Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata Religion Book

Author: Ramkrishna Bhattacharya
Publisher: Anthem Press
Category: Religion, Hinduism
Age Group: 15+
Book Format: Hardcover

'Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata' is the first attempt at a scientific study of the Carvaka/Lokayata, the materialist system of philosophy that flourished in ancient India between the eighth and the twelfth century CE. This study seeks to disprove certain notions about the Carvaka/Lokayata, particularly the following: that the Carvaka-s did not approve of any other instrument of cognition except perception; and that they advocated unalloyed sensualism and hedonism. This volume also seeks to establish the fact that there existed a pre-Carvaka school of materialism in India, although there is no way to prove that the Carvaka system grew out of it.

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya is an Emeritus Fellow in English, University Grants Commission, New Delhi. He was previously a Reader in the Department of English at Anandamohan College, Kolkata and a Guest Lecturer with the postgraduate faculty of English at the University of Calcutta.