Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata
- I Origin of Materialism in India: Royal or Popular?
- II Jain Sources for the Study of Pre-Cārvāka Materialist Ideas in India
- III Ajita Kesakambala: Nihilist or Materialist?
- IV Perception and Inference in the Cārvāka Philosophy
- V Commentators of the Cārvākasūtra
- VI Cārvāka Fragments: A New Collection
- VII On the Authenticity of an Alleged Cārvāka Aphorism
- VIII Paurandarasūtra Revisited
- IX What Did the Cārvāka-s Mean by sukhaṃ jīvet?
- X Sāṃkhya, Yoga and Lokāyata in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra: A Re-View
- XI Yogācāra against the Cārvāka: A Critical Survey of Tattvasaṅgraha, Chapter 22
- XII Jayantabhaṭṭa's Representation of the Cārvāka: A Critique
- XIII What does Udayana Mean by lokavyavahārasiddha iti cārvākāḥ?
- XIV Hemacandra on the Cārvāka: A Survey
- XV Haribhadra's Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya, Verses 81-84: A Study
- XVI The Significance of Lokāyata in Pali
- XVII On Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Buddhist Sanskrit
- XVIII Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Sanskrit Dictionaries
- XIX ṛṇaṃ kṛtvā ghṛtaṃ pibet: Who Said This?
- XX jīvikā dhātṛnirmitā or jīviketi bṛhaspatiḥ?
- XXI mṛtānāmapi jantūnām…
- XXII Cārvāka/Lokāyata Philosophy: Perso-Arabic Sources
- XXIII What is Meant by nāstika in the Nyāyasūtra Commentary?
- Bibliography
XIX - ṛṇaṃ kṛtvā ghṛtaṃ pibet: Who Said This?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata
- I Origin of Materialism in India: Royal or Popular?
- II Jain Sources for the Study of Pre-Cārvāka Materialist Ideas in India
- III Ajita Kesakambala: Nihilist or Materialist?
- IV Perception and Inference in the Cārvāka Philosophy
- V Commentators of the Cārvākasūtra
- VI Cārvāka Fragments: A New Collection
- VII On the Authenticity of an Alleged Cārvāka Aphorism
- VIII Paurandarasūtra Revisited
- IX What Did the Cārvāka-s Mean by sukhaṃ jīvet?
- X Sāṃkhya, Yoga and Lokāyata in the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra: A Re-View
- XI Yogācāra against the Cārvāka: A Critical Survey of Tattvasaṅgraha, Chapter 22
- XII Jayantabhaṭṭa's Representation of the Cārvāka: A Critique
- XIII What does Udayana Mean by lokavyavahārasiddha iti cārvākāḥ?
- XIV Hemacandra on the Cārvāka: A Survey
- XV Haribhadra's Ṣaḍdarśanasamuccaya, Verses 81-84: A Study
- XVI The Significance of Lokāyata in Pali
- XVII On Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Buddhist Sanskrit
- XVIII Lokāyata and Lokāyatana in Sanskrit Dictionaries
- XIX ṛṇaṃ kṛtvā ghṛtaṃ pibet: Who Said This?
- XX jīvikā dhātṛnirmitā or jīviketi bṛhaspatiḥ?
- XXI mṛtānāmapi jantūnām…
- XXII Cārvāka/Lokāyata Philosophy: Perso-Arabic Sources
- XXIII What is Meant by nāstika in the Nyāyasūtra Commentary?
- Bibliography
Summary
At the end of the first chapter of the SDS, S-M quotes a number of verses and ascribes them to Bṛhaspati. One of them runs as follows:
yāvaj jīvet sukhaṃ jīved ṛṇaṃ kṛtvā ghṛtaṃ pibet|
bhasmībhūtasya dehasya punarāgamanaṃ kutaḥ∥
While life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt;
When once the body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again? (E.B. Cowell's translation)
To many this has become the epitome of the Cārvāka philosophy, which is thus reduced to hedonism par excellence —a doctrine that urges man to seek happiness at any cost and, at the same time, makes happiness a matter of sensuous gratification alone.
Where did S-M get this verse? No authority is cited in his work though some other verses or parts thereof can be traced back to earlier Purāṇas, plays and poems. The authenticity of such passages is therefore doubtful. It is also probable that S-M as well as his predecessors borrowed them from a common source —perhaps purely oral. That is why T.W. Rhys Davids suggested that S-M's description of the Lokāyata “is chiefly based on certain infidel doggerel verses which cannot possibly have formed a part of the Lokāyata studied by the Brahmins of old.”
There are, however, reasons to believe that at least in case of the verse cited above, S-M reproduced a distorted version of the original.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata , pp. 201 - 206Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011