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Paper Title: Materialism in Ancient India: A Philosophical Analysis of Lokāyata
Authors Name: Dr. Biswajit Dey
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IJRTI_210781
Published Paper Id: IJRTI2603157
Published In: Volume 11 Issue 3, March-2026
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Abstract: India's philosophical history is written largely in terms of its idealist traditions such as VedA, Buddhism, and Jainism, but one of its most intellectually daring traditions has been waylaid by centuries of polemical distortion. Lokayata - the materialist school associated with the mythical teacher C Hawaiya, held that matter was the only reality and perception was his only source of valid knowledge and the pursuit of pleasure was the only rational human end. These were no fringe provocation but consistent philosophical positions that undermined the very dogmatism that was at the beginning of all the leading schools of Indian thinking. But no original texts of the Lokayatas have survived, and scholars are almost wholly dependent on the writings of their enemies for an understanding of the tradition. It is argued in this paper that Lokayata deserves philosophical attention more than being a mere second-hand smoke that the fact of its marginalization tells more about the sociology of religious power in ancient India as opposed to the fact and ultimate worth of its arguments. The analysis takes a methodological approach of critical reconstruction, analysing the polemical literature of competitive schools - Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jaina, all accusing one another of tainted doctrines and beliefs - to restore the best version of Lokayata's positions than what its critics supposedly liked to critique. The key findings, the paper says, are threefold. And first, the epistemological dependence of Lokayata on perception alone (pratyaksa) is philosophically more defensible than Lokayata's naysayers allowed for. Second, with its materialist account of consciousness, it has anticipated, with remarkable accuracy, debates in today's philosophy of mind. Third, the ethical hedonism taxis of the tradition is not the rudimentary sensualism it was presented to be, but an ethical commitment against the transcendent moral structures that are not empirically based. The intellectual value of the paper is two-fold, namely, in its practice of treating Lokayata as a philosophical side as well as a historical supplement, and, in insisting in using the comparative device of Greek atomism and the contemporary physicalism as to shewing that the ancient Indian materialism was an element of a larger, inter-cultural, maximal-human endeavour at explaining the world without so recourse as a theological one. For students and scholars of Indian philosophy, this paper provides a corrective to an idealist bias that has characterised the field for a long time.
Keywords: Lokāyata, Cārvāka, Indian materialism, pratyakṣa, philosophy of mind, ancient Indian philosophy, hedonism, epistemology, metaphysical naturalism
Cite Article: "Materialism in Ancient India: A Philosophical Analysis of Lokāyata", International Journal for Research Trends and Innovation (www.ijrti.org), ISSN:2456-3315, Vol.11, Issue 3, page no.b507-b521, March-2026, Available :http://www.ijrti.org/papers/IJRTI2603157.pdf
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ISSN: 2456-3315 | IMPACT FACTOR: 8.14 Calculated By Google Scholar| ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 8.14 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publication Details: Published Paper ID: IJRTI2603157
Registration ID:210781
Published In: Volume 11 Issue 3, March-2026
DOI (Digital Object Identifier):
Page No: b507-b521
Country: RAIGANJ, UTTAR DINAJPUR, WEST BENGAL, INDIA
Research Area: Arts
Publisher : IJ Publication
Published Paper URL : https://www.ijrti.org/viewpaperforall?paper=IJRTI2603157
Published Paper PDF: https://www.ijrti.org/papers/IJRTI2603157
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ISSN: 2456-3315
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