________________
one Source
ledge and
tyaksha.
been admitted, divided and defined from differ- The Char
váka Critic ent points of view by different sages and cism of
Knowledge. scholars of different ages and climes to suit their respective systems of thought.
Whoever has a little acquaintance with the different Indian systems of thought knows full well that the followers of the Chârvaka School admit of but one source of knowledge, viz. Experience, i. e. sense. There is but perception (947), contemptuously rejecting of Knowthe other sources, viz. Inference, (qqaa), that is PraTestimony (97), Tradition (aray), Iinpli. cation (taiafer), Probability (Hara) and Nonentity (THT), which are warranted in drawing from facts of experience. Little indeed do we know what is really taught by the Sage Brihaspati, the oldest propounder of the most uncompromising materialism and thorough going Epicuranism or whence he drew his inspiration to rely solely on sense perception or facts of actual experience and to overlook other logical inferences and the like which have been in vogue from time immemorial ; for, where we perceive smoke we infer at once the fire there, or, when a reliable person informs any one that there are fruits he
47
