Carvaka: Encyclopedia II - Carvaka - Hinduism Buddhism & Jainism vs. Lokayata

Carvaka - Hinduism Buddhism & Jainism vs. Lokayata

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:

A Carvaka's thought is characterised by an insistence on joyful living, whereas Buddhism and Jainism are known to emphasise penance. Enjoyment of life in a tempered manner, much like the Epicureans of Greece, was the Carvakas' primary modus operandi.

The Carvakas did not deny the difference between the dead and the living and recognised 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 - ether 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 Hindu 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?" (Prabodhachandrodaya, 2.18)

The Carvaka scholars carried on research, termed Aanvikshiki, into every branch of knowledge and developed it elaborately. It is possible that they also observed and kept records of the historical supernovae, which the Chinese, the Incas and Mayans and all other ancient civilizations did, as per records left to posterity in the form of astrological writings (Chinese) and cave paintings (Incas and Mayans). However, the Indian records have not yet come to light, perhaps due to the predominance of oral tradition in India, liable to easy distortion. More probably, any records have been destroyed by the Carvakas' opponents¹.

They considered artha (finance) and kaama (satisfaction of passions) as the two purposes of life, discarding the other two — dharma (religion) and moksha (salvation) — proclaimed as a fourfold goal system by the Hindu thinkers. While summarising the Carvaka position in Sarvadarsanasangraha Sankara, the Hindu sage Adi Sankara, the main exponent of Advaita Vedanta, stated that those having self-respect undertake farming and other means of creating real property.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Hinduism Buddhism & Jainism vs. Lokayata", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki