1862.] 
373 
The Chdrvdka System of Philosophy. 
seated as going to Briliaspati 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. Briliaspati 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 Briliaspati 
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 Nastika (nihi¬ 
list,) or its derivatives is in the Maitrayani Upanishad (3rd hook, § 5) 
where Ndstikya is enumerated as one of the effects of the quality of 
darkness.* Nastika and Ndstikya occur several times in Manu. In the 
Ramayana we have an allusion to nastikas in eh. 109 (Schlegel’sed), 
of the Ayodhya Kanda, where Rama 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 Ndstika as well as distika in the Purohitagana attached 
to Panini’s grammar. 1 have already mentioned that Oharvaka ap- 
* Buddhist., or materialist, opinions seem alluded to in such passages as Chhan- 
dogya Upanishad, VI. 2, 1, &c. 
f There is a variation in Scldegel’s text and that of the late Calcutta edition. 
The former has ; the latter has and the 
Sohol. explains the S'loka thus ; 
<T*IT ^frT ^Tlf^ <T^T- 
j j j " 
3Irf I rT^fT 
^TTT^TrT I 
rr^Trr <u*ifag iurccrw 
I rff%w ^’if^fri i 
3 c 2 
