Makaranda Madhukar Anand Mahendale Festshrift

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

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Krishna S. Arjunwadkar
imaginative school-is spreading, like an epidemic, with unprecedented speed, in humanity subjects. This conclusion is supported by DPC himself when he says that his is a 'systematic effort to study ancient Indian philosophy from the materialistic point of view' and that 'it has to be highly argumentative'; for, he argues, "What we are actually left with are merely a few fragmentary survivals of Lokayata...of those who wanted only to refute and ridicule it.' He, therefore, believes that 'Lokäyata thus remains to be reconstructed from the essentially hostile references to it.' (Preface to Lokayata, pp. xiii and xv.) This explains why imagination plays the key-role in the writings of those who are for the resurrection of Cärväka. We do not find this type of research/ scientific discourse in ancient Indian tradition; it is a gift from the West-a boon to motivated research which inevitably leads to predetermined conclusions. The magic touch of the hand of Midas changed everything into the coveted precious metal; DPC's Marxist touch changes everything into materialism. What worries a discrete mind on seeing such a huge intellectual expenditure over anything but substantial is: in what way is human thought benefitted or furthered by such ventures founded basically on imagination?
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This, ultimately, leads us to a more serious question: does imagination which can at best indicate possibilities have a respectable place in a scientific discussion which requires its conclusions to be based on certainty? The difference between a possibility and a probability may be a point in a practical approach; for science, these two are no more than aspects of the same phenomenon. Unless a possibility is converted into a certainty by an unchallengeable proof, no guess can hope to be raised to the status of a scientific one. Till this stage is reached, all theories stand on the same level; and priorities are a matter of subjective views. This should not and must not prevent one from making and presenting enquiries at the sight of possibilities. What is to be noted is that an enquiry may start, but not end, with mere possibilities.
This discussion may not be construed to mean a denial of the existence of sects in India centred around woman and sex and all that goes with a licentious way of life as part of religious practices. They were, are, and-will be there under one pretext or the other, even justifiably, as long as human