Jain Journal 2008 04 No 04

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

Page 9

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya : TheCavākas and the Jains: Anvoerview
B
Like all other philosophical systems of India the Cārvāka-s too had a sutra work and several commentaries thereon. Unfortunately none of them has survived. Attempts have been made to reconstruct the basic tenets of the system by assiduously collecting all fragments that lie scattered in the works of other philosophical schools. Jain authors right from Jinabhadra down to Gunaratna and others provide us with an invaluable source of information. No fewer than seventeen authors of original philosophical works, commentators of Jain canonical texts and compilers of digests/compendia have quoted almost verbatim both from the now-lost Cārvākasūtra and its commentaries. Not that Jain philosophical works alone refer to them but the readings of the aphorisms are confirmed by comparing them with other Brahminical and Buddhist books of the same nature. The names of Anantavīrya, Haribhadra, Hemacandra, Prabhācandra, Siddharși, Vadidevasūri, and Vādirājasūri deserve special mention. As regards the commentators of the Carvakasutra, three of them have been mentioned and quoted more or less extensively by the Jain savants. Without their help we would have no supporting evidence about the commentaries of Aviddhakarṇa, Purandara and Udbhaṭabhaṭṭa. Vādidevasūri refers to Udbhața as jarad-dvijanmāmahānubhāvaḥ, "respectable veteran twice-born". This also proves that the Cārvākas were taken as serious philosophers and not merely as propounders of an eat-drint-and-be-merry attitude to life. The logical acumen of Aviddhakarṇa and Udbhața is clear from the extracts quoted in Jain philosophical works.
Similarly at least six verses attributed to the Carvākas also occur in the works of Jain writers. They also help us to determine the original readings of the couplets.
More importantly, Jain works, both philosophical and nonphilosophical, make us aware of the existence of two materialist 4. See n2. all sources are to be found here.
54 SVR, 764, lines 24-25
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