Ramkrishna Bhattacharya

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya was an academic author and exponent of an ancient school of Indian materialism called Carvaka/Lokayata.

He authored 27 books and more than 175 research papers on Indian and European literature, textual criticism (Bangla and Sanskrit), the history of science in India, the history of modern India, and philosophy - particularly on the Carvaka/Lokayata system, materialism and rationalism.

Biography

Ramkrishna Bhattacharya was born on 10 December 1947 in Calcutta. He did his B.A (Hons.in English) (1966), M.A (1968), and Ph.D. (1986) from University of Calcutta.

He was an Emeritus Fellow in English, University Grants Commission, New Delhi during 2009-2011 and a visiting professor, Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi, during 2009–10.

He was a Fellow of Pavlov Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal.

Major works

Studies on the Carvaka/Lokayata (2009)

It is a scientific study of the Carvaka/Lokayata, the materialist system of philosophy that flourished in ancient India between the eighth and twelfth centuries CE, and which has since disappeared. Despite the paucity of material relating to the Carvaka, a reconstruction of its basic tenets reveals it to be the lone contender standing against the perceived binary of pro-Vedic Brahminical schools on the one hand, and the non-Vedic Buddhist and Jain schools on the other.

This study seeks to disprove certain notions about the Carvaka/Lokayata, particularly that the Carvakas did not approve of any instrument of cognition other than perception, and that they advocated unalloyed sensualism and hedonism. In contrast, this book offers evidence to show that the Carvakas, despite their difference of opinion in other areas, did admit inference in so far as it was grounded on perception. The author argues that the common belief that "all materialists are nothing but sensualists" is a misconception, as no authentic Carvaka aphorism have been cited by the movement's opponents to support this charge.

This study also seeks to establish the fact that a pre-Carvaka school of materialism existed in India, although there is no way to prove that the Carvaka system grew out of it. Yet if the evidence provided by the Manimekalai - and indirectly supported by Mahabharata - is admitted, it could be suggested that the two schools existed simultaneously.