Knowledge is the key to immortality
Charvaka views : Sabda as a Pramana.
Prepared by Indrajit Saha - Postgraduate Teacher - Philosophy

Question : Why Charvaka rejects Sabda as a pramana ?

Answer : Scriptures cannot be valid in the case of imperceptible things.

According to the Charvaka, the words of reliable persons are authoritative

in the case of perceptible things. These words are also know by perception.

But even the Vedas are no authority so far as imperceptible things have no existence.Those who choose to talk on such topics are knaves. The Vedas

are fraught with untruths, contradictions and tautologies. The authors of

the Vedas happen to be those fraudulent purohits, whose sole aim was to

exploit ignorant and creduious people for furthering their own selfish ends.

The so-called bliss of Heaven is nothing but senseless talk of knaves. So the

three Vedas, which dwell on heavenly bliss are the preposterous statements

of the knaves .

Word being based on inference is doubtful like the latter. According to the Carvakas the knowledge gained through words is also based on inference. That

the words of all reliable people are valid is the general rule on the basis of which

we have implicit faith on those words . But inference itself is not valid. How can,

then, the world based on it be valid ? Words also, like inference, casually come

out to be true. But it does not indicate the view that the world is necessarily and

invariably an instrument of authoritative knowledge.

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