Jain Journal 2003 01

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

Page 12

HEMACANDRA ON THE CĀRVĀKA:ASTUDY: RAMKRISHNA BHATTACHARY 139
What is to be noted in this passage is the juxtaposition of crude hedonism and materialism. Some of the philosophical doctrines attributed to the Cārvāka-s are also encountered here, e.g,
1. There is no next world. 2. Consciousness arises from four forms of matter. 3. There is no soul apart from the body. 4. There is no rebirth.
5. Religious duties are not to be performed. 34 Opponents of the Cārvāka doctrine, whether a Vedāntin like Sankarācārya (ninth century), Buddhists like Šāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla (eighth century), or a Jain like Prabhācandra (eleventh century), have controverted all this and quoted the relevant aphorisms from the now-lost Cārvākasūtra.35 However, none of them has called the Cärvāka a hedonist or a eudaemonianist-not at least in the same vein as Hemacandra does. 36 In the brahminical tradition, writers like Krşņamiśra (eleventh century) and Sriharsa (twelfth century) have echoed Hemacandra.37 Jayantabhatta in his allegorical play,
gamadambara has tarred the Jain and Buddhist mendicants as well as a kāpālika with the same brush. The Cārvāka view represented by Będdhambhi, however, is not branded as hedonist Cārvākas' opposition to all religious rites, it seems, has been misconstrued deliberately to suggest (as a reductio ad absurdum) that they preached a kind of 'eat drink and be merry' approach to life.
The same kind of baseless charge has been brought against Epicurus (341-270 BCE). 39 He did preach that pleasure was the aim of life. But it was not sensual pleasure, it was intellectual pleasure that one derives from prudence. In a letter to Menoeceus, Epicurus wrote:
When we say, then pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sunsuality, as we are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice or wilful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not sexual love, not the enjoyments of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning,