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definite system of thought but no fixed expression, except as regards the numerous technicalities occurring in it-jiva, ajiva and the like. The Vedas, on the other hand, have a fixed expression in the idiom of the date of their composition, so that whatever be the time of their appearance in writing in a manuscript form, their language would naturally and necessarily point to the period of their authors. The issue, however, is not whether the expression of Vedic hymnology was fixed prior to the redaction of the Jaina Siddhântu, but whether that Siddhânta did or did not exist on the date of the composition of the Vedic hymns? But the determination of this point is not possible by the suppositionwhether assumed or real-of the greater antiquity of the language of the Vedic poetry, for the reasons given. It must, therefore, be left to be determined by those other considerations which we have relied upon in reaching the conclusion we have arrived at.
It only remains now to look into the philosophy of the much despised school of thought whose followers were termed Chârvâks. These were men who followed no religion, who denied the existence of the soul, who considered it useless to waste the short time at one's disposal in this world in the study of metaphysics or philosophy, and who fully gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the pleasures which the world affords. They had little or no philosophy, and the practical side of their lifee-we might call it their religion if we like-might be summed up in the formula, eat, drink and be merry.' That this palpably wretched creed at one time acquired the dignity of a school of philosophy is not
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