Who were Carvakas? What was their philosophy of life?
In English, there is an excellent compendium edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya.: Cārvāk/Lokāyata - An Anthology of Source Materials and Some Recent Studies, published (in 1990) by Indian Council of Philosophical Research. The book has the following source materials.
- Chandogya Upanisad (viii. 7-9): The Asura View
- Maitri Upanisad (vii. 8-9) : On the Ancient Heretics
- Payasi Suttanta : Denial of the Doctrine of Karma
- Samanna-phala-Sutta : The Non-conformists in Buddhist India
- Ancient Grammatical Literature
- Arthasastra (ii.1): Earliest Enumeration of Philosophies
- Epics and Puranas : See Muir's Article in Part II (No. 20), where all relevant sources are quoted
- Nyayasutra with Vatsyayana's Commentary
- On Inference
- Bhuta-caitanya-Vada
- Prasastapada-bhasya with Nyaya-kandali : Self as Distinct from Body etc
- Jayanta Bhatta's Nyaya-manjari :
- Dehatmavada
- On Inference
- Stray References
- Udayana's Nyayakusumanjali : Dehatmavada
- Santaraksita and Kamalasila :
- On Lokayata
- On Svabhavada
- Sankara's Sariraka-bhasya : On Dehatmavada
- Vacaspati's Bhamati : On Dehatmavada
- Madhavacarya's Sarvadarsana-samgraha : The Carvaka Philosophy
- Haribhadra with Commentaries by Manibhadra and Gunaratna :
- Saddarsanasamuccaya on Lokayata with Manibhadra's Commentary
- Gunaratna on Above
- Gunaratna on Bhutacaitanya-vada
- Gunaratna on Kalavada etc
- Prabhacandra's Prameya-kamala-Martanda and Nyaya-Kumuda-Candra :
- Bhuta-caitanya-Vada
- Refutation of Anumana
- Akhyativada
- Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India : A Quaint Legend of Refuting Lokayata
- Krsnamisra's Prabodhacandrodaya : Caricature of Carvaka
The book has also reproduced the Sukhilaji Sanghavi and RC Parikh's introduction to the published text of Tattvopaplavasimha of Jayarasi Bhatta. In addition to the above source materials, the book also has a collection of essays by modern scholars of Carvaka System of Philosophy.
In addition to the above, one should also read the books Lokayata (1959), Indian Atheism (1969), What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy, Science and Society in Ancient India, and In Defence of Materialsim in Indian Philosophy by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya.
Ramkrishna Bhattacharya's (whose writings appear on our website) recently published Studies on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata (2009) is another book that we recommend for those interested in the Carvaka System of Philosophy.
Writings on Indian Materialist Philosophy in Ancient India Available on this Website:
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Materialism in India: A Synoptic View
- August Thalheimer: Indian Materialism
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Syncretism in the Caraka and Suśruta saṃhitās
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Reasoners and Religious Law-makers: An Ancient Indian Case Study
- HP Sastri: Lokayata
- Rhys Davids: On Lokayata Philosophy
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: History of Indian Materialism
- Madhavacharya: The Chárváka System
- J Muir: Essay on Carvaka/Lokayata
- Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya: Lokayata Materialism
- Dipak Nandy: Ancient Indian Materialism
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Marx and the Materialist Tradition in Indian Philosophy
- Donald H Bishop: The Heterodox Schools of Indian Thought
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Cārvāka Miscellany
- V Brodov: The Materialism of the Samkhya Philosophy
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Rationalism in Bengal: An Overview
- Krsna Misra: Carvaka Philosophy in Prabodhacandrodaya
- Sita K Nambiar: Kṛṣnamiṡra’s Prabodhacandrodya - A Critical Introduction
- Erich Frauwallner: The Materialism
- Giuseppe Tucci: A Sketch of Indian Materialism
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Lokayata Darsana and a Comparative Study with Greek Materialism - Part I
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Cārvāka/Lokāyata: Some Common Misrepresentations Examined (Second part of Lokayata Darsana and a Comparative Study with Greek Materialism)
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Lokāyata Materialism: Classification of Source Materials
- Walter Ruben: Uddalaka and Yajnavalkya: Materialism & Idealism
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: The Social Outlook of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata: A Reconstruction
- S.K.Belvalkar & R.D.Ranade: AjitaKesa-Kambalin
- S.K.Belvalkar & R.D.Ranade: Materialism in Indian Philosophy
- S.K.Belvalkar & R.D.Ranade: The Lokayata School
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Remembering Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: What the Cārvākas Originally Meant: More on the Commentators on the Cārvākasutra (PART I & PART II)
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Commentators on the Cārvākasūtra: A Critical Survey (Part I & Part II)
- MN Roy: Materialism in Indian Philosophy – Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: What is Meant by Svabhava: Chattopadhyaya and Needham
- MN Roy: Materialist Philosophy of Kanada and Kapila (Part II of Materialism in Indian Philosophy)
- MN Roy: Buddhist Materialism (Part III of Materialism in Indian Philosophy)
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya'sAssessment and Reassessment of the Sāmañña-phala-sutta : A Critique
- MN Roy: Adi Shankara and Indian Materialist Philosophy (Part IV of Materialism in Indian Philosophy)
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: D. D. Kosambi’s Views on the Six Heretics and the Buddha: ACritique
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Lokāyata and Its Derivatives in the Sad-dharma-puṇḍarīka-sūtra
- Krishna Del Toso: Book Review: “Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata”
- Subhendu Sarkar: Book Review: Carvaka Philosophy - A New Look (Review of Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata)
- DD Kosambi: The Decline of Buddhism in India
- Chandogya Upanisad: Materialist Philosophy in Chandogya Upanisad
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Development of Materialism in India: The Pre-Cārvākas and the Cārvākas
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: The Base Text and Its Commentaries: Problems of Representing and Understanding Carvaka/Lokayata (Part I, Part II, Part III)
- G Ramakrishna: Critics of Lokayatika-s: the Accusers Accused
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Hegel, Heine, Marx: Hanuman and Sabala
- T.A.P Aryaratne: The Belief in Rebirth and the Gospel of Gautama Buddha
- Th. Stcherbatsky: History of Materialism in India
- Sarvananda Pathak: Carvaka Darsana ki Sastriya Samiksa
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: The Cārvākas and The Jains: An Overview
- Krishna Del Toso: The Wolf’s Footprints: Indian Materialism in Perspective - PART I (An Annotated Conversation with Ramkrishna Bhattacharya
- Bina Gupta: Skepticism: Ancient 'East' and Modern 'West' - Part I & II
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Lectures on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata Philosophy: An Overview of the Cārvāka/Lokāyata Materialism
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Lectures on the Cārvāka/Lokāyata Philosophy: Some Common Misrepresentations concerning the Cārvāka/Lokāyata Examined
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Tattvopaplavavāda of Jayarāśi and its Alleged Relation to the Cārvāka/Lokāyata
- G Ramakrishna: Professor Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya as a Researcher
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: Facets of Materialism in India - A Historical Outline - Part I
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: The Cārvākas against Caste and Gender Discrimination (Facets of Materialism in India - A Historical Outline - Part II)
- Bina Gupta: Skepticism: Ancient 'East' and Modern 'West' - Part III
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: From Proto-materialism to Materialism: The Indian Scenario - Part I
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: From Proto-materialism to Materialism: The Indian Scenario - Part II
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: What Is Materialism? [A History of Materialism From Ajita to Udbhaṭa - Part I]
- Ramkrishna Bhattacharya: What Is Materialism? [A History of Materialism From Ajita to Udbhaṭa - Part II]
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[Note: To those who are not familiar with the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), the word Carvaka is pronounced Charvaka (चार्वाक in Sanskrit). According to Wikipedia, IAST is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts]