1862.] The Ch&rvdha System of Philosophy. 871 



The Chdrvaha System of Philosophy. — By E. B. Cowell, M. A. 



Colebrooke (Essays, Vol. I. p. 402) states that " for want of an 

 opportunity of consulting an original treatise on this branch of 

 philosophy or any connected summary furnished even by an adver- 

 sary of opinions professed by the Charvakas," he was unable to give 

 any sufficient account of their peculiar doctrine further than that it 

 is undisguised materialism. The system is continually alluded to in 

 different philosophical treatises, but it is only by the recent publica- 

 tion, in our Society's Bibliotheca, of Madhavacharya's Sarva-dars'ana- 

 sangraha, that the want which Colebrooke regretted has in any way 

 been supplied. Among the fourteen systems there analysed, that of 

 the Charvakas holds the first place ; it being entitled to that priority 

 in consequence of its being the most degraded of all, — the nest places 

 to it being successively occupied by those of the Bauddhas and the 

 Jainas. 



A translation of this chapter appeared in the fourteenth Vol. of the 

 Zeitschrift der Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, but unfortunately it 

 abounds with errors of every description, that it can convey no proper 

 idea of the original. In fact one might almost doubt whether such a 

 book as the Sarvadars'ana-sangraha could be properly translated in 

 Europe. Even here it is difficult to understand it in the absence of any 

 commentary, even with all the assistance at one's command of pandits 

 thoroughly versed in the ancient philosophies of their ancestors ; and 

 there are many parts of the volume, which the most learned pandits 

 of Bengal confess their inability to explain.* 



The doctrines of the Charvakas are frequently confounded with 

 those of the Bauddhas and Jainas, but Madhava's summary, as well 

 as still more authentic notices from the sects themselves, proves 

 that this is erroneous. Charvaka is sometimes taken as the name 

 of a leader of the sect, and sometimes as a generic title, — in the 

 Mahabhilrata mention is made of a rakshasa of that name, who en- 

 deavours by a false report of Bhima's death to ruin the Pabdavas in 

 the moment of their final triumph. Most accounts, however, ascribe 

 the founding of the sect to Brihaspati. We might have more natur- 



* Tlie present chapter is one of the easiest in the work, but there are several 

 passages in it which 1 could not have translated, but for the aid of Pandit Moliesh 

 Chandra Nviiyaratna. 



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