Sambodhi 1979 Vol 08

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 37

36
Arvind Sharma
a person who believes in ‘eat, drink and be merry' (the root 'carv' means to eat), or a person who eats up his own words, or who eats up all moral and ethical considerations, or a person who is 'sweet-tongued' (chāruvāka) and therefore whose doctrine is superficially attractive".17 “Thus the word Carvaka holds good partly as the name of the founder of the system but is also explained in a diffierent way"18 and ways.
IV The word Lokāyata19 is similarly explained in a variety of ways. Those may be listed as follows:
(1) “Lokayata literally means 'one who goes the worldly way":20
(2) Lokāyata means "(literally, that which is found among people in general)",21
(3) Lokāyata "means a commoner and therefore, by implication, a man of low and unrefined taste";22
(4) Lokāyata, “the very name given to these heretics would seem to imply that their doctrines had met with a world-wide acceptance (Lokāyatikas)";23
(5) Lokäyata "i. e. a doctrine which concerns this world". 24
V
There is less scope for difference of opinion when it comes to the designation of Bārbaspatya as obviously it has to be connected with BỊhaspati but the identity of Bịhaspati is not at all clear. Indeed “BỊhaspati is no doubt a very perplexing character. His name is given as that of the author of two Vedic hymns, X, 71, X, 72, a distinction being made between a Bphaspati Angiras and a Bșhaspati Laukya (Laukayatika ?)". 25 He again appears in the Upanişads and the "Maitri Upanişad describes him as a heretical teacher". 27 In any case, “In later Sanskrit, a Bārhaspatya or a follower of Bịhaspati, has come to mean an infidel in general".27
To conclude : the materialist school of ancient India has suffered doubly. Not only authentic works of the school itself are no longer availablo, the exact derivations of the names by which it is known also do not seem to be traceable with any measure of certainty.
Foot-Notes 1 Surendranarb Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy Vol. 1 (Cambridge
University Press, 1957) p. 78; V. M. Bedekar (tr.) Erich Frauwallner History of Indian Philosophy Vol. II (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973) p. 258 note 386; etc.