Ajita Kesakambali ( sa, अजित केशकंबली; ) was an ancient

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

in the 6th century BC. He is considered to be the first known proponent of

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...

, and forerunner to the

Charvaka Charvaka ( sa, चार्वाक; IAST: ''Cārvāka''), also known as ''Lokāyata'', is an ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embra ...

school. He was probably a contemporary of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

and

Mahavira Mahavira (Sanskrit: महावीर) also known as Vardhaman, was the 24th ''tirthankara'' (supreme preacher) of Jainism. He was the spiritual successor of the 23rd ''tirthankara'' Parshvanatha. Mahavira was born in the early part of the 6 ...

. It has frequently been noted that the doctrines of the

Lokayata Charvaka ( sa, चार्वाक; IAST: ''Cārvāka''), also known as ''Lokāyata'', is an ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embra ...

school were considerably drawn from Ajita's teachings.

Philosophy

Like those of Lokayatins, nothing survives of Ajita's teachings in script, except some scattered references made by his opponents for the sake of refutation. Thus, due to the nature of these references, the basic framework of his philosophy has to be derived by filtering out obscure legends associated with him.

From Buddhist sources

According to a Buddhist legend Ajita wore a blanket of human hair (''Kesakambali'' in Sanskrit means "with the hair blanket"), "which is described as being the most miserable garment. It was cold in cold weather, and hot in the hot, foul smelling and uncouth".Bhaskar (1972) ''Ajita'' means "unconquered", which implies that he was very argumentative. According to an early Buddhist sources, Ajita Kesakambali argued that:

There is no such thing as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds. A human being is built up of four elements. When he dies the earthly in him returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the wind to the air, and his faculties pass into space. The four bearers, on the bier as a fifth, take his dead body away; till they reach the burning ground, men utter forth eulogies, but there his bones are bleached, and his offerings end in ashes. It is a doctrine of fools, this talk of gifts. It is an empty lie, mere idle talk, when men say there is profit herein. Fools and wise alike, on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not.

According to the '' Brahmajala Sutta'', Ajita propounded '' Ucchedavada'' (the Doctrine of Annihilation after death) and ''Tam-Jivam-tam-sariram-vada'' (the doctrine of identity of the soul and body), which denied the separate existence of an eternal soul. The extent to which these doctrines, which were evidently inherited by

, were found contemptible and necessary to be refuted in the

idealist In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...

theist Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to ...

and

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

literature of the time is a possible evidence of their popularity and, perhaps also, their philosophical sophistication.

Modern interpretations

D. D. Kosambi, who elsewhere calls Ajita a proto-materialist, notes DD Kosambi (1965) that he "preached a thoroughgoing materialist doctrine: good deeds and charity gained a man nothing in the end. His body dissolved into the primary elements at death, no matter what he had or had not done. Nothing remained. Good and evil, charity and compassion were all irrelevant to a man's fate."

Notes

References

* Bhaskar,

Bhagchandra Jain Bhagchandra (Bhaskar) Jain (born on 11 September 1936) is an Indian scholar, renowned for his knowledge of Jainism and Buddhism, and of classical Indian languages including Pali and Sanskrit. His career has spanned more than five decades. He is the ...

, ''Jainism in Buddhist Literature'' (Alok Prakashan, Nagpur, 1972) * Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad, ''Indian Philosophy'' (People's Publishing House, New Delhi, 1964, 7th Edition: 1993) * Kosambi, DD, ''An Introduction to the Study of Indian History'' (Popular Prakashan, Mumbai, India, 1956) * Kosambi, DD, ''The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline'' (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1965) * Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) and Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.), ''The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya'' (Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2001) . * Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) ''Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life'' (DN 2) (1997) Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html. * Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (trans.), ''The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya'' (Wisdom Publications, Somerville, MA, 1995) . {{authority control 6th-century BC Indian philosophers Ancient Indian materialist philosophers Atheist philosophers Indian materialists

Philosophy

From Buddhist sources

Modern interpretations

See also

Notes

References