Home Forums Blogs Articles Photos Videos Contact FAQ

Carvaka - Madhavacharya and Carvaka System

Carvaka - Madhavacharya and Carvaka System: Encyclopedia II - Carvaka - Madhavacharya and Carvaka System

Madhavacharya, the 14th century Vedantic philosopher from South India, for instance, 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 brahminical gods Siva 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 ...

Carvaka: Encyclopedia II - Carvaka - Madhavacharya and Carvaka System

Carvaka - Madhavacharya and Carvaka System

Madhavacharya, the 14th century Vedantic philosopher from South India, for instance, 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 brahminical gods Siva 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?

Carvaka - Some Quotes 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 any where. The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, &c. 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 quotes 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.

Systems of ancient Indian thought can be divided into two broad classes: the Carvaka philosophy and Vedanta philosophy. Buddhism and Jainism were originally major atheistic branches, though later they incorporated theistic concepts alien to them.

The Sanskrit word Chaarvaaka is generally understood to be a compound of two words chaari and vaak; chaari means sweet, attractive and vaak means speaking. Some other meanings are also ascribed to the word, but 'sweet speaking' is the most plausible. This school of thought was also called Lokayata probably from pre-Vedic times. Lokayata would broadly mean 'prevalent among people' or 'prevalent in the world' (loka and ayata).

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." (The Naturalistic Tradition of Indian Thought, Motilal Banarasidas, Varanasi, p75)

Other related archives

1400, 14th century, Abul Fazl, Adi Sankara, Advaita Vedanta, Akbar, Ayurveda, Brihaspati, Buddhism, Buddhist, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad_Chattopadhyaya, Duryodhana, Dvaita, Epicureans, Greece, Hindu, India, Jain, Jainism, Krishna, Logic, Madhavacharya, Mahabharata, Marathi, Nyaya, Purva Mimamsa, Samkhya, Sankara, South India, Vaisheshika, Vedantic, Vishishtadvaita, Vishnu, Yoga, atheistic, avatar, brahmins, materialistic, transliterated

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Madhavacharya and Carvaka System", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

More material related to Carvaka can be found here:

Main Page
for
Carvaka Index of Articles
related to
Carvaka