Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c8.s3.5

c8.s3.5

In fact, Cārvāka is not a single and unified philosophical school. Various groups of Cārvākas have been flourishing in different periods of the history of Indian philosophy for the past two/three millennia. The materialist is one of them. Kṛṣṇa Miśra in his play *Prabodhacandrodaya* presents the materialist Cārvāka's view in a precise way. Accordingly, perception is the only valid means of knowledge; there are four elements — earth, fire, air and water; and consciousness is indivisible with the body. There was another group of Cārvākas that accepted inference also as the second means of knowledge or *pramāṇa*. Sāṁkhya and Vaiśeṣika were also categorized as Cārvākas. The Ājīvaka sect formed one of the strongest of Cārvāka groups (see Chap. 2).