Dr. Devaraju Maharaju
We have received a great deal of information about Jainism and Buddhism. But why has information about the Charvakas and their literature not survived? The answer is that Vedic religious propagandists deliberately destroyed that literature, leaving no trace of it! So how did even this much information reach us? It reached us through the writings of Vedic scholars who fiercely condemned the Charvaka/Lokayata school. In other words, some facts have come down to us from the opponents of the Charvakas. Whatever points these opponents disagreed with — in the course of writing about those disagreements — some of the Charvakas' ideas became known to us. Viewed through a rationalist lens, it appears that the Charvakas were speaking the truth. For example, Dayananda Saraswati, in his Satyartha Prakash, while describing how the Charvakas rejected the Vedas, wrote: "If Vedic knowledge is absent, ignorance will spread." Shall we accept that? Similarly, the Charvakas held that offspring are born only through the union of parents — which is true — but Dayananda questioned them, asking how the first human being was born, and why the Charvakas failed to address this. It is from such opponents of the Charvakas that their ideas have reached us.
Dayananda Saraswati writes in his Satyartha Prakash that it was the teacher Brihaspati who widely propagated the Charvaka school of thought. Long before the common era, Brihaspati wrote numerous principles — on how to farm, how to conduct trade, how to exchange goods — covering many aspects essential to daily life at the time. Besides these, he also wrote about what qualities a ruling king should possess. In that era, there were eighteen republics (ganarajyas), each with its own Ishwara (lord/chief) — the head of the gana (assembly/clan) was called the Ganadhipati. Whoever was the lord of a gana was the Ganesha — this is not the elephant-trunked deity Ganapati invented by Vedic religious authorities; that is a fabricated ("trunk") Ganapati. Since the meaning of the original Ganapati (leader of a gana) of that era was distorted and folk tales were spread in its place, we may rightly call it a fabrication. Brihaspati described the qualities that the head of a gana should have as follows: "One who regards the earth as a mother, who looks after the happiness of the people, who is strong enough to protect them, who is wise enough to solve problems, and who does not cast a lustful eye on women." These ideas were articulated five thousand years ago. Long after that, Chanakya compiled all these elements and presented them as the Arthashastra. The name of Brihaspati, the teacher of the Charvakas, was suppressed, and instead fame was built around the Brahmin scholar Chanakya and his Arthashastra.
Although Charvaka literature has not survived in abundance, the Charvakas were the world's earliest rationalists to articulate materialism. We may call them materialists, physicalists, logicians, or atheists. For thousands of years, having destroyed our own nation's wealth of thought, and having fallen under the influence of Manuvadi ideology, we have made our lives miserable by believing in illusions, superstitions, and evil traditions. A similar situation arose in European countries too — religious courts there ruthlessly killed rationalists, logicians, philosophers, and scientists. The atrocities committed by religious fanatics there are beyond description. That is true! But eventually, people there changed their way of thinking and reduced their obstruction of materialists and scientists. As a result, those countries achieved scientific progress. In our country, rationalists are still being killed even today — which is why there is no progress here. Our country continues to benefit from the scientific research achievements that European nations have made since the 17th century. Yet, shamelessly, some people boast that "our ancestors invented all of that long ago," spreading falsehoods. If we think honestly, with our hand on our heart, we will understand what is really happening in this country.
Materialists have always firmly rejected things they had never seen or experienced. For example, there has never been, anywhere, any evidence for God, ghosts, heaven, hell, karma, the soul, or rebirth. The Lokayatas and Charvakas simply did not accept such unsubstantiated concepts. The Charvakas recognized consciousness only as consciousness itself, regarding it as "the self is nothing but the body endowed with consciousness." Vedic dharma speaks of four Purusharthas (goals of human life): Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Of these, the Charvakas accepted only Artha (wealth) and Kama (desire), completely rejecting Dharma (righteousness) and Moksha (liberation) — because they concluded that these two concepts were invented by priests, clergy, and Brahmins to deceive and exploit people for their own sustenance. They accepted Kama and Artha because human beings naturally have desires (Kama), and fulfilling them requires wealth (Artha) — hence they embraced these two. They held that wealth is the foundation of Dharma. Brahmin scholars propagated the idea that righteous conduct (Dharma) was necessary to attain Moksha, as a set of moral principles useful for their own livelihood — hence the Charvakas rejected them. Similarly, they did not accept anything that involved unresolved skepticism.
Since almost all knowledge comes from experience, the Lokayatas necessarily embraced empiricism. Every human being must look after their own progress and safeguard their own health. Only when a person is happy can they think of others and offer them meaningful help. Someone drowning in their own suffering cannot think of others or help anyone. When individuals progress personally, society as a whole progresses too. Just as life has light and darkness, it has both happiness and sorrow — one must endure it and overcome it. This was the Charvaka doctrine.
For hundreds of years, medical students have dissected human corpses to study the structure of organs — so why has no one ever found a soul? Doctors also perform operations on living patients; sometimes operations fail, and patients die right there on the table. Surely, if a soul existed, doctors should have seen it at that moment too — but it has never been seen, because no such thing exists! After all this scientific progress, if the soul still cannot be found, doesn't that itself prove it does not exist? This is exactly what the Charvakas, through their own investigation and reasoning, declared even before the common era — that there is no soul. Now, were they wise, or were they foolish? That is for us to judge. If it is claimed that human beings have souls — the Charvakas even then questioned the Brahmin scholars: "Then do animals like dogs and donkeys also have souls? Are they not living beings too?" Unable to answer convincingly, those Manuvadis dismissed the Charvakas as wicked and deceitful. Not only that, they took great care to prevent the Charvakas' ideas from reaching future generations. They realized that if rationalists grew stronger, the businesses of religious preachers would collapse — that their very existence was under threat — and so they destroyed the Charvakas in every possible way. That is why Charvaka literature never reached us. In its place, Brahmin scholars poured out heaps upon heaps of their own literature, drowning people in illusions, blind beliefs, and fabricated stories, turning them into people devoid of true knowledge. That is why, even today, the number of people lacking true knowledge remains large in this country. We can forgive the ignorant and the innocent — but what do we call those who, despite having education, position, and status, still behave as if devoid of knowledge? How do we change them?
When Vedic religious preachers and Brahmin scholars are mentioned, people in contemporary society should not be alarmed. Everything discussed here concerns atrocities that happened thousands of years ago — and concerns only those who remain trapped in ignorance even today. Scientific research has firmly established that all human beings are equal — yet those who still behave with the arrogance of upper-caste superiority, setting aside this truth, would do well to change their ways. We also believe that oppressed communities should not shrink into feelings of inferiority. Beyond this, no hatred is being directed at anyone. Humanists love all people equally and respect all people equally. If all human beings became wise and thought with a rationalist outlook, most social problems would diminish considerably. Fools who still try to govern society using knowledge drawn from mythology should set such texts aside and instead read books on science, history, and other forms of worldly knowledge that expand understanding. If people learn who Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (Gora) — the great Telugu figure who established the Atheist Centre in India and organized World Atheist Conferences — was, and about his background, it may well open the eyes of our educated but foolish people.
Note one more important point. India's first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, though not a historian, was a deeply well-read and wise man. That is why he made mention of the Charvakas in his book The Discovery of India. He was likely drawn by their rational arguments and became a non-believer as a result. It is likely that the term "scientific temper," which he coined, was also influenced by the Charvaka way of thinking. It was with that awareness that he asserted the nation would progress only through a scientific outlook. Had this country followed the Charvaka way of thinking, it would have advanced scientifically much more rapidly — and might have avoided falling under foreign rule altogether. The term "Vishwaguru" (world teacher), now reduced to mere rhetoric, could have genuinely been fulfilled by India. When we lose our way, our destination too shifts off course. It is time, even now, to recognize this truth! We must revive the Charvaka/Brihaspati school of thought!!
(The author is a recipient of the Central Sahitya Akademi Award and a biologist.)
Dr. Devaraju Maharaju
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