Description
Book Synopsis‘Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata’ is the first attempt at a scientific study of the Carvaka/Lokayata, the materialist system of philosophy that flourished in ancient India between the eighth and the twelfth century CE. This study seeks to disprove certain notions about the Carvaka/Lokayata, particularly the following: that the Carvaka-s did not approve of any other instrument of cognition except perception; and that they advocated unalloyed sensualism and hedonism. This volume also seeks to establish the fact that there existed a pre-Carvaka school of materialism in India, although there is no way to prove that the Carvaka system grew out of it.
Table of ContentsPreface; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; I. Origin of Materialism in India: Royal or Popular?; II. Jain Sources for the Study of Pre-Carvaka Materialist Ideas in India; III. Ajita Kesakambala: Nihilist or Materialist?; V. Perception and Inference in the Carvaka Philosophy; V. Commentators of the ‘Carvakasutra’; VI. Carvaka Fragments: New Collection; VII. On the Authenticity of an Alleged Carvaka Aphorism; VIII. ‘Paurandarasutra’ Revisited; X. What Did the Carvaka-s Mean by ‘sukham jivet’?; X. Samkhya, Yoga and Lokayata in the ‘Kautiliya Arthasastra’: A Re-View; XI. Yogacara Against the Carvaka: Critical Survey of ‘Tattvasamgraha’, Chapter 22; XII. Jayantabhatta’s Representation of the Carvaka: Critique; XIII. What does Udayana mean by ‘lokavyavaharasiddha iti carvakah’?; XIV. Hemacandra on the Carvaka: Study; XV. Haribhadra’s ‘Saddarsanasamuccaya’, Verses 81-84: Study’ XVI. The Significance of ‘Lokayata’ in Pali; XVII. On ‘Lokayata’ and ‘Lokayatana’ in Buddhist Sanskrit; XVIII. ‘Lokayata’ and ‘Lokayatana’ in Sanskrit Dictionaries; XIX. ‘rnam krtva ghrtam pibet’ –Who Said This?; XX. ‘jivika dhatṛnirmita or jiviketi brhaspatih?’; XXI. ‘mrtanamapi jantunam...’; XXII. Carvaka/Lokayata Philosophy: Perso-Arabic Sources; XXIII. What is meant by ‘Nastika’ in the ‘Nyayasutra’ Commentary?; Bibliography
