Nāstika:

Atheism in Indian Philosophy

Surja Datta
 Occident Orient

Rational Hierarchical
Enlightenment Spirituality
Materialistic Artisanal
Science Superstitious
Scientific method Despotic

Renaissance Industrial Mystical

Sensual

Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’

 Other-worldly asceticism
The Weberian
Framework

Inner-worldly asceticism
 Indian Philosophy

Āstika (Theism) Nāstika (Atheism)

Directly influenced by Vedas Indirect influence of Vedas

Mīmāṃsā Yoga
Vedanta Sankhya
Nyaya Softcore
Hardcore
Vaisheshika
Jainism
Charvaka/ Lokayata/ Brhaspatya
Buddhism
 Indian Philosophy

Āstika (Theism) Nāstika (Atheism)

Directly influenced by Vedas Indirect influence of Vedas

Mīmāṃsā Yoga
Vedanta Sankhya
Nyaya Softcore
Hardcore
Vaisheshika
Jainism
Charvaka/ Lokayata/ Brhaspatya
Buddhism
 Ethics

Epistemology Charvaka Rituals

Metaphysics
 Ethics

Epistemology Charvaka Rituals

Metaphysics
Enjoy this life because this is the One is told to read Vedas to
only one you will ever have hide one’s own weaknesses

Charvaka Ethics
Charvaka = The one who ‘chews’ (charva)

Do not waste money on

Enjoy the company of women and
pilgrimage hoping for
drink wine in moderation
imaginary blessings
There is no next world, only this The self is nothing but the body
one, there is no after-life, no
reincarnation

Charvaka Metaphysics
Charvaka = The one who says sweet things (charu-bak)
to corrupt innocent minds

Life and consciousness are

Ultimate reality is the matter the same, indivisible. Body
gone, consciousness gone
Any knowledge gained through The inference of fire from smoke
inference cannot be considered can be valid only when it is
permanently valid, it can always established that all cases of
be negated through new smoke are fire
information
Charvaka Epistemology
Charvaka = The ‘rakshas’ who told the truth

Knowledge gained through direct Empirical observations

sense-perceptions can be trusted trump inferences
Critics accuse Charvakas of But Charvakas do not deny the utility
denying the utility of inferences of inferences drawn from empirical
observations in the material world

Charvaka Epistemology

Inference presupposes a universal relation

(vyapti) between the middle term (linga, e.g
smoke) and major term (sadhya, e.g fire). But
this vyapti is an undue assumption. No Any inference that involves
source of valid knowledge can guarantee it metaphysics is useless
The Scientific Method

The idea of Empiricism aka

falsificationism logical positivism
The Scientific Method Charvaka
epistemology
anticipates both
pillars of the
scientific method

The idea of Empiricism aka

falsificationism logical positivism
 And Charvakas came up with these ideas at least 1700 years earlier
So, a potted history of Charvaka/Lokayata/Brhaspatya

Charvaka was essentially a movement against ‘Sanskritization’ of the society

Indians today learn in textbooks that the scientific method/ materialism is part of the
European Age of Enlightenment. They themselves have happily accepted the false
dichotomy of the occident and the orient.

West East

Physics Metaphysics

Why?
 Varna-Purusha Model Varna-Jati System

In Western Imagination In practice

Theoretical
abstraction Brahmins
found in the
Vedas
Kshatriyas

Vaisyas

Sudras

Dalits
‘Good’

‘Evil’