Glories of India (Culture and Civilization)
by Prasanna Kumar Acharya | 1952 | 182,042 words
This book, 鈥淕lories of India on Indian Culture and Civilization鈥�, emphasizes the importance of recognizing distinct cultural traits across different societies. The historical narrative of Indian civilization highlights advancements in agriculture, medicine, science, and arts, tracing back to ancient times. The author argues for the need to understa...
Introduction to the Charvakas or Lokayatas
The Lokayata (popular) philosophy of common sense is known as the Charvaka school. The term Charvaka applied to it may have been due to a teacher of that name, or may be an abusive nickname. No books of these materialists exist but the works were current under the name of Brihaspati who was the teacher of the Asuras or infidels. From the summaries of their doctrines by their opponents only it appers that "they endeavoured to prove the birth of spirit from matter by analogies from chemistry, and contended that as this was the origin of the body, so when it dissolved in death, the spirit ceased to be." Thus this system asserts that soul is not different from body, and that the phenomena of the world are produced spontaneously. It admits four eternal principles (tattvas), viz., earth; air, fire, and water. It rejects all sources of true knowledge except the sense-perception (pratyaksha). It is purely materialistic and openly atheistic.