Jain Journal 2008 04 No 04

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

Page 7

JAIN JOURNAL
Vol. XLII
No. 4 April
2008
THE CĀRVĀKAS AND THE JAINS: AN OVERVIEW
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya
The Cārvākas, the Buddhists and the Jains share a common platform in the Indian philosophical scene in as much as they all refused to accept the Vedas as an instrument of cognition on a par with perception and inference. Hence the Brahminical philosophical schools call all of them nästika -s, that is, negativist, non-believers in the Vedas. Curiously enough, the Jains and the Buddhists in their turn brand the Cārvākas as nāstika for an altogether different reason, viz. the Cārvākas deny the existence of the after-world and the concept of rebirth.'
Ambiguity in the use of the two terms, āstika and nāstika, is a pointer to the antagonistic relations between the pro-Vedic (Brahminical or orthodox) philosophical schools, such as the six traditional systems of philosophy, namely, Mīmāṁsā, Nyāya, etc. on the one hand, and the non-Vedic (anti-Brahminical or heterodox) systems on the other. At the same time all the three heterodox systems had very little in common to them. In their acceptance of after-life, the Jains were akin to the Brahminical school, but in their opposition to animal sacrifice in ritual performances and post-mortem rites (śrāddha), their views tally with that of the Buddhists.
This leads us to an interesting question : what was the attitude of the Cārvākas towards non-violence ? Being uncompromising materialists, quite naturally they had nothing to do with the Vedic sacrificial act (yajña) or performance of post-mortem rites. In a number
1. For different meanings of astika, and nastika, see, besides the standard Sanskrit
dictionaries, Hopkins, 86-87.