1862.] The Ch&rvaka System of Philosophy. 373 



sented as going to Brihaspati and begging for a piece of the sacred 

 Purodas a though it were only the size of a jujube fruit, to support 

 his fainting strength, just as Aristophanes represents the gods coming 

 to Peisthetserus when the walls of Nephelococcygia interrupted the 

 smoke of the sacrifices. Brihaspati in compassion promises to aid 

 him in recovering his lost dominion, and for this purpose he invented 

 a new system of atheistical doctrines, " A practical S'astra of atheism, 

 utterly hostile to religion, most subtile of logical systems, and 

 beguiling the hearts of the wicked, though such as could never please 

 the mind of the truly virtuous." This new S'astra of Brihaspati 

 easily deluded the minds of the young princes, and they soon lost all 

 their merit and fell from their ' pride of place,' and Indra regained 

 his throne. 



The earliest mention which I have found of the word Nuslika (nihi- 

 list,) or its derivatives is in the Maitrayanf Upanishad (3rd book, § 5) 

 where Ndstilcya is enumerated as one of the effects of the quality of 

 darkness.* NdstiJca smAJWdstikya occur several times in Manu. In the 

 Ramayana we have an allusion to nastikas in ch. 109 (Schlegel'sed), 

 of the Ayodhya. Kanda, where Kama censures Jabali for advising him 

 to break his father's vow and return to his capital. 



" I blame that deed of my father that he chose as his priest one 

 so unstable-minded as thee, — wandering to ruin with such opinions, 

 a very atheist {Nastika) astray from the path of religion. 



" As is the thief, so too is the Bauddha ; and know that the Nas- 

 tika is equal to them. Therefore the sage whom men most hold in 

 awe, will not speak face to face with the Nastika.f " 



We find Niistilca as well as dstika in the Purohitagana attached 

 to Panini's grammar. I have already mentioned that Charvaka ap- 



* Buddhist, or materialist, opinions seem alluded to in such passages as Chhan- 

 dogya Upanishad, VI. 2, 1, &c. 



t There is a variation in Schlegel's text and that of the late Calcutta edition. 

 The former has rrgn"f% S3." "St^JrTlTJ ^3iT«rt ; tlie latter has ^^cT^f:, and the 

 Scliol. explains the S'loka thus ; 



rl^TfT ^T^THWr^TSJ TT^T %^^ ^iforf *^?r^T W ^ ^FT^^T 



graf«Rq*: i g<gRTwr <^p?«*h ^wsfa rrf^w snfxf?r ^f%?j I 



° 3c2 



