382 The CMrvaka System of Philosophy. [No, 4, 



While life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee, even though 



lie runs in debt, 

 When once the body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again ? 

 If he who departs from the body goes to another world, 

 How is it that he comes not back again, restless for love of his kindred ? 

 Hence it is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmans have established 



here 

 All these ceremonies for the dead, — there is no other fruit anywhere. 

 The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves and demons. 

 All the well known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, &c* 

 And all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in the Aswarnedha, 

 These were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of pi'esents to 



the priests, f 

 While the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night prowling 



demons. 



Hence in kindness to the mass of living beings mnst we fly for 

 refuge to the doctrine of Charvaka. Such is the pleasant consum- 

 mation. 



It would have been an interesting inquiry, if we could have traced 

 the relations between the Hindu materialism and the orthodox systems 

 on the one hand and Buddhism on the other. But we can only weary 

 ourselves with asking questions to which there can be no answer, as 

 all traces of chronology and successive development have been obli- 

 terated in the present sutras of the Dars'anas. Each one now seems 

 to imply the contemporary existence of all the rest, and consequently 

 for historical purposes they are delusive and useless. We can only 

 tell that at a very early period in Hindu speculation, the " negative 

 arm" was unusually vigorous ; and it would not perhaps be impossible 

 to reconstruct from still extant allusions a complete series (though 

 not in chronological order,) corresponding in Greek philosophy to that 

 from Xenophanes to Sextus Empiricus. 



* Rig veda, x. 106. — For the As'wamedha rites, see Wilson's Rig V., preface, 

 Yol. ii. p. xiii. 



t Or this may mean " and all the various other things to be handled in the 

 rites." There seems something omitted in the s'lokas, as only two classes are 

 specified, and we should naturally expect that the knaves would have been con- 

 nected with the various offerings to the priests. — Could we venture to read *}n^- 



efrift for *rferTTSlt 3 and ^: for ^§: ? 



