Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata PDF
Preview Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata
STUDIES ON THE CĀRVĀKA/LOKĀYATA Cultural, Historical and Textual Studies of Religions The volumes featured in the Anthem Cultural, Historical and Textual Studies of Religions series are the expression of an international community of scholars committed to the reshaping of the fi eld of textual and historical studies of religions. Titles in this series examine practice, ritual, and other textual religious products, crossing different area studies and time frames. Featuring a vast range of interpretive perspectives, this innovative series aims to enhance the way we look at religious traditions. Series Editor Federico Squarcini, University of Firenze, Italy Editorial Board Piero Capelli, University of Venezia, Italy Vincent Eltschinger, ICIHA, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria Christoph Emmrich, University of Toronto, Canada James Fitzgerald, Brown University, USA Jonardon Ganeri, University of Sussex, UK Barbara A. Holdrege, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University, USA Karin Preisendanz, University of Vienna, Austria Alessandro Saggioro, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, University of Lausanne and EPHE, France Romila Thapar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Ananya Vajpeyi, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA Marco Ventura, University of Siena, Italy Vincenzo Vergiani, University of Cambridge, UK STUDIES ON THE CĀRVĀKA/LOKĀYATA Ramkrishna Bhattacharya Anthem Press An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company www.anthempress.com This edition fi rst published in UK and USA 2011 by ANTHEM PRESS 75-76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave. #116, New York, NY 10016, USA Copyright © Ramkrishna Bhattacharya 2011 The author asserts the moral right to be identifi ed as the author of this work. Graphics and layout © Marianna Ferrara Cover image ‘Inside the Jantar Mantar, Jaipur, India, 2005’ © Clelia Pellicano All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN-13: 978 0 85728 433 4 (Hbk) ISBN-10: 0 85728 433 9 (Hbk) This title is also available as an eBook. 7 Professor Mrinal Kanti Gangopadhyaya a never-failing friend 8 Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata 5 Contents Preface 9 Acknowledgements 11 Abbreviations 13 I. Origin of Materialism in India: Royal or Popular? 21 II. Jain Sources for the Study of Pre-Cārvāka Materialist Ideas in India 33 III. Ajita Kesakambala: Nihilist or Materialist? 45 IV. Perception and Inference in the Cārvāka Philosophy 55 V. Commentators of the Cārvākasūtra 65 VI. Cārvāka Fragments: A New Collection 69 VII. On the Authenticity of an Alleged Cārvāka Aphorism 105 VIII. Paurandarasūtra Revisited 109 IX. What Did the Cārvāka-s Mean by sukhaṃ jīvet? 123 8 Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata X. Sāṃkhya, Yoga and Lokāyata in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra: A Re-View 131 XI. Yogācāra against the Cārvāka: A Critical Survey of Tattvasaṅgraha, Chapter 22 137 XII. Jayantabhaṭṭa’s Representation of the Cārvāka: A Critique 147 XIII. What does Udayana Mean by lokavyavahārasiddha iti cārvākāḥ? 159 XIV. Hemacandra on the Cārvāka: A Survey 163 XV. Haribhadra’s Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya, Verses 81-84: A Study 175 XVI. The Significance of Lokāyata in Pali 187 XVII. On Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Buddhist Sanskrit 193 XVIII. Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Sanskrit Dictionaries 197 XIX. ṛṇaṃ kṛtvā ghṛtaṃ pibet: Who Said This? 201 XX. jīvikā dhātṛnirmitā or jīviketi bṛhaspatiḥ? 207 XXI. mṛtānāmapi jantūnām... 213 XXII. Cārvāka/Lokāyata Philosophy: Perso-Arabic Sources 219 XXIII. What is Meant by nāstika in the Nyāyasūtra Commentary? 227 Bibliography 233 9 Preface I started writing on the Cārvāka, the most uncompromis- ing materialist school of philosophy in ancient India, from 1995 and have continued to work on its different aspects. My researches on this subject are now being offered in a revised and enlarged form, thanks to the interest shown by Dr Federico Squarcini, Florence University. Each chapter is meant to be read separately, hence some repetitions have been retained. In some cases, references have been made to other chapters. This makes every chap- ter self-complete and, at the same time, helps readers follow my line of argument. Admittedly, there is paucity of material relating to the Cārvāka. Still, as in the case of the Presocratic philosophers of Greece, it is possible to reconstruct the basic tenets of this system on the basis of whatever little is found in the works of its opponents and the extracts quoted by them. Notwith- standing distortions, the Cārvāka/Lokāyata has emerged as the lone contender against the pro-Vedic Brahminical schools on the one hand, and the non-Vedic Buddhist and Jain schools on the other. Besides the orthodoxy prevailing around the Vedas, belief in after-life and after-world has been the bone of contention. This will be evident from the way I have arranged the Cārvāka fragments in Chapter 6.
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