ЛОКАЯТА

Lokayata

A materialist doctrine in ancient India. The earliest information on Lokayata is to be found in the Buddhist canonical texts known as the Vedas and in the Sanskrit epics. Traditionally, the origin of the Lokayata is supposed to have been connected with the mythical sage Brihaspati. Certain atheistic attacks on the Vedas are attributed to the legendary Charvaka, and in a number of ancient texts this materialism is known as the Charvaka.

The teaching of Lokayata on the nature of being is founded on the idea that everything in the Universe consists of four elements—earth, fire, water, and air (in some texts the fifth element of ether is added). Every element has its particular type of atoms, which are immutable, indestructible, and have existed from the beginning of time. The properties of an object depend on the types of atoms it consists of and in what proportion they are combined. The consciousness and sense-organs are also the result of a certain combination of atoms; after the death of a living being this combination disintegrates into elements which join up with the atoms of the corresponding type existing in inanimate nature. Some texts contain a notion of evolution, treating certain elements as originating from others with earth as primordial.

The epistemology of Lokayata is sensory, the sole valid source of knowledge being sense perception. The sense-organs can apprehend objects to the extent that they themselves are composed of the same elements ("like is known by like"). Lokayata completely denies the validity of any indirect knowledge. Inference and conclusion are considered as false instruments of cognition, as is evidence offered by the Vedas. Lokayata denies the existence of God, the soul, karma, and the transmigration of souls. The predominant feature of the ethics of Lokayata is hedonism.

Lokayata evidently exercised a certain influence on ancient Indian methods of government. Not a single text written by the followers of Lokayata has come down to us in modern times. Lokayata is most fully expounded in the philosophical treatises and compendiums (darsana) written by the idealist opponents of Lokayata, who upheld the Vedas between the 9th and 16th centuries.

Локаята

(Санскр. - «имеющее хождение в народе») древнеиндийское материалистическое учение. Собственно сочинений представителей Л. не сохранились. Зачинателем его по традиции считают древнего мудреца Брихаспати, провозгласившего основой бытия безначальный принцип «свабхавы» (природы). Эти воззрения Брихаспати в сочетании со скептическим отношением к истинности Вед породили собственно Л.; позднейшей её разновидностью является гедонистическое учение Чарвака (см. также Индия, раздел Философия).

Лит.: Артхашастра, или Наука политики, изд. подгот. В. И. Кальянов, пер, с санскр., М. - Л., 1959; Чаттопадхьяя Д., Локаята даршана, пер. с англ., М., 1961; его же, Индийский атеизм, М., 1973.