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
XXIII - What is Meant by nāstika in the Nyāyasūtra Commentary?
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
Vātsyāyana in his commentary (Bhāṣya) on the NS employs the word, nāstika and its derivatives, nāstikatva, and nāstikya, thrice (on NS, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 3.2.61, IIIb60 in Ruben). The meaning of nāstika (lit. negativist) in the last two instances is conventional and readily comprehensible. But it is not so evident in the case of the first. I propose to deal with this problem in detail and consider the views of other explicators of the NS.
Let us begin with NS, 1.1.2. In course of explaining what is meant by false knowledge (mithyājñāna), Vātsyāyana enumerates how evils produced under the influence of attraction and repulsion lead to moral lapses: “Driven by the evils and through the agency of the body one commits violence, theft and incest. Through words (one is led to) plotting against others, covetousness and nāstikya.” Vātsyāyana adds that motivations like these are sinful, resulting in adharma, lack of merit.
Apparently nāstikya is here associated with irreligiosity. The Manu very succinctly explains nāstika as ‘a defiler of the Veda’, nāstiko vedanindakaḥ (2.11). Defiling the Veda is one of the worst sins in the eye of Brahminical orthodoxy. By including nāstikya in the enumeration of vices, Vātsyāyana records his unflinching devotion to the Veda as well as his own orthodoxy.
It is, however, well known that the term, nāstika, is also employed by the Buddhists and Jains to designate those who, instead of denying the validity of the Veda, used to deny the existence of the other-world or after-life (paraloka) and hence the concept of virtue and vice.
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- Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata , pp. 227 - 232Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011