Jain Journal 2003 01

SR No.: 520149
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2003
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 14

HEMACANDRA ON THE CARVAKA: ASTUDY: RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARY
Here, too, there is a paradox. In his polemics against the Mīmāsaka, Hemacandra cites an anonymous verse, which is generally attributed to the Carvāka. The verse runs as follows:
mṛtānāmapi jantūnām yadi tṛptirbhavediha / nirvāṇasya pradipasya snehaḥ sa-vardhayecchikām || 45 If (the śraddha ceremony) satisfies the dead beings here, then oil might increase the flame of an extinguished lamp.
Mallişena also quotes this verse (with some variants) in his commentary on AYVD, v.11, which is devoted to controverting the Pūrva-Mīmā-sā doctrine enjoining hi-sā (ritual killing) :
mṛtānāmapi jantūnām śrāddha, cet tṛptikāraṇam / tannirvāṇapradipasya snehaḥ sa-vardhayecchikḥām // 46
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If even to dead beings the Śraddha is the cause of satisfaction, Then oil might increase the flame of an extinguished lamp.47
Thomas notes that the verse "is clearly in the style of Cārvāka comments; but in the Sarva-darśana-sa-graha, where the first line is given as such, the second line differs."48 The variant is insignificant: nirvāṇasya pradīpasya for tannirvāṇapradīpasya. But what is more significant is that while the second hemistich of the first line as quoted in YS-vytti differs from SDS (śrāddha- cet tṛpti-kāraṇam), the second line, however, is identical with what is found in SDS.49 But SDS is not the only source of this verse. It first occurs in Kṛṣṇamiśra's allegorical play, PC.50 Sāyaṇa-Madhava might have taken the verse from this source inasmuch as the readings in both PC and SDS are identical.
From whichever source Kṛṣṇamiśra, Hemacandra and Mallisena might have got the verse, only Kṛṣṇamiśra attributes it to the Carvaka whereas the Jain writers simply utilize it is order to assail Jaimini. Given Hemacandra's antipathy to the Cārvāka-s it is difficult to believe that he did not know that the verse had been attributed to the Cārvāka-s.
Kṛṣṇamiśra's attribution of the verse to the Carvāka-s in PC is then open to doubt. In fact, the verses at the end of SDS, Ch. I, might have been gathered from various sources, including the Buddhist and Jain ones, and then attributed to Bṛhaspati." But that is a different issue.