Scepticism, relativity, and liberation: Cārvāka, Buddhism & Jain Anekāntavāda

Ancient Indian philosophy was not a monolithic theological system. Alongside the orthodox schools that revered Vedic authority, a vibrant constellation of heterodox (nāstika) systems emerged that challenged metaphysical dogmas, sacrificial rituals, and caste hierarchies.¹

These traditions — notably Cārvāka/Lokāyata (materialist scepticism), Buddhism (phenomenology of non-self), and Jainism (multi-perspectival non-absolutism) — enriched subcontinental thought with enduring tools of critical inquiry.

Cārvāka / Lokāyata: The radical empirical sceptics

The Cārvāka (or Lokāyata, “philosophy of the people”) school represented a radical form of rational scepticism:

• Strict Empiricism: They accepted only direct perception (pratyakṣa) as a valid instrument of knowledge (pramāṇa), arguing that inference (anumāna) cannot guarantee unconditioned universal truths because unperceived factors may always intervene.²
• Materialist Ontology: They maintained that consciousness arises from the specific combination of four physical elements (earth, water, fire, air), just as the intoxicating power of wine emerges from the fermentation of non-intoxicating ingredients.³
• Ethics of the Present: Rejecting rebirth, karma, heaven, and ritual sacrifices, they urged humans to live joyfully in the present physical world without submitting to priestly exploitation.

Buddhism: Impermanence, Dependent Origination, and Non-Self

Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha) presented a therapeutic philosophy aimed at dismantling human suffering (duḥkha):

1. Anicca (Universal Impermanence): All conditioned things are in a perpetual state of dynamic flux; there are no static, eternal substances.⁴
2. Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination): Every phenomenon arises dependent on causes and conditions (When this exists, that comes to be; … with the cessation of this, that ceases).
3. Anattā (No-Self): The human being is not an unchanging, eternal soul (Ātman), but an ever-shifting stream of five psycho-physical aggregates (skandhas): form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.⁵

Later, the Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna (c. 2nd century CE) founded the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school, demonstrating that because all things arise interdependently, they are empty (śūnya) of intrinsic, independent essence (svabhāva).⁶

Jainism: Anekāntavāda

Jain philosophy developed a pluralistic epistemology:

• Anekāntavāda (Non-Absolutism / Many-Sidedness of Reality): Truth is complex and multidimensional. No single human perspective can grasp the totality of truth; every statement expresses a partial viewpoint (naya).⁷
• Syādvāda (The Seven-Fold Conditional Predication): To prevent dogmatic certainty, every assertion should be qualified with the prefix Syāt (“in a certain sense” or “from a given perspective”):
  1. In a sense, it is.
  2. In a sense, it is not.
  3. In a sense, it is both.
  4. In a sense, it is inexpressible.
  5. In a sense, it is, and is inexpressible.
  6. In a sense, it is not, and is inexpressible.
  7. In a sense, it is, is not, and is inexpressible.⁸

Some interpreters link this epistemology to the ethical doctrine of Ahiṃsā (Universal Non-Violence): recognising that an opponent’s perspective holds partial truth discourages dogmatism.

Four terms to carry forward

What this chapter does not claim

1. That Cārvāka was merely hedonistic debauchery; the surviving fragments, together with the reports of their critics, show a sophisticated critique of epistemic inductivism.
2. That Buddhism’s “emptiness” (śūnyatā) is nihilism; it is an affirmation of relational interdependence, not non-existence.
3. That Jain non-absolutism means subjective nihilism; it asserts that objective reality exists, but our descriptions are inevitably conditioned.
4. That ancient heterodox thinkers lived in total harmony; debates between Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu scholars were fierce, prolonged, and highly competitive.

Sources and further reading

Version 0.3 · September 2026 · Editorial orientation · Reading list provided · Not expert-reviewed. Corrected after an editorial audit in September 2026.