Jain Journal 2003 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 10

HEMACANDRA ON THE CARVAKA: A STUDY: RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARY
Cārvākās but that which is called inference [by some], transgressing the worldly way, is prohibited [by them]."23 Bhatta Udbhața also distinguishes between the probanses well-established in the world (lokaprasiddha) and those established in the Scriptures (tantrasiddha).24 Similarly Jayantabhaṭṭa, referring obliquely to the Cārvāka, mentions two kinds of pratiti-s, "some in case of which inferential congnition can be acquired by oneself" (utpanna-pratiti) and "some in case of which inferential cognition is to be acquired (on somebody else's advice)" (utpädya-pratīti).25 According to the Carvaka-s only the former kind is valid, but the latter kind is not. By way of example Jayanta quotes two verse:
Indeed, who will deny the validity of inference when one infers fire from smoke, and so on; for even ordinary people ascertain the probandum by such inferences, though they may not be pestered by the logicians.
However, inferences that seek to prove a self, God, an omniscient being, the other world, and so on, are not considered valid by those who know the real nature of things.26
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Among the Jains, Ratnaprabha and Gunaratna, too, explain the Cārvāka view concerning inference in the same way, as does Pandit Sukhlalji Sanghvi in our own times.27
That there was no love lost between Hemacandra and the Cārvāka is also illustrated by his use of the word, varāka, which means 'wretched, low miserable, pitiable'.28 However, he reserves his uttermost hatred for the Mimämsaka. In the YS he writes:
vara- varākaścārvāko yo sau prakaṭanāstikaḥ / vedokti-tāpasacchadmacchannam rakso na jaiminiḥ //
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Rather Cārvāka who is worthy of pity and an open negativist than Jaimini, a demon, hidden under the disguise of an ascetic, mouthing the words of the Vedas.30
Last but not least, in his Triṣaști-śalākā-puruṣa-carita (Lives of Sixth-three Divine Personages), Hemacandra takes a fling at the materialists, presumably the Cärväka-s.31 Following the traditional mode of narrative found in some Buddhist and Jain tales,32 he also introduces a king whom his ministers, belonging to different philosophical persuations, try to persuade according to their