A PROJECT REPORT ON - CARVAKA VIEW ON MORALITY

SCHOOL OF LAW
MANIPAL UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

UNDER SUPERVISION OF: - SUBMITTED BY:-

(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR) SHEELBHADRA
(MR.ROBIN LUKE SIR) 151301075

CERTIFICATE

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This is to certify that Mr.Sheelbhadra Sharma student of B.A. LL.B(Hons.) Fourth Semester school
of Law Manipal University Jaipur has completed the project work entitled Carvaka Views on
Morality.
It is further certify that the candidate has made sincere efforts for the completion of the project work.

SUPERVISOR NAME

(MR.ROBIN LUKE SIR)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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I express deep sense of gratitude and indebtness to or teacher Mr. Robin luke sir under whose
guidance valuable suggestions, constant encouragement and kind supervision the present project was
carried out. I am also grateful to college and faculty of law for their feedback and for keeping us on
schedule.
I also wish my sincere thanks to my friends who helped directly or indirectly by giving their valuable
suggestions.

(Sheelbhadra Sharma)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 5

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As Lokayata...................................................................................................................... 6
ORIGIN............................................................................................................................. 7
Epistemology................................................................................................................... 9
Metaphysics................................................................................................................... 10
Pleasure......................................................................................................................... 10
Religion.......................................................................................................................... 11
Controversy on reliability of sources..................................................................................... 12
Bibliography................................................................................................................... 13

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INTRODUCTION

Charvaka (IAST: Crvka), originally known as Lokyata and Br haspatya, is the ancient school of
Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as
proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects Vedas, Vedic ritualism,
and supernaturalism.

Ajita Kesakambali is credited as the forerunner of the Charvakas, while Brihaspati is usually referred
to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokyata philosophy. Much of the primary literature of Charvaka,
the Barhaspatya sutras (ca. 600 BCE), are missing or lost. Its teachings have been compiled from
historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras, sutras, and the Indian epic poetry as
well as in the dialogues of Gautama Buddha and from Jain literature.

One of the widely studied principles of Charvaka philosophy was its rejection of inference as a
means to establish valid, universal knowledge, and metaphysical truths. In other words, the Charvaka
epistemology states that whenever one infers a truth from a set of observations or truths, one must
acknowledge doubt; inferred knowledge is conditional.

Charvaka is categorized as a heterodox school of Indian philosophy. It is considered an example of

atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition.

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As Lokayata

According to Chattopadhyaya, the traditional name of Charvaka is Lokayata. It was called Lokayata
because it was prevalent (ayatah) among the people (lokesu), and meant the world-outlook of the
people. The dictionary meaning of Lokyata signifies "directed towards, aiming at the world,
worldly".

In early to mid 20th century literature, the etymology of Lokayata has been given different
interpretations, in part because the primary sources are unavailable, and the meaning has been
deduced from divergent secondary literature. The name Lokyata, for example, is found
in Chanakya's Arthashastra, which refers to three nvks iks literally, examining by reason,[21] logical
philosophies) Yoga, Samkhya and Lokyata. However, Lokyata in the Arthashastra is not anti-
Vedic, but implies Lokyata to be a part of Vedic lore. Lokyata here refers to logic or science of
debate (disputatio, "criticism"). Rudolf Franke translated Lokayata in German as "logisch
beweisende Naturerklrung", that is "logically proving explanation of nature".

In 8th century CE Jaina literature, Saddarsanasamuccaya by Haribhadra, Lokayata is stated to be the

Hindu school where there is "no God, no samsara (rebirth), no karma, no duty, no fruits of merit, no
sin."

The Buddhist Sanskrit work Divyavadana (ca. 200350 CE) mentions Lokayata, where it is listed
among subjects of study, and with the sense of "technical logical science".Shantarakshita and Adi
Shankara use the word lokayata to mean materialism, with the latter using the term Lokyata, not
Charvaka. The terms Lokayata and Brhaspatya have been used interchangeably for the Charvaka
philosophy of materialism.

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ORIGIN

The tenets of the Charvaka atheistic doctrines can be traced to the relatively later composed layers of
the Rigveda, while substantial discussions on the Charvaka is found in post-Vedic literature. The
primary literature of Charvaka, such as the Brhaspati Sutra is missing or lost. Its theories and
development has been compiled from historic secondary literature such as those found in the shastras
(such as the Arthashastra), sutras and the epics (the Mahabharata and Ramayana) of Hinduism as
well as from the dialogues of Gautama Buddha and Jain literature.

Substantial discussions about the Charvaka doctrines are only found in texts after 600
BCE. Bhattacharya posits that Charvaka may have been one of several atheistic, materialist schools
that existed in ancient India. Though there is evidence of its development in Vedic era, Charvaka
emerged as an alternative to the stika schools as well as a philosophical predecessor to subsequent
or contemporaneous philosophies such as jvika, Jainism and Buddhism in the classical period of
Indian philosophy.

The earliest documented Charvaka scholar in India is Ajita Kesakambali. Although materialist
schools existed before Charvaka, it was the only school which systematised materialist philosophy
by setting them down in the form of aphorisms in the 6th century BC. There was a base text, a
collection stras or aphorisms and several commentaries were written to explicate the aphorisms.

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E. W. Hopkins, in his The Ethics of India (1924) claims that Charvaka philosophy was
contemporaneous to Jainism and Buddhism, mentioning "the old Crvka or materialist of the 6th
century BC". Rhys Davids assumes that lokyata in ca. 500 BC came to mean "skepticism" in
general without yet being organised as a philosophical school. Its methodology of skepticism is
included in the Ramayana, Ayodhya kanda, chapter 108, where Jabli tries to persuade Rma to
accept the kingdom by using nstika arguments (Rma refutes him in chapter 109):

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Epistemology
The Charvaka epistemology holds perception as the primary and proper source of knowledge, while
inference is held as prone to being either right or wrong and therefore conditional or invalid.
Perceptions are of two types, for Charvaka, external and internal. External perception is described as
that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is
described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind. Inference is described as deriving a new
conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths. To Charvakas, inference is
useful but prone to error, as inferred truths can never be without doubt. Inference is good and helpful,
it is the validity of inference that is suspect sometimes in certain cases and often in others. To the
Charvakas there were no reliable means by which the efficacy of inference as a means of knowledge
could be established.

Charvaka's epistemological argument can be explained with the example of fire and smoke. Kamal
states, that when there is smoke (middle term), one's tendency may be to leap to the conclusion that it
must be caused by fire (major term in logic). While this is often true, it need not be universally true,
everywhere or all the times, stated the Charvaka scholars. Smoke can have other causes. In Charvaka
epistemology, as long as the relation between two phenomena, or observation and truth, has not been
proven as unconditional, it is an uncertain truth. Such methods of reasoning, that is jumping to
conclusions or inference, is prone to flaw in this Indian philosophy. Charvakas further state that full
knowledge is reached when we know all observations, all premises and all conditions. But the
absence of conditions, state Charvakas, can not be established beyond doubt by perception, as some
conditions may be hidden or escape our ability to observe. They acknowledge that every person
relies on inference in daily life, but to them if we act uncritically, we err. While our inference
sometimes are true and lead to successful action, it is also a fact that sometimes inference is wrong
and leads to error. Truth then, state Charvaka, is not an unfailing character of inference, truth is
merely an accident of inference, and one that is separable. We must be skeptics, question what we
know by inference, question our epistemology.

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Metaphysics

Since none of the means of knowing were found to be worthy to establish the invariable connection
between middle term and predicate, Charvakas concluded that the inference could not be used to
ascertain metaphysical truths. Thus, to Charvakas, the step which the mind takes from the knowledge
of something to infer the knowledge of something else could be accounted for by its being based on a
former perception or by its being in error. Cases where inference was justified by the result were seen
only to be mere coincidences.

Therefore, Charvakas denied metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, an extracorporeal soul, the
efficacy of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate and accumulation of merit or demerit
through the performance of certain actions. Charvakas also rejected the use of supernatural causes to
describe natural phenomena. To them all natural phenomena was produced spontaneously from the
inherent nature of things.

Pleasure

Charvaka believed that there was nothing wrong with sensual pleasure. Since it is impossible to have
pleasure without pain, Charvaka thought that wisdom lay in enjoying pleasure and avoiding pain as
far as possible. Unlike many of the Indian philosophies of the time, Charvaka did not believe in
austerities or rejecting pleasure out of fear of pain and held such reasoning to be foolish..

The Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha states the Charvaka position on pleasure and hedonism as follows,

The enjoyment of heaven lies in eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine
clothes, perfumes, garlands, sandal paste... while moksha is death which is cessation of life-breath...
the wise therefore ought not to take pains on account of moksha.

A fool wears himself out by penances and fasts. Chastity and other such ordinances are laid down by
clever weaklings

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Religion

Charvakas rejected many of the standard religious conceptions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, such
as afterlife, reincarnation, samsara, karma and religious rites. They were critical of the Vedas, as well
as Buddhist scriptures.

The Sarvadaranasamgraha with commentaries by Madhavacharya describes the Charvakas as

critical of Vedas, materialists without morals and ethics. To Charvakas, the text states, the Vedas
suffered from several faults errors in transmission across generations, untruth, self-contradiction
and tautology. The Charvakas pointed out the disagreements, debates and mutual rejection
by karmakanda Vedic priests and jnakanda Vedic priests, as proof that either one of them is wrong
or both are wrong, as both cannot be right.

Charvakas, according to Sarvadaranasamgraha verses 10 and 11, declared the Vedas to be

incoherent rhapsodies whose only usefulness was to provide livelihood to priests. They also held the
belief that Vedas were invented by man, and had no divine authority.

Charvakas rejected the need for ethics or morals, and suggested that "while life remains, let a man
live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt".

The Jain scholar Haribhadra, in the last section of his text Saddarsanasamuccaya, includes Charvaka
in six daranas of Indian traditions, along with Buddhism, Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Jainism and
Jaiminiya. Haribhadra notes that Charvakas assert that there is nothing beyond the senses,
consciousness is an emergent property, and that it is foolish to seek what cannot be seen.

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Controversy on reliability of sources
Bhattacharya states that the claims against Charvaka of hedonism, lack of any morality and ethics
and disregard for spirituality is from texts of competing religious philosophies (Buddhism, Jainism
and Hinduism). Its primary sources, along with commentaries by Charvaka scholars is missing or
lost. This reliance on indirect sources raises the question of reliability and whether there was a bias
and exaggeration in representing the views of Charvakas. Bhattacharya points out that multiple
manuscripts are inconsistent, with key passages alleging hedonism and immorality missing in many
manuscripts of the same text.

The Skhalitapramathana Yuktihetusiddhi by ryadevapda, in a manuscript found in Tibet, discusses

the Charvaka philosophy, but attributes a theistic claim to Charvakas - that happiness in this life, and
the only life, can be attained by worshiping gods and defeating demons. Toso posits that as Charvaka
philosophy's views spread and were widely discussed, non-Charvakas such as ryadevapda added
certain points of view that may not be of the Charvakas'.

Buddhists, Jains, Advaita Vedantins and Nyya philosophers considered the Charvakas as one of
their opponents and tried to refute their views. These refutations are indirect sources of Charvaka
philosophy. The arguments and reasoning approach Charvakas deployed were significant that they
continued to be referred to, even after all the authentic Charvaka/Lokyata texts had been lost.

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However, the representation of the Charvaka thought in these works is not always firmly grounded in
first-hand knowledge of Charvaka texts and should be viewed critically.

Bibliography

1. FRANK THILLY, A HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, REVISED EDITION (2007, CENTRAL

PUBLISHING HOUSE(1984)

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