.
See also
Bibliography
- Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli; and Moore, Charles A. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Princeton University Press; 1957. Princeton paperback 12th edition, 1989. ISBN 0-691-01958-4.**Pradeep P. Gokhale, The Carvaka Theory of : A Restatement, Philosophy East and West (1993).
- John M. Koller, Skepticism in Early Indian Thought, Philosophy East and West (1977).
- R. Bhattacharya, Carvaka Fragments: A New Collection, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Volume 30, Number 6, December 2002, pp. 597-640.
- R. A. Schermerhorn, When Did Indian Materialism Get Its Distinctive Titles?, Journal of the American Oriental Society (1930).
External links
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- published in International Humanist News
- by Dr. Ramendra
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