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| The four elements: earth, air, water, and fire, are the original principles of the Charvaka atheistic philosophical system (600BC). |
See also: Hindu atheismIn 600BC, the Charvaka, an Indian heterodox philosophical school, produced Brihaspati Sutra, which outlined an “extraordinary materialistic doctrine” (Hecht, 2004), which was averse to the Brahman class; the latter of whom systematically destroyed their works; the following are representative position quotes:
“While life is yours, live joyously; none can escape death's searching eye: When once this frame of ours they burn, how shall it e'er again return?”— Anon (c.600BC), Charvaka position [4]
“There is no other world other than this. There is no heaven and no hell. The realm of Shiva and like regions, are invented by stupid imposters.”— Anon (c.600BC), Charvaka position; in: Sarva-Siddhanta Samgraha (Verse 8) [3]
“Uncivilized ignorant fools, who imagine that spirit is something different from body, and reaps the rewards of actions in future state; we might as well expect to find excellent fruit drip from trees growing in the air.”— Anon (c.600BC), Charvaka position; voice of: Passion in The Rise of the Moon Intellect (1200) [1]
“The [Charvaka] quote the Śruti for this [Bṛihad Áraṇy. Up. ii. 4, 12], "Springing forth from these elements, itself solid knowledge, it is destroyed when they are destroyed,—after death no intelligence remains." Therefore the soul is only the body distinguished by the attribute of intelligence, since there is no evidence for any soul distinct from the body, as such cannot be proved, since this school holds that perception is the only source of knowledge and does not allow inference, &c.”
“In this school the four elements, earth, air, water fire, are the original principles; from these alone, when transformed into the body, intelligence is produced, just as the inebriating power is developed from the mixing of certain ingredients [e.g. Kinwa producing fermentation in the manufacture of spirits from sugar, bassia, &c]; and when these are destroyed, intelligence at once perishes also.”— Vidyaranya (1331), Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy [2]
“Materialism is reverse panpsychism that equates matter with life. Charvaka philosophy is the ancient Indian materialism. But tell me do you really think that human actions and behavior are not self controlled but are controlled by external electromagnetic waves? I stop here.”— DMR Sekhar (2011), “Defunct Theory of Life” (Ѻ), Hmolpedia Thread, Feb 8.
